The Night the P1800 Died

Well after recently blogging about Simon Templar I will tell a quick story about the car Roger Moore used while playing The Saint in the 1960's. I and a couple of friends took some time this week to take a bike tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. After a 4 hour tour of a place of former carnage we that evening settled down to a dinner and a few beers. As guys do stories were told and one of the discussions was cars. So my P1800 Volvo was brought up. So here is my story. I was young in 1976 , out of college and working in the Albany NY area. I had some money from a recently departed Uncle. God rest his soul. I needed a car and as my college car had seen much better days I went out looking. And there she was a 1966 Volvo p 1800 being sold by an owner near where I lived. As I said I was young , and could lust after internal combustion and a beautiful design. The car Roger Moore drove as The Saint on the long running TV program. This was the obtainable sports car and I looked past any potential problems. I bought it in mid August. Put a couple of hundred in some repairs. Drove the rest of the summer away into early fall. A little smoke out the back was ignored. Just put in a heavier weight oil. Then that Friday night in late October. I agreed to meet a couple of older friends for dinner. I was to meet a friend of theirs , female. Lets face it........A BLIND DATE. We met at Jacks Oyster House in downtown Albany. Overall , not a bad night. Really. Potential seemed in the air. So we stayed late , after midnight. It became a chilly evening. To be honest I had one to many scotches. So I left that night with a phone number and a little to much cockiness and a cold car. I started her {the car}. Revved her up and pulled out heading for home. The radio was on loud , to loud to listen for trouble. I hit the interstate at about 60 mph. I went up the ramp went over the bridge and crossed the Hudson River heading east. I then reached over and flicked on the coolest feature of the car. The electric 5th gear overdrive. I believe I loosened my tie and unbottoned my shirt collar. Turned up the radio , Beatles tune. Was not listening for the probably increasing noise that was no doubt coming from the engine. I was speeding , up around 80 , feeling overly self confident. Good week at work , good Friday night end , probably a little to good. Suddenly a muffled bang that I even heard. What the hell was that. Radio off......this is not good at all. Even though my love affair was about to end I just wanted to deny it . Anyway , got a tow to my usual garage. Diagnosis on Monday...........thrown a rod. It was over. I went on to other cars and as fate would have it other girls. The memories remain , cue The Saint Theme music this story is over.