I'm still a spring chicken (ok, 47) and bought my AP1 from an 85 year old who could no longer drive it due to advancing Parkinson's, pretty sure he was a great grandfather too. I took him for a nice long last blast in it before I drove it away. I considered swinging by his place earlier this year to see if he wanted to go for another run but sadly the house was on the market and he was gone.

 

To the OP: since you have your mileage synchronized with your age, are you going to drive carefully to make sure the odometer rolls to each thousand-mile increment on your birthday?

 

Hi zeroptzero, yes I am only too aware of my diminishing abilities. In participial I miss my peripheral vision, & my depth perception. It would not be good for me to be coming into a second gear corner at 180 MPH these days. My depth perception gives me a problem flying my remote control planes around very large trees, but you learn to compensate.

However my reflexes are still fine. Recently on one of our narrow back roads in my Triumph TR7, I came into an S bend I know well. It was wet, so I was not going very hard, but as I rounded the first bend I discovered farmer Brown had just crossed the road whit his herd of dairy cows. They had left a couple of dozen big wet slopy, slippery cow pats on the road as they crossed. The front hit them first & let go. As I got it back the tail went in a big way, which helped tighten my line lost with the front end slide. The car hit another couple on the way out, & I was on my way. As I did I thought to my self, "Wow, you can still drive a bit for an old bloke".

You see it was all reflex. It was all over before I worked out what was happening. I'm sure my reflexes aren't up to what they used to be, but I was quite pleased how well they handled the bit if fun.

I do have an advantage. Having raced up to & including Formula 1, in the days when you could still buy last years F1 car, & a local team had the ability to run one. I took second in the Australian F1 Gold Star, our 6 six race F1 championship back in the late 60s. In those cars it is all reflex. It is all over before you have time to think about it. How much longer they will be up to the job though is any one elses guess.

 

^ Greg? Phil? Leo?

 

Phil

 

An honour, sir.

 

To Old Racer: there was a long period when I didn't see any posts from you, and I was afraid you'd left. I'm glad you're still on the forum. I really enjoy your posts.

 

Thanks waino, I'll try to put in some interesting ones.

 

This is a great thread! I aspire to be as healthy as you all when I get to that age.

 

I am not even a grandfather yet at 65. Guess I should have started much sooner. I find turning sideways to the S, 90 degrees, I can sit and turn to enter and exit much easier. The added benefit is no wear on the bolster.

I also fly RC planes and also can have depth perception issues. When my son was smaller (33 now) and I was playing bucking bronco with him on all fours, he accidentally got his finger nail in my left eye and lacerated the cornea. It took a couple of years before it really healed properly. As a result that eye became quite weak. Big change from 20-10 vision! Anyway, I found the right corrections in sunglasses made a huge difference in depth. I would imagine someone with your experience would have pretty good sunglasses!