Hand of God or dumb luck you did well there Roger.

Like others I have my tale of the brake fail too. Thirty some years ago I'd gone to a buddies house in my '51 Hornet coupe. He lived on a flag lot with a moderately long driveway that opened to a large parking area in front of his garage/shop. I parked the Hudson at the back edge straight in from the driveway, the garage being off to the right. Later we took off in his car for a couple hours. Upon returning, as we drove down his driveway I had a moment of panic....................my car was gone! As happens, thoughts race through the mind faster than I could type them out here. But I blurted out something like, "Someone stole my car!!"

As we parked it became clear that the car wasn't stolen at all. Off the edge of the parking pad his yard gently sloped down a 4-5 foot drop, at the bottom of which he had his firewood shed. Since it was summer, he only had wood stacked along the sides. The open center was barely wide enough that the car miraculously rolled down nearly exactly between the two rows of firewood...............about 3 inches of clearance on each side. Couldn't have parked it that well centered on purpose! Though I had set the parking brake, for whatever reason it let go (one of those 1/4 turn to release type, probably I'd been sloppy about setting it square). The relief from seeing no damage was especially high as I'd just recently spent considerable time and effort repainting the car a gorgeous maroon. Probably the dumbest of dumb luck ever in my life.............