FINISHED - M-50 Israeli Sherman - MP Models - 1:35 Scale

[lmagna]

I don't know if they were flatlanders or not, but in one case it was just plain dangerous. Luckily it occurred very close to the summit where the ski resort is and there was almost no traffic at all. I was admittedly moving right along at this point mostly due to the fact that this part of the highway is four lanes instead of just two. I noticed the break lights come on on a car that was some distance in front of me in the slow lane. There was no car or anything else for that matter in front of him and I was still some distance behind him. Of course his slowing down caused me to close the distance even faster as he slowed down for no reason. He did this several more times, and by the time I went by him it looked like he was doing something like 20 miles an hour on a four lane highway! I thought later that possibly he thought I was State Patrol as I drive a white SUV, but that is still no reason to almost come to a complete stop on the highway, especially if you don't see emergency lights on the oncoming vehicle!

 

I could have taken my Mini Cooper as it can take the turns on mountain roads at normally twice the recommended speed without even straining. It is an amazing road handling car, albeit at the expense of a relatively stiff suspension making it a little rough riding on some roads, (Like mountain roads). But while I LOVE it, my wife tends to not like riding in it all that much. I'm not certain if it is the car itself, or the way I tend to drive it!    

[Edwardkenway]

1 hour ago, lmagna said:

I could have taken my Mini Cooper as it can take the turns on mountain roads at normally twice the recommended speed without even straining. It is an amazing road handling car, albeit at the expense of a relatively stiff suspension making it a little rough riding on some roads, (Like mountain roads). But while I LOVE it, my wife tends to not like riding in it all that much. I'm not certain if it is the car itself, or the way I tend to drive it! 

So you'll be entering the Monte Carlo Rally next season with the wife doing pacenotes 😄

[Baker]

Another beautiful model.
congrats 👍

[Canute]

Yep, we have roads like those with 30-35 MPH posted limits. I can run most at about 45-50 MPH. The really twisty ones need a really good sportscar to drive properly. My Ford doesn't quite fit that requirement.

[Egilman]

16 hours ago, lmagna said:

I HATE getting behind a car on a two lane mountain road who insists on driving twenty miles an hour UNDER the speed limit and to heck with the line of cars stacked up behind! Made me wish I was driving your M-50!

I second that, and it's not just a northern state phenomenon either... It's like they all of a sudden forgot how to drive.....

[CDW]

Anybody here ever drove in West Virginia? There are some white knuckle roads there, I'll guarantee you. Some of the edges drop off immediately at the edge of pavement with no chance of recovery if your tire leaves the pavement. Falling rocks, too. But that doesn't stop those hillbillys from driving like Mario Andretti in their 4x4 pickups 🤣

 

When we lived there, every time we crossed the border from WV into Ohio, the Ohio State Troopers would pull us over as soon as they saw our WV tags...just to check our vehicles, tags, insurance, and registration.

[popeye the sailor]

my best car was my Nissan Maxima........man that car would move!  got two tickets with it.........no one told me that,  the faster you go,  the more the ticket was!

 

superb finish on the tank!  nicely done.......I'm a little surprised with how few markings on it.   a really spectacular job though   

[ccoyle]

On 5/24/2020 at 12:35 PM, CDW said:

Anybody here ever drove in West Virginia? There are some white knuckle roads there, I'll guarantee you. Some of the edges drop off immediately at the edge of pavement with no chance of recovery if your tire leaves the pavement.

In Mariposa County, California, where I used to live, the winding Highway 49 North traversed the very deep Merced River gorge, with no guard rails. I once asked a friend of mine in the sheriff's office how many vehicles were somewhere down in the canyon out of sight from the road and beyond the reach of tow cables; his answer was something along the lines of "more than people realize."

[Jack12477]

Try driving the Million Dollar Highway, US-550, from Ouray Colorado to Durango Colorado, it is 100 miles distance but takes about 4 hours to drive. There are three passes you have to cross, each one being about 10,000 feet in elevation, no guard rail and no shoulders, just a drop off of about 2,000 feet. As we were driving uphill from Ouray we met a full size Winnebago camper coming downhill, all the Admiral could see out the passenger side window was no road just a steep drop off.  We could not (safely) drive faster than 25-30 MPH, in 2nd gear most of the way.   Fantastic scenery with 13,000 and 14,000 foot peaks all around us.

