kboom! and gasoline hoses (no Audi content)

["R. Cummings" <cumm@flash.net>]

It is not always the latches on the gasoline pump handles that cause the
hoses to get ripped off the pumps. We were testing air conditioning in Death
Valley some years ago with a European car company (not Audi). We had six
vehicles and the little gas station had two pumps. The engineers and
technicians had developed a choreographed routine to move a car into the
pump, pump the fuel, get that car out of the way and bring in the next.
Speed was of importance for the people involved to minimize broiling in the
120 degree F heat.

Sure enough, someone missed a step and one car roared away from the pump
with the nozzle still in the tank. The hose was immediately replaced with a
new one while the trip boss coughed up a considerable sum of money to the
attendant.

That would perhaps been excusable except they did the same thing three days
later at the same place. Rumor has it that the owner made more money on
those two hoses than he did in a month selling fuel.

Of course, Death Valley in the summer does strange things to people and from
my experience the only visitors to Furnace Creek in August are European
tourists and car companies.

Bob Cummings 87 Coupe GT 113 k miles