[Rhodes22-list] diesel memories

[brad haslett]

Reading Rik's post concerning cold diesel fuel
reminded me of some old diesel powered memories and
once again convinced me that I made the right decision
by buying gasoline powered vehichles.  My first diesel
car was a 1980 VW Rabbit which from which I upgraded
to an Audi 4000 diesel a few years later.  The 4000
had the same Rabbit drive train and was grossly
underpowered. You had to be very patient waiting for
an opportunity to pull out in traffic because the
first ten seconds of acceleration was mostly smoke and
noise.  I misjudged the timing one day when I lived in
Little Rock and the lady I pulled in front of wouldn't
let up on her horn.  The sunroof was open so I gave a
friendly wave.  A few seconds later she pulled next to
me and yelled something that I didn't understand
because of her specific minority dialect when my wife
screamed "she's got a gun!".  Sure enough, she was
pointing something that looked about the size of a
stovepipe at me (I've had two guns pointed at me in my
lifetime and they both looked HUGE!).  I slammed on
the brakes and let her pass and vowed never to pull
out in front of anyone with the diesel unless I had at
least a hundred yards of leeway.  The other less
exciting but perhaps more frustrating experience was
this;  in a period of temporary insanity I thought I
wanted to return to my MidWestern roots so I packed up
and moved to Indianapolis in 1989.  I came home from a
trip the first week and it was about 5 degrees below
zero.  Thinking my diesel might not start I had a
fellow employee wait on me in the parking lot.  It
fired right up so he went on his way.  After spending
ten minutes getting all the snow off the windows I
started to leave only to find the car started, idled,
and that was all.  The fuel filter was solid diesel
jello and just enough fuel was getting to the engine
to start and idle but no more.  VW allowed you to mix
up to 25 percent unleaded gas to keep from gelling (10
per cent for the Mercedes) so I hiked down to a gas
station, bought two gallons of unleaded, and poured it
in with the diesel.  I spent the next hour driving
over a snow pile in the parking lot at idle speed
until the two mixed and the engine would come up to
speed.  For the rest of the winter I would refuel
twice every time, diesel to about 9/10 ths and the
rest with unleaded.  The following winter I was back
in the South and haven't left since. I commuted from
Nashville to Memphis for eight years and the old
Mercedes diesel was a pleasant turnpike cruiser.  I
still have pangs to get another one every time I hear
the windows rattling in my car from a diesel Benz
three cars back.   I think Rik is right on this one,
most of the people who buy diesel pickups really don't
need them.  Why they buy them is something only Freud
could explain (probably the same reason people put
gensets and microwaves on 22 ft. sailboats).  As much
fun as I had with the diesels, I am very happy to be
punching a GAS pedal.

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