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Mal. if u make it to the Nashville Tennessee area let me know. I'm 30 miles west of Nashville and can meet u in Nashville or here or anywhere within 60 miles of here. I'll send my phone number to u via private message area in this website.

Mal,Joel--maybe we should meet in Dearborn for a dinner (and drinks!)

Mal, Be sure to come across the Detroit River to Windsor as you seem to be a connoisseur of good brews and would not want to miss the fine selection of Canadian brands.

"Also I was thinking the same about the driving here, as I'm renting a car tomorrow in Boise Idaho togo view the '41 Coupe I'm buying, and I'm a bit nervous about the other side of the road thing."

As a veteran of over twenty year service in the (US) air force, have had occasion to drive in GB, Australia, Thailand and Japan. Most of the serious accidents involving driving on the opposite side of the road from the one that you're most used to were (in my experience) caused by US military personnel driving American made vehicles with left hand drive in these countries. This combination creates a normal tendency to perform an abnormal operation (turning the wrong way into traffic on the WRONG side of the road). Having driven both LHD and RHD vehicles on both sides of the road, it is my experience that, as long as you're driving a vehicle made to be driven on whatever side of the road one normally drives on in whatever country you're driving in - and exercise a normal amount of caution - you'll have very few problems. I learned, early on, to try to avoid situations that required me to drive US military vehicles, off base, in those countries. Also had some slight difficulty in becoming accustomed to changing gears with my left hand in those vehicles with floor-mounted shifting levers. You'll be fine, Mal, after the first few careful hours.

Thanks for the photos, John.

And Mal - have enjoyed the photos from Australia that have shown up on this site in the past and hope that you'll provide us more upon your return home. Good luck with your new acquisition.

Having been to Britain several times I would also caution you to be very careful crossing a street if you are in pedestrian mode. As I recall Winston Churchill was struck by a car while crossing a street in Washington D.C. because out of habit he looked right when he should have looked left before atempting to cross a street. It is something which I consciously have to remind myself when in Britain though so be careful.

John, works for me. Mal may be on a tight time line from the emails he has sent me though. If not, I'll see you friday at the Redford Theater.

I still remember driving off NAS Bermuda on the "wrong" side of the security gate. There were several Marine guards who were not too happy with my Air Force driving. I soon figured out my mistake and was very carefull for the rest of the deployment.

Mal made it to Michigan and stopped by for about an hour. Here is a photo of him with my 1956 400.

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Joel,

Thanks for your hospitality the other day, it was appreciated, you really went out of your way.

To all you other guys, thanks for your offers but because I haven't been able to log on for a while I missed the chance to co-ordinate the opportunities you presented and because I not going near Nashville that too is passed up with regret.

As to the driving, as was said it just takes care and concentration and certainly being in a car designed for LHD puts you in the right position to start with. Saying that there have been about 1/2 dozen "incidents" and these have happened turning at intersections mostly when I've been distracted turning on the wipers instead of the binkers and all without mayhem occurring. Also you're right about the pedestrian thing, as I learned very quickly when I arrived in San Francisco. My rental cars have all been autos to help in the driving process.

The '41 I've bought I am going to leave as LHD so the aspect that Loyd mentioned when the car arrives in Australia in a couple of months will come into play.

I'll cetainly post some pic's. Including those of a guy in Idaho with 10 Packards for sale, being '39 Convertible(only 7 known), '40 Supr 8 - 7 seater Henney conversion, '41 110 Coupe, '51 Patrician, '52 Coupe & parts car, 52 Auto w/- Conny kit & 25000 original miles, '53 300 - Looks nice, '55 Patrician w/- Air Con in trunk & '56 hardtop clipper.

John,

Did you manage to get those pictures from Warren onto a CD/DVD?

If you did I would like to see them. Hopefully you were able to get some better shots than I did. I can also batch upload those pics to the website for you if you like.