PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

t walgamuth · #1 03-04-2007, 10:10 PM

i was reading the thread in the parts section about a fellow who had some stuff stolen and was very upset about it. it made me think of this story and i decided not to hijack his thread so...
this story was in road and track for which he was a regular contributor for many years...

innes ireland was a formula one driver in his youth. at the time of stirling moss, jimmy clark and other legendary figures in f1. he was a brit too. he won one gp race in a car that had a suspect clutch and so he short shifted it the whole race so it finished. he mused that perhaps he drove the cars a little too hard every other time.
when he was a kid in england it was ww2 and us yanks were crawling all over the english countryside with planes, tanks, jeeps and trucks. his family were farmers. one day a convoy of us six by six trucks were driving by and one of them broke down alongside the road on his farm. now he was maybe 12, mind you but he was a pretty good mechanic even then. so the convoy left the truck behind and ground off.
naturally he decided to see what the trouble was. he lifted the hood and soon found that the fan belt was loose and the battery had simply run down. so he went back to the barn and returned with enough tools to get it back on. then he took the crank and started it by hand. he decided to assist the allied cause by driving the truck around a bit to charge the battery. since he was too young for a license and the truck was not his any way he spent a couple of hours crawling around his farm trying out the low range and all wheel drive capability of the six by six truck.
then he parked it back where he found it and went home.
he mused that the GI's must have wondered how the truck "healed itself" while they were gone.

he was a tremendously entertaining writer. he died maybe ten years ago of lung cancer i think. a little too much abuse of his body.

i should look to see if he wrote any memoirs. and buy them.

tom w