I was reminded of an old story about car troubles after writing a column about “Push-starting the Car,” an even older legend, which is about starting a stalled car with automatic transmission.
In that story, a driver (usually said to be a woman) offers to push-start a stalled automobile with the front end of her own car. “Get it up to thirty-five mph or she won’t start,” the driver of the stalled car tells her. So she backs off in her car and comes at the other car from half a block away at 35 miles per hour.
After reading my account of that one, J.W. of Kenney, Illinois, sent me this story about a similar automotive misunderstanding. He heard it from a friend in New Hampshire, and I remember hearing it in high school in Michigan many years ago.
“He knew someone who had just received a brand-new Camaro as a birthday present from his wealthy parents,” J.W. begins. “One day the kid was racing with a Ford Mustang, and when the Mustang pulled ahead, the Camaro driver shifted his automatic transmission into ‘R’ for ‘Race.’
“Needless to say, disastrous results ensued.”
I’ll bet they ensued!
“R” on the array of choices for automatic shifting stands for “reverse gear.”
You should also notice that this version—in common with one variation of “The Unstealable Car” discussed previously—begins with a young man being given a fancy new car. Maybe there’s a secondary warning here against excessive parental generosity.
Are there similar stories about “D” for “Drag,” perhaps, or “L” for “Leap”?