Remembering a driving great
Page 16
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I WAS ONE of many who learned with sadness of the recent passing of former CM staff member Ron Cater.
The straight-talking Ron knew more than most of us commercial vehicle journalists in the 1970s and 80s about the realities of road transport operation.
He had been there at the coalface, so to speak.
His accomplishments were many, not least as a driver, as he demonstrated all too clearly when he later worked for Volvo and would ride shotgun on press road tests, giving all too freely, in invariably colourful language, his advice on when to change up (sooner rather than later) and brake (later rather than sooner) in the interests of minimising our measured fuel usage.
Ron’s own driving was beyond criticism, something that was most apparent when he was behind the wheel of one of his beloved Volvo F88s.
As a mark of his true acumen as a driver, he was the only one I ever came across who could reverse a turntable drawbar outfit (which bends in two places) into a side turning in one smooth manoeuvre.
Alan Bunting Harpenden, Hertfordshire