Dino Saga 070715 _ Bumps Low cars and bumps dont go together very well. The Dino qualifies as low even if not as low as some of the more modern Ferraris. The roads into the Country Club were designed by a fool avant-garde architect back in 1972. He decided that if he rounded the top of the curbs sufficiently he would not have to install conventional driveway entrances for the club and the adjacent condos. We now have standard height curbs (top about 6 above road) curving up to the sidewalk over a 12 distance. The Dinos clearance is about 3 ½ so you can see the problem. Everyday sedans knock the teeth out of their drivers. Tradesmens pickups and the mommys SUVs do just fine. Parking lots dont do much better when modified with calming devices. Some fool comes in with some asphalt and makes a speed bump 6 high and 18 wide. Of course he is driving a pickup. And then there are the wheel stops placed in the middle of marked parking spaces. About 4 high, just high enough to catch the Dinos chin. Pops the sheet metal in over center and the chin oil cans. If you are lucky it just pops back out with no damage. The black undercoat along the bottom of my Dino earns its keep. A rubbery material about 1/16 thick is about right. Flexible and scuff proof. At least up to a point. After one try I learned that driving straight into my driveway was stupid. The driveways are wide and a 45 degree angle worked fine. Lots of clearance for the Dino, 308s, 348s and once a 575. The angle lets one wheel at a time climb the slope and the ride is pretty mellow. Same technique works on speed bumps. The driver behind you will have a fit but, Hey, its your car. Nothing you can do about the stops in the middle of the parking space. Just let your tail stick out and let it go at that. John . Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
One benefit of vintage tires and wheels is that the high profile allows you more leniency in negotiating these. I love my new Vredstein tires that DM sourced!
Backing over a curb is much scarier than going forward. The back edge of the chin can clip the curb. When this happened to me, half an hour after picking up from a total paint and body job, the front of the car bent up almost to the windshield. It was only another $5000 to put right, in 1987 dollars.
I love watching people drive through the three speed bumps they put in next to the school down the road -- all within 50 yards of each other. Some people floor it then stomp the brakes, others just rock n'roll (especially funny at night, when their headlights look like madly bobbing jack'o'lanterns!) Speed bumps are a hoax perpetrated by body shops and paving contractors. As for the stops in parking lots, they have claimed the bottom spoiler off my XJS -- I gave up and took the ducting off the car -- it was shattered anyhow, and tossed it. The spoiler has a nice crack, which I mean to get around to epoxying ione of these days. As for the Dino, I don't get within 5 feet of a stop, and the one-wheel method is the only solution to a speed bump you can't avoid. I've considered tossing a small jackhammer and air tank in the trunk whenever visiting one of those idiot cul-de-sacks in Greenwich, so I can "adjust" the height. I vastly prefer those staggered white picket fence gates they put up -- they're great for slalom practice!
