I bought Her on Friday at 3, and this was taken on Saturday at around 5. I was zooming at 100kph toward a crowded intersection in Newlands, which is a suburb of Cape Town, when She suddenly came down with a nasty case of no brakes. (Read about it in Dispatch #14.) I basically had to slam into a series of unyielding objects such as traffic lights -- which are called "robots" in South Africa -- until She came to this rather ignoble halt on a concrete island. My weekend joyride became a stunt show. Note the bent rear axle; it just screams "Scrap me!" I had some glass grit in my mouth and ears, but I was untouched. Well, except for my wallet. I think of Meryl Streep: "I had a car in Africa..."

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© 1998 Jason Cochran