Friday, November 4, 2011

Shake, Rattle and Roll

The next day after getting the seat belts delivered, I took the day off and went with Shelly (the heretofore unnamed patient wife) to the Waterford Fair in Western Loudoun.  It was another glorious drive through back roads to a historic setting.  Waterford was settled in 1733 and still feels like it probably did 100 years ago, so it's fun to drive the MG in a setting that makes it look new.  Since the tires were looking very low, we stopped and filled them with air.  To my surprise and horror I found they were very low (about 10 PSI) so I filled them to the max rating on the tire (about 32 PSI).  This probably explained at least some of the inaccuracy of the speedometer I'd noticed.  Since the tires were under-inflated, their effective radius was less than normal, which meant that the speedometer (which really just counts wheel rotation and translates that to miles per hour using the wheel circumference through a series of gears) was over-reporting my speed.
Waterford ca. 1930. It looks more or less like this still today, but now the town is in color.