 

Asked my brother-in-law, who grew up in Denver,  why no guard rails. He said they used to have them but accident rate with all the flatlanders was so high they decided to remove them,  when they removed them the accident rates dropped dramatically. Also asked him why the huge iron gates along the route, said they close the passes when it snows heavy. 

[Egilman]

42 minutes ago, Jack12477 said:

Also asked him why the huge iron gates along the route, said they close the passes when it snows heavy. 

Heck, they close the passes around here with 4" of snow on the ground.... But then again an inch of snow closes the schools.....

 

Me? I grew up walking to school in a foot of snow, uphill both ways........ (true story)

[Jack12477]

I grew up in western NY with Lake Effect snows, avg annual 150 inches......  my oldest granddaughter saw her first snow day school closed  in 12th grade when Buffalo got 8 feet of snow in 48 hrs.......  I never heard of snow days growing up.

 

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, Jack12477 said:

I never heard of snow days growing up.

Central Connecticut and Southern Vermont for me, There wasn't any such thing back then...

[lmagna]

On 5/24/2020 at 4:19 AM, Edwardkenway said:

So you'll be entering the Monte Carlo Rally next season with the wife doing pacenotes

The only thing my wife would be writing would be my obituary, for use shortly after she killed me!😞 Back in the 60s I had an MGTD that I used to run some local SCCA races, mostly in the mountains where I lived. A few years back I revisited these same roads and took a day to show my wife where I grew up. I could not help but drive the roads the same way as I did when I was young. I'm not certain she ever forgave me.

On 5/24/2020 at 5:49 AM, Canute said:

My Ford doesn't quite fit that requirement.

When we went through our academy we spent a week in our pursuit driving course. We used the same patrol cars we would be using on the streets, big heavy Ford Customs for the most part. We went through three sets of tires in that week per car! You would be amazed what you can do with an American "Lead Slead".

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

Heck, they close the passes around here with 4"

Heck EG, they close two of the passes here every year for about six months out of the year. They just opened Highway 20 on May 12th. 410 and 123 are still closed as far as I know.

[Egilman]

4 minutes ago, lmagna said:

They just opened Highway 20 on May 12th. 410 and 123 are still closed as far as I know.

SR 123 Cayuse Pass is clear, open all the way to 410, Hwy 410 Chinook Pass is still closed with no idea when it will reopen...

[mtaylor]

5 hours ago, lmagna said:

Heck EG, they close two of the passes here every year for about six months out of the year. They just opened Highway 20 on May 12th. 410 and 123 are still closed as far as I know.

 

Really?  When I was crossing them down here, they never closed them.  Only sanded and plowed them.   The catch was, had to get off the county road and onto the state road.  The county didn't do diddly squat.  When I could make to the state area, it was lovely and next to no traffic.

[Egilman]

Down in Oregon? 

 

Mark the only one they try to keep open year round up here is Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, (and they don't always succeed) the rest get closed at least part of the year, every year...

[mtaylor]

I'd take 140 from Medford over the pass (past Mount McLoughlin) to Klamath Falls where I worked.  So.. yes down in Oregon (southern Oregon, ya'll ).

There were usually only two days a year I didn't make it to work (studded tires required or chains, I carried chains even though had studs all around on the car) however, I always made it home.  Might have been 9 or 10 at night, but I made it.

 

 

[Canute]

When I was based in both Sacramento and Merced, the major highways all had notices about carrying chains. Both times never spent the wntire winter there. Out here in western NC, we have some roads over the Smokies with similar notices, but they're deep in the TN/NC/GA border area. My main road thru the Smokies, I40, only gets closed when the rocks slide down and block the roads. Those take much longer to clean up and the detour, Asheville-Bristol, TN-I26 to I81, takes a long time.