And to bring this back to German cars, we had in town until a few
years back (he died) a passionate, flamboyant, ill-tempered mechanic
named Wolfgang Von Fricke. His wife is still alive and runs his
business, Southside Motors, every day. Wolfgang was a factory-trained
Mercedes mechanic who was brought to Huntsville to maintain the small
fleet of Mercedes cars that the German rocket scientists drove, and
specifically Von Braun's cars. So the great man is gone, and so is him
mechanic, and the mechanic's son, but the business lives on, that's
where you take your Ferrari or Porsche if you have one.

Jim

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 7:31 PM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:
> Where did you run into Von Braun? My dad worked for him. Everybody
> here knew him, we all went to the NASA picnics, tours of NASA, say him
> at sears buying a lawnmower and stuff like that around town.
>
> He gave me a "Ticket to Mars in Your Lifetime" once. I left it at my
> grandparents' house and never saw it again. Wish I still had it!
>
> Jim
>
> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:48 PM, frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com> wrote:
>> Neat! Knew the man well, never the daughter!
>>
>> Frank Grunthaner
>>
>> On Apr 16, 2010, at 4:14:57 PM, "Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA> wrote:
>>
>> From: �"Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA>
>> Subject: � �Re: VW quality & Mercedes FI & Japanese FI - was - Massive
>> Maintenance and cost
>> Date: � April 16, 2010 4:14:57 PM PDT
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Ah ha, looks like the Triumph was just giving you the old "up yours"
>> on account of your passenger's father.
>>
>> :)
>>
>> alistair
>>
>>
>> On 16-Apr-10, at 2:45 PM, Jim Felder wrote:
>> �Maybe it was the TR4 distributor that flew apart in the middle of a
>> Georgia forest with
>> Dr. Werner Von Braun's daughter in the passenger seat in the middle of
>> the night on the way to Atlanta.
>>
>