Steering ratio. Give someone used to a car with a steering wheel that's four-and-a-half turns from lock to lock and put them into something with tighter steering (an MG-TD, say) and unless they take it easy and spend a little time getting familiar with it, they'll be right up the nearest telephone pole.

A friend of mine had an MG-TD. Busted an axle. While it was being repaired, he drove his wife's Buick Roadcrusher. We were going somewhere in the Buick, and Ray, pulling out of the parking place, cranked the wheel over and stepped on the accelerator. The various parts of the Buick sent memos to each other, arranged for a meeting sometime in the future, eventually took a vote and decided to go, and lo! the Buick heeled over like the Queen Mary pulling away from the dock and slowly oozed into traffic.

Ray heaved a weary sigh and said, "I'll sure be glad when I get my car back!"

Don Firth