OT - Drivers

When you were a prefect at school did you enjoy it? Did you ever consider a job as a traffic warden or policeman? Do you volunteer to direct the traffic at local festivals? Are you the admin of a Facebook group? Do your children keep secrets from you? Would you vote for a political party that would force people to eat less meat? Do you sometimes wonder why almost no-one except you obeys the rules?

Bill

My brother had a Hunter GT and I often used to drive it (circa 1974 /

Well, yes, but I was referring to standard size cars rather than to minis or superminis.

UPDATE: I rang him and he clearly remembered the brake lever being down on the RHS of the driving seat. That had definitely not stayed in my memory.

my father had a Rootes car (Sceptre?). It had a bench front seat, so the handbrake had to fit between the driver's seat and the door.

No ?had to? about it. You?re forgetting under dash ?umbrella? style handbrakes that you pulled (and foot operated parking brakes although I?m not sure these were ever popular in the UK).

Tim

my 62' sunbeam alpine was like that ......

my 66' mustang had an umbrella and my '98 merc had a foot operated one.....had them all...tee hee......

Bit early to be drinking Bill?

Cheers, T i m

I remember the 'umbrella' handbreke - can't remember whicj car it was in,

Never mind that. People wanting to make a right turn in front of me are so annoying.

I'm writing to Grant Shaps to suggest making the manoeuvre illegal.

I have had only one bench-seat car (a Ford Zephyr 4, Mk III) and the handbrake was one of those Walking-stick type handled things that emerged from under the dash.

The foot--operated ones are big in the USA.

But even if it's made illegal, how will they know that you're the one behind?

LOL. I remember it well because when he let me drive it (I was about 10) on a deserted road, I bashed my calf on the end of the handbrake as I was getting into the driver's seat. Bloody stupid place to put the handbrake - on a car that has two separate seats rather than a bench seat, and so has space between the seats for the handbrake. For a bench seat (*) under the dashboard, as an umbrella handle, is better than on the driver's side where there is only a narrow gap between seat and door and where it is a hazard to young boys' legs ;-)

(*) Or a car with two seats which touch, with no space between them, like on my mum's old Renault 6.

My father had a Vauxhall (a Victor 101 Super). That had a bench seat too. It originally had a 3-speed column shift gearbox and the handbrake was a pull out, twist to release, handle - just below the dash.

He later cut a hole in the floor and fitted a 4-speed box, with a floor mounted gear-lever, to improve towing ability.

Foot operated parking brakes are a pain because you need an extra leg to release the brake at a time which is precisely coordinated with the clutch and accelerator when doing a hill start. They also latch on and have to be pressed down to release them. So you can't release them or apply them as quickly or with as much control. The same is true of electric handbrakes, controlled by a switch which uses an electric motor to apply/release. A good hill start is one where at the moment of setting off the handbrake bites only just enough to hold the car back, and not so much that it prevents the car going forwards - that needs a non-binary control of the brake.

OK, so automatic cars don't strictly speaking need a handbrake to be coordinated during a hill start, because the transmission with idling engine will (hopefully) hold the car from rolling back unless the hill is very steep - but as with handbrake assist on a manual car, I haven't the guts to rely on it. I'll have to try it on a hill when there's nothing behind me and see if our car's handbrake assist actually *does* hold the car if it is released *before* the clutch is engaged and the power is applied. With my hand on the handbrake lever , just in case ;-)

Anyway, I will not, as a service to the car behind me, use my footbrake to stay stopped at a junction etc. That would dazzle him with my brake lights. I want to shoot other drivers who do it to me, so I won't do it to them. "Footbrake to stop the car. Handbrake to *stay* stopped." Wise Saw number

When I had one it was lovely and stable on a long journey, I guess its length had something to do with it!

Being white I found I was given a little respect too!

Most 1950s/1960s cars with bench seats, and those which had two seats but where a bench was an option. My dad's Ford Corsair (two seats but bench was an option on some models). My mum's two Renault 6s (two seats but they had no space between them). My dad's Citroen GS (space was occupied by radio/cassette - a vertical cassette slot gets a lot of day-to-day crap in it!).

The Citroen was a spade handle with a release button inside - and it was designed for the LHD market where it would be operated by the index finger, so on a RHD car (which did not have the control on the other side) you had to use your little finger or else turn our hand over so it was palm upwards. It was unusual in that it acted on the front rather than rear brakes - and those brakes were close to the gearbox, a lot further "inboard" than disc brakes are usually, just behind the wheels. All extra labour time when a brake disc needs changing - I *think* they had to remove the drive shaft to remove/replace it...

Usually the umbrella handle was rotated 90 degrees to release the ratchet, and then pulled up like that and rotated back to its rest position to lock onto the ratchet. Some may instead have had a ratchet release button. I liked the under-the-dashboard on mum's R6. And the hockey-stick gear lever was lovely and smooth (not notchy) and had a very big "throw" between the