Llessur

Is that the new Morgan Aero?

I was getting a lift back from Brighton in a bespectacled friend's C-reg Micra shortly after passing our tests back in '97. We reached our exit on the busy A23 and turned into the slip lane doing a 'proud' 70mph knowing that it was a long slip lane with an uphill gradient so speed reduction measures could be taken much later in the process. Unfortunately after committing to the turn it became sharply apparent that the "slip lane" was in fact a very short and poorly paved lay-by which was separated from the main carriageway by a sturdy looking curb. At this point I think steering became more important than trying to brake - I'm not sure what the drivers of the couple of cars parked in the lay-by thought as a small gold Micra barrelled past them somewhat in excess of the national speed limit before swerving violently back into the peak-hour traffic but it must have been confusing. Another slightly trouser browning moment for me was driving back to Brighton from Portsmouth along the A27 when an HGV pulled out to overtake my wheezy 1.0 Fiat Uno and somehow lost a wheel which promptly shot past my car, hit the central reservation, became airbourne and flew over the top of two busy lanes of oncoming traffic. I lost sight of it bouncing at a high speed across a farmer's field towards Goodwood - it had a scarily huge amount of momentum behind it. It was a bit surreal at the time but in hindsight it was very lucky no-one was killed that day - if it had left the central reservation at a shallower angle someone could have literally got a face full.