I worked with a guy who had a 455 SD Trans Am. This was right about the time I started college and right about the time I became keenly aware that the mighty 318 in my station wagon wasn't going to turn any heads. I never got to drive the 455, but I got a neck-snapping ride down Donaldson Road after work one night. Another guy had a Firebird Formula that had a high output Olds engine, possibly a 403? He had to take a plane across the field, so he asked me to get his car from the employee lot and pick him up at the hangar. I couldn't have been more thrilled. I was about halfway there, keeping my foot out of it for the most part, but still cruising at an easy 70, when the left rear tire blew in a big right-handed turn. I can't remember all of the details of the power slide anymore, but the end result found me off the road in a field with only a lucky move keeping both me and the car from serious damage. Somehow I also managed not to crap my pants. I got the tire changed and picked the now frantic pilot up. He was pissed and accused me of hot-footing it, but I had enough adrenaline left in my system to "convince" him otherwise. The tires were brand new, (BF Goodrich Radial T/A's possibly, but that's another detail that's more fog than substance anymore,) literally days old. On the way back to the employee lot we stopped and had a look at the skidmarks and the mess in the field. I remember shaking a lot while we stood there, and the guy must have apologized 20 times while we stood there looking. I'd managed to steer the car between two drainage ditches that would have killed both it and me. I remember that the smell of rubber was still in the air. I thought it was going to make me puke, but that was probably just the adrenaline OD.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2