<VV> Towing Tricks - 8-wheel brakes & "Darwin Awards" ?

[Charles Lee]

When I towed the red Monza convert (see VV pix links, wrecked by my cousin)
with the yellow Corsa convert, my brother rode in the towed car, and worked
the brakes, so we have 8-wheel brakes.

I'm not sure if it is legal to be riding in a towed, wrecked (otherwise
roadworthy) vehicle, but the cop who said we could not drive it, had gone by
that time, but may have objected to that too ?  

I didn't get pix of the "seatbelt tow bar" that we used, or of the stretched
bumpers when the towed Corvair "tested" the system, but I wish he had warned
me BEFORE he tried that stunt (I was driving the yellow Corsa when he
slammed the brakes!)

Like the previous guy said, "young and stupid" and I didn't win any "Darwin
Awards" so all's well that ends well ?

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Vairtec Corporation
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 9:28 AM
To: Virtual Vairs
Subject: <VV> Stupid Towing Tricks

In the late 1970s I was offered a 1961 Monza coupe, Fawn Beige metallic 
paint with matching interior, 80-hp, Powerglide.  All I had to do was go 
to the parking garage in Manhattan where it was and tow it home -- it 
had broken down in the parking garage and the owner was fed up.

Being young and stupid (I am no longer young), I decided that the cool 
thing to do would be to tow this car home with the identical 1961 Monza 
coupe that I was driving at the time.  So I borrowed a 
clamp-on-the-bumper trailer hitch, and a clamp-on-the-bumper tow bar (I 
did not yet own my own tow bar) and went to midtown New York City on a 
weekday.

Yes, the two cars were truly identical and it looked nifty all hooked 
up.  But there was NO WAY that one set of stock early model Corvair 
brakes was going to stop two early models on a downhill segment inside 
the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River.  I had driven perhaps less 
than two miles from the parking garage and I was learning a very 
valuable -- and terrifying -- lesson.

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