There were a few—un-American dirty commie pinko symps, no doubt—who decried the resultant proliferation of “argumentative” devices among high-powered autos. Some laughable folk even talked of an
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WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ..
“arms” race among automakers. German cars made their biggest incursions into foreign markets in decades. Armor plating, bulletproof glassalloy, certain weaponry—how else did those nuts expect a decent man to Drive with Confidence?
He gunned the engine and the supercharged sedan roared down the on-ramp, gathering unnecessary but impressive momentum as it went. Frank had always believed in an aggressive entrance. Let ’em know -where you stand right away or they’ll ride all over you. The tactic was hardly needed in this instance—there were only two other cars in his entrance pattern, both hi the far two lanes.
He switched slowly until he was behind them, look ing into rear- and side-view mirror carefully for f ast-approaching others. The lanes behind were clear and he had no trouble attaining the fourth lane of the five. Safer here. Plenty of room for feisty types to pass on either side and he could still maintain a decent speed without competing with dragsters. He pushed the JJ. up to an easy seventy-five miles per, settled back for the long drive.
He spotted only two, wrecks as he sped smoothly through the Sepulveda Pass—about normal for this early in the day. The helicrane crew were probably in the process of changing shifts, so these wrecks would lie a bit longer than at other, busier times of day.