Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Driving at 11/10ths

Driving at 10/10ths is what the sports-car types used to call driving on the edge. A skilled driver could, given the right conditions, drive a vehicle at 10/10ths and live to tell about it.

11/10ths was the expression used for those who over-estimated their driving ability, or underestimated the vehicles speed, or failed to take into their calculations such factors as road conditions etc.

11/10ths meant you spent some time in a full-body cast and your ride came home on the end of a J-hook. If you were lucky.

So the reason I'm parading all this arcane knowledge gleaned from years of reading Car and Driver is that every night around dinner time there's a fellow on a motorcycle comes screaming through the S-curves in front of Falling Downs.

He's riding an older four-cylinder four-stroke. Can't tell from the sound if it's a Honda or one of the other Oriental brands who built that type of machine, but is he ever giving her!

Every night he comes by just a little faster. I figure he's at about a nine or nine and a half tenths these days.

It's just a matter of time before he makes it eleven.

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