bobad, the MG-TD. Oh, yes. Oh, yes!!

That deserves a second look: VROOM! VROOM!

An old friend of mine had a car he picked up used for a ridiculously low price. A 1967 Ford Mustang fastback, it looked like THIS, but Randy's was silver-grey. According to the little chrome numbers on the fender, it was supposed to have a 289 cu. in. engine, the small V8 option (the standard model came with a straight 6). But it didn't take long to figure out that this car had a much bigger, more powerful engine than that. When it idled, it registered about 3.5 on the Richter scale (Rumble Rumble). And if you floored it, it took off like a scalded cat, and it could cruise up the freeway at 75 mph in idle!

Randy went back to the small car lot that sold it to him (run by a mechanic friend of his) and asked for the scoop on the car's background. The mechanic told him that this was not supposed to be generally known, but it was one of five cars, Mustangs, that the California Highway Patrol had cobbled together. Speeders had been a major problem, lots of highway fatalities and such, but it was hard to nail them because any time a highway patrol cruiser was in the area, everybody got real law-abiding. So CHiP bought five Mustangs and got Carroll Shelby to do a little customizing job for them. They were Shelby Cobras, kitted out to look like stock Mustangs. Sneakers. "Q-Ships." With them, they had a fair amount of success busting speeders until some irate citizen with more money than brains yelled "How was I supposed to know I had to slow down if I didn't see a police cruiser in the vicinity?" For some asinine reason, he won his case. The "plainclothes" Shelby Cobras were declared illegal, and CHiP had to get rid of them. They shipped them off to various used car dealers in other states, and Randy just got lucky! Paid a mere $900 for the thing in 1969!

Of course, whenever Randy punched it, the mighty roar that issued from the engine tended to mask the fact that the amount of gas pouring through the carburetor sounded like a flushing toilet! But man, that sucker could go!!

'Course these days, having to get around in a wheelchair, probably the best thing for me to have would be something like THIS. It would sure make getting around a lot easy. Gawdawful pricy, though.

THIS is kinda cute, and so's THIS, and neither of them are gas-guzzlers. Conversion is still pricy, though!

Don Firth