The first car I had that could reliably be run in excess of 100 was a 1967 Alfa Romeo GTV. (Not the beautiful 'duetto' that Dustin Hoffman made famous in "The Graduate", but a more homely two door coupe.) I had a room mate at the time who was a serious skier, and we were heading North to Mammoth Mtn for the weekend. It was about 10:00 PM we were making good time, and I was proud of how well the little Alfa was running. (I had previously bent a valve when I put the head back on, with the timing chain off just one tooth, but it was all back together and oil tight and running smooth!) Now one of the idiosyncrasies of the Alfa, that I found to be part of it's appeal was it's total disregard for the inattentive driver. In an Alfa when you shut it down you must shut off the headlights, fog lights, radio all separately. Even the fan for the heater is not on the ignition circuit. It feels a bit like shutting down an airplane. Even the 'idiot lights' are only for idiots who have read the owners manual. They are not labeled. Nor are they located in any manner that gives a clue as to the problem being signaled. There are four lights, one green for 'lights on', one blue for 'high beam', one red for 'parking brake' and a second red for 'low fuel pressure'. Two red lights, side by side. You must remember that the left one is parking brake, the right is real trouble, low pressure means the fuel pump is quitting and it takes some time to get one shipped over from Italy. If they have any in stock!
About an hour out of Bishop Rick got bored and discovered that if he reached down in the darkness, and squeezed the rubber boot at the bottom of the parking brake the light would flash. Since the brake was off, and I could not tell which light had just flashed I would have to guess what was going on. I guessed the pump was going out. "Oh son of a ..... the pump, oh no.." etc etc. I spent the next hour trying to keep one eye on the road and one eye on the gauges. I kept the fingers of my left hand covering the lights so I could tell which light flashed if it came on. It seemed to be able to flash the instant my eyes were diverted, and go out again the instant I looked at the dash. It was so uncanny..... until I caught Ricks hand on the brake boot. Luckily for all concerned I have never been in the habit of traveling with a firearm!! I was soaked with sweat and had to wait over ten years to get my revenge, but that is a story for another time.
