My second car was a duplicate of my first, which had become unreliable. I did not find it in a barn but it had more-or-less been abondoned by the owner in front of her house. It cost me £40 Australian in 1955. I had to put a new battery in it but other than checkeing the oil level I did nothing else. It started and I drove it to the nearest service station to put some air in the tyres and top up the petrol.

It was a 1948 Australian built Morris 8/40 E

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The first, and identical, car survived an incredible jump. I was on a long straight country backroad at night and I had the car at top speed, about 60 mph, with the sidevalves just starting to bounce, when, in the vague light of the headlights I saw that I had forgotten the existance of a machinery unloading ramp that for some forgotten reason had been constructed in the middle of the road. The road actually did a sort of chicane around the ramp and continued straight on the other side. I was going far to fast to take the chicane on a dirt road but fortunately for me I was on the pointy side of the ramp, not the blunt side. I had enough presence of mind to lift my foot and line the car straight at the ramp. At 60mph the car shot up the ramp and sailed through the air for the most astonishing amount of time before coming down with a crash. In fact it was a perfect 4 wheel landing and it continued in a straight line until I could stop. When the dust, and my nerves, had settled somewhat I continued my journey but I never took that road again at night.

Peter

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