** FIRST VEHICLES

[Pat]

Dave, You will have to give me more detail as I can't "lock in" on the lady in question. The closest my poor memory can muster is Grace Kelly and the scarf thing is NOT involved. I have read extensively into the reports of her death which indicate she either had a stroke and then crashed or crashed and then had a stroke with the former being more likely. Her death would likely have been avoided if she had used the seatbelts that came in her car, a Rover. I don't buy the rumors about her daughter being at the wheel since there was a witness, a truck driver who saw Grace and her daughter when they passed him and went over the side.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I cannot recall the name now, she wasn't a particularly famous person, just one of the wealthy jet-setters....or in those days propeller-setters...... I'm thinking that the car was a Jag, however, and it was quite a shock when it happened. I think Car & Driver had an article on it.

[Pat]

Dave, She was quite famous, a terrific celebrity of the time!

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

PARIS, FRANCE — Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gory details are available at

http://www.aarrgghh.com/no_way/duncan.htm

Open rental car. Make is not mentioned in this write up.

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Wow, Pat you did an amazing job of locating that item. Now THAT is how a "real" playgirl should die; on the Riviera, in a sports car, not waste away and depend on the miracle of modern costmetology to appear forever young like some of the faded "stars" do. "Real" playboys should die piloting their own plane, or in a hot Porsche like Jimmy Dean. BTW, I know the guy personally who James Dean ran into in that famous auto crash. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Pat,....have you ever heard that: "You are only FIVE people away from anyone who has lived in the last hundred years." In other words you know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knew the person personally. Hitler? Churchill? If you know me, you are THREE away from Hitler and TWO away from Churchill. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, Yeah, I'm a regular psychic (or is that psycho?) Actually I just did a quick Google and voila...

Sorry if this offends any skin heads or southerners who haven't learned the war of northern aggression is over... (ACTUALLY I'M NOT SORRY)

I forgot the number but it is fairly small that describes the most distant relation on the planet. It is a two digit cousin like 23rd cousin or whatever as I recall. So, unless you have evidence of space aliens living among us or you are one you are related to everyone alive on the planet and the most distant relation is a not so distant cousin.

So, cousin Dave, as I was saying, in the words of Rodney King, "can't we all just get along?"

Anyway, the truth of Isadora Duncan's death sort of reinforces the safety concept of not wearing lose cloting around moving machinery. I used to think getting caught in a pto shaft had to be about the worst thing. I saw a film about PTO safety. Toward the end of it there was a live interview with a severely disfigured guy who had actually been wrapped up and thrashed severely by a PTO. He made several full revolutions when his clothes got caught. It just took a fraction of a second and he was wrapped up and getting repetitively slammed into the ground.

Getting jerked out of a car by the neck and slammed into the pavement would be a sudden surprise. At least the lady didn't suffer.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, Without your assistance I don't know how close I would get to Hitler. My father-in-law had first cousins in Germany during and after WW II. As regards Sir Winston, no clue about connecton to the person but I worked in the same building (not at the same time, of course.) His wartime command post was in the basement of Whitehall where I worked off and on for three weeks. My work was on a lower level, so far down in the sub basement that they had sump pumps to remove the river in case of flooding. We were down so far that we had to go up one floor to find a toilet.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] One of the guys who worked for me lived across the street from a nice German lady who as a young woman was a secretary in the Porsche plant and sat in on meetings many times with Dr. Porche and Hitler as they pushed the "people's car" project forward. In the late sixties I worked with a lady who as a young woman was in the U.S. Army in England and took notes in meetings with the army brass and "Mr Ceegar" himself. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Soo.........that puts you easily within the "five person" mark. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, VolksWagon... HA!

Kübelwagen Kübelwagen über alles, über alles en dem vald!

Nicht var?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Yipeee! CARS FOR ALL! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] If you want to read an interesting story, read about the development of the VW bug. The specs were pretty tight as to weight, performance, and MPG. The aluminum engine-transaxle was the answer as well as air cooling. There are not many parts that you can discard off the early bugs and still operate. What do they call that? Irreduceable simplicity or some such term.....like the Victor mouse traps.....you can't leave anything off and have it still work. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Chillimau]

Has any vehicle surpassed the production numbers of the old beetle? VW still made the beetle for the Mexican market until 5-10 yrs ago. I'm guessing on the 5-10 yrs but in the recent past.

Gary