OT: "Mixed up the brake and accelerator"?!?

I borrowed an Austin Gypsy that would not go into 1st without turning off the engine. The clutch must have been knackered too and not disengaging completely, because pushing in the clutch pedal it would not go into 1st with the car stationary and the engine idling.

Naughty girl! Me too, I drove a Ford Sierra at 90mph with a broken arm while sending a text to my girlfriend :-)

Last rear end crash I had was into a roadworks van, because I was looking at the roadworks they were taking 3 years to complete. If I'd looked at the van I would have stopped. The roadworks guy didn't give a s*it, there was no damage to his van. My car had already been damaged by some stupid woman (it's always a woman) pulling in front of me 2 weeks previously, so no harm done.

Those should be illegal. There's no reason to flash a light like that. When a cyclist approaches my car with a flashing headlamp, I flash my car headlamps back, this usually infuriates the cyclist. If they can do it, why can't I?

What a bunch of whining Limeys. You should virtually NEVER have to use your left foot on the brake in normal driving unless you are un co-ordinated from having too many guiness' before leaving the pub. As a mechanic I could tell who left foot braked by how quickly they wore out the brakes. On a car with no handbrake (foot operated parking brake) if you want to "hang out" the rear on a corner with front wheel drive on gravel or snow jabbing the brake with yhour foot on the gas kinda works - but the only time I did THAT was with a standard - - -

If you can't drive an automatic without using your left foot you shouldn't be driving - or buy yourself a Soob or a Mitsoshitty - or even a VAG (volkswagen, Skoda, etc) with the hill-holder option.

That's the way it SHOULD be - - - -

Just out of interest, what do you drive?

A friend of mine had an Austin A30 (mid 1950s). Single master cylinder.

Slave cylinder on each front wheel. Single slave cylinder bolted to chassis at rear, operating a mechanical linkage to the brake shoes on both sides. The SAME linkage used by the handbrake (parking brake).

If the linkage broke, the travel on the rear cylinder was enough to make the front brakes inoperative, so there was a single point of failure.

When I first started driving RHD in left hand traffic it took me about a day to get used to it (in Zambia). Crossing into Zaire (Right hand traffic) with the LHD car was "strange".

Ten years later jumping into a RHD car down in the islands was like getting back onto a bike.

Where I DID have problems was driving motorcycle in left hand traffic

- - -

Tell that to folks driving in the Rockies, the Appalachians, the Adirondacs, the Sierras,etc. Or driving through Canada on the "north of superior" route. Or basically just about anywhere other than the breat plains in the mid-west. The little hills you have over in LimeyLand are just bumps.

WHY would you shift an automatic into neutral for a short stop???? It virtually disconnects the drive through the torque converter at idle anyway. Take your foot off the loud pedal and put it on the stop pedal. When the light turns green or it is clear to pull away,you move your right foot from the stop pedal to the loud pedal and smoothly accellerate from the stop.

A "hand brake" is almost totally non-existant in North America. The "parking brake" is usually foot operated - and in many new cars it is electrically operated by a switch on the console. Even when I HAD "hand Brake" on my standard transmission cars I virtually NEVER had to use it when pulling away from a stop on a hill.

I switch from my standard transmission Ford pickup to the automatic Sorento totally seamlessly.

I DO remember when I first started driving an automatic, pulling away quickly and jamming my LEFT foot HARD on the brake pedal of the '63 Pontiac Wagon attempting to shift to second - - - - - -. The power prakes on that beast were so sensitive I used to joke they were "light activated" . Put your foot over the pedal and the shadow - opposite of light - was seen as "heavy" - also opposite of light. That sucker would throw you through the windshield faster than you could blink - -

There are some cars that would jam the parking pawl if you parked on a hill without the parking brake - and you could NOT disengage park without taking the load off the pawl by pushing the vehicle up the hill..

I've seen the pin that hold the pawl shear right off - and I've seen the pawls break - and I've seen the pin torn right out of the transmission case. Nothing like reaching for second on a 3 speed floor shift before you remember you are driving a console shift automatic - or reaching for third on a 4 speed - or 5th on a 5 speed.

- and jamming the pawl in at 20, 40, or 60 MPH - - - - -

Not that I've done it - but I've had customers who did. Gets REAL expensive - REAL fast!!!

Yes

One for me

I've lost fronts, and I've lost rears

Should, and working, both require definition!!

On many current vehicles you couldn't get it into park at speed if you tried.

The most effective hand brake I ever experienced was on my '49 Beetle.

Cable brakes on all 4 wheels - and the hand brake opperated them all - through the same cables. If you lost the foot brake, you lost EVERYTHING.

Then there was the '28 Chevy. Rod operated brakes like on an old Raleigh Roadster or Flying Pigeon bicycle - Thin read drums with expanding service brake and a band hand brake on the outside of the drum. To stop" fast" you put both feet on the brake pedal and pulled back on the handbrake with both hands. At least it HAD 4 wheel brakes

- something of a novelty at that time.

You ought to try parking in Rome - - - A good reason to drive a Fiat, or a Smart, or any other of the little "pisskutters" you see over there. I don't think I ever saw more than about 6 inches clearance between parked cars - even on the hills.

I left my Mini parked in gear with the hand brake on - and locked. Came back and found it a quarter mile away in the middle of a bush - 8 guys just picked it up and carried it away - - -

In both cases the parking brake was mechanical and functioned. The Chevy had a standard transmission so reverse would have meant repairing the transmission as well as the master cylinder. Downshifting and using the engine compression plus a little handbrake for the complete stops got me home. The Lincoln had an AT but fortunately there was a slight grade going up to the company parking lot which scrubbed off most of the speed and the handbrake took care of the rest.

Coming down the mountain with just the rear brakes on a F150 was a good lesson on how much of the work is done by the front brakes particularly when the fronts were disk and the rear drums.

I was riding with a friend in a restored Model A when he went down a steep hill (Troy NY has quite a few of those) I looked over and he was rigid with his butt mostly off the seat trying to keep it under control with the mechanical brakes.

If I ever did a restoration I wouldn't be that much of a purist and the thing would have hydraulics.

My Yaris has a real hand brake. The F150 has a foot operated one but it's also a standard transmission so I rarely use it. I'm also hesitant to use mechanical parking brakes in the winter.

Trailers, as in tractor trailer, have a failsafe setup so the brakes are applied when the air is off. I've spent some pleasant moments laying under the trailer with a 5 lb hammer beating on the drums trying to get the things to break loose when they froze up in the winter.

Oh, sweet Jesus... Never have been to Montana, have you? I'll admit the eastern part is flat, but I don't live there.