OT: Driving electric cars in winter

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've never ever seen that. Even on an early Jaguar E Type than had an aftermarket steering lock fitted - the first I'd ever seen. Sounds very dangerous. ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

You can certainly lock te rear wheels on any car. If you the spin the car 180 degrees, that works well too, but don't try it as a means of doing U turn-=and-park in central london with an IRA alert on..

[The Natural Philosopher]

Exactