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

[NY]

How odd that when I was test driving cars of the Ford Focus / VW Golf size (in the UK), I found a significant *perceived* variation in offset and pedal spacing between different models. Usually the problem was catching the brake pedal with the right edge of my clutch foot, since I don't normally keep my foot over the clutch when not using it, but move it from the rest at the left of the clutch - and sometimes move a few mm too far. One car I had to sit slightly at an angle in the seat in order that my feet were comfortably aligned with the pedals - and I'm a pretty average 5'10".

Except if you fail to recognise that you *have* done something wrong. We're judging this with our "competent heads" on, rather than trying to imagine what we will be like when we are 80 or more. Sadly, competence testing for the elderly seems to be rather lax: I'm always surprised when my parents have voluntary tests every few years, there are no comments about my dad's habit of driving *significantly* below fast speed limits and yet significantly above lower (eg 20/30 limits) - the "drive everywhere at 40" style of driving. And cutting corners when turning right into or out of a side road. It is very difficult to criticise your parents' driving to their face, but if it comes from someone who is disinterested, criticism is easier to take.

[Rod Speed]

Not so easy to do that quickly enough if you panic/freeze after doing that.

That's bullshit too.

[Commander Kinsey]

That's precisely what instinct is for, to save yourself. It's quite simple - if something goes bad after you started doing X, you automatically stop doing X.

I don't need time, the subconscious is way faster than the conscious.

It's even simpler, you only have two choices.

Yet happens frequently in the USA, I wonder why.

Strange, I drive better when drunk. As does my friend who managed to get home and park very neatly, without even a recollection of having done so.

ROFL!

That explains it.

[Clare Snyder]

You still haven't put that Bozo intothe bozo bin???

[Commander Kinsey]

Not mine, they've always been R 1 3 5 on the top, with 2, 4 on the bottom (2 below 1, 4 below 3).

What idiot invented column shift? I had a Honda like that. So instead of having a nice H shaped arrangement of gears, everything is in one line, way harder to control, I was constantly moving too many gears at once.

Or a 5 speed.

[Commander Kinsey]

I was once asked for a lift to the next town. I apologized and said I was going in the other direction. When I mentioned it to the person I was driving to only 100 yards away, I was told the guy was constantly forgetting where he lived, and his house was actually two down from where he'd spoken to me. I found him and took him back home. Apparently he does it twice a week, and usually ends up asking in the local pub for the lend of a fiver to get a bus fare "home" - the next town was where he lived 20 years ago. We really need to find a cure for loss of memory.

[Commander Kinsey]

ROTFPMSL!

[Commander Kinsey]

I was once stopped by the police for having a valid (yes valid) MOT. I had one day left, yet he still felt the need to pull me over. I pointed out that not only did I have a day left, but a year and a day left, since I'd just renewed it 3 days ago. He had the cheek to ask me to carry my certificate around with me for a week as their system takes a week to register new certificates. I suggested he should perhaps only stop people after a week to make up for his dodgy computer system, and he was not amused.

[Clare Snyder]

Or warse yet, vans witht the engine under the instrument panel like an old transit, or a Chevy or bedford van, or a Checy van - etc. There the pedals were jammed between the doghouse and the wheel arch. A Chevy Astro Van with a standard transmission was a treat to drive in size 12 work boots - - -

[Clare Snyder]

Nope. The Fluid drive Chryslers were just a standard transmissin with a clutch mounted behind a fluid coupling. The clutch was required for engaging gears the same as on a regular standard, but when you released the clutch you couldn't stall the car - no matter which gear you selected.

The Gyromatic was the "semi-automatic" with 2 speed transmission and a torque converter that could be locked. You could shift from low to high by releasing the throttle and with a bit of black magic you could lock the converter between shifts, making it act somewhat like a 4 speed transmission. In normal operation it acted like a 3 speed - or like a modern automatic with a locking torque converter but only 2 gears.

You must be thinking of the Model T ford - but it did NOT have a fluid coupling or "fluid dlywheel".

. That was the Chrysler M6 or "gyromatic" I described above. The "overdrive" wasn't really an overdrive - it was a "direct" drive, bypassing the fluid coupling or torque converter - whichever they were using.

[Clare Snyder]

And it wasn't an epicyclic trans either from what I remember - It is a

2 speed sliding gear transmission with a locking torque converter. For low speed driving you put in the clutch, chifted to low, let out the clutch and stepped on the gas. When you got up to speed you lifted your foot and the solenoid on the transmission locked the torque converter - giving you "second gear". If you needed to go faster you stepped on the clutch and shifted to "high". Might have been able to do it by just lifting the gas pedal and moving the lever if you held your mouth just the right way - then repeat. It unlocked the converter when you lifted your foot or stepped on the clutch - OR pressed the button on the end of the shifter if so equipped. Flooring the accellerator unlocked the converter for "passing gear" - or you could "downshift" with the button.

Different than "fluid drive" - and I THINK either Rover or Humber (or mabee both) may have licenced the gyromatic at one time inthe early

50s.

[Clare Snyder]

ANd a REALLY good driver can do that without using the clutch. I often don't use the clutch on the Ranger, but I don't skip gears when I shift without the clutch. The Fiat 600 shiften nicely without the clutch too if I was careful.

The accellerator and brake may as well both have been switches, eh? That's about the way I drove my old Mini.

[Commander Kinsey]

Why haven't you? Don't make others do your work for you.

[Commander Kinsey]

Alledgedly making a phonecall does.... It can't be both ways.

[Rod Speed]

Yep, but isnt that reliable in situations you hardly ever see.

I managed to end up on my arse on the ground when a snake slithered across in front of me when walking in scrub off to the side of a swampy area on dry ground.

It isnt actually, that's why little kids get injured.

That only works if you don't panic or freeze.

And doesn't explain why stupid women panic when a mouse runs in front of them either.

Its hardly likely to devour them or rape them.

What I said.

That's bullshit too when your foot gets tangled with the pedals.

No evidence of that.

Lot more people there, stupid.

That's bullshit. You just think you do.

Yeah, that last is very common with the worst drunks. Same thing happened with the time that drunk ended up with an imprint of the rego plate on the roadwork sign.

Even with that evidence of what had happened, he didn't remember anything about it.

Nope, it was Phil that f***ed up,

[Commander Kinsey]

I'm 5 foot 9. And I have never had a perceived variation with pedals. Maybe you just lack spatial awareness.

When your car goes 10 times faster instead of 10 times slower, even a 90 year old would notice.

I've never driven anything like the speed limit. A competant driver picks his own speed depending on weather, traffic levels, number of pedestrians, etc.

Everybody does that here, of any age. I wonder how they past their tests.

My parents drive as they always have. Slowly.

[rbowman]

He's mildly amusing on slow days. I managed to get back from my walk before the storm front moved in so I'm drinking coffee and chuckling.

Shifting isn't something I think about. Even with the bikes where all three have different characteristics it's automatic. I will admit looking for 6th on the 5 speeds sometimes but that's about it.

The only time it has required much thought on my part was that damn U pattern on the Eaton OD transmission.

[Commander Kinsey]

1200 isn't fast. I've had cars where 1000 is normal idle. Modern cars are more like 500, but 1200 ain't loud.

And people tell me I should buy new cars so they work more reliably....

[Commander Kinsey]

I don't find that awkward at all. And it's much closer than moving past two columns of gears. In R left of 1 boxes, I have to move 1 position left instead of 3.

[Commander Kinsey]

Why would you freeze when you're panicking? Panic should cause you to take action, not just sit there and somehow think doing nothing will help. Would you see a lion running towards you and just sit down?

You must have a very slow brain if you take that long to make a decision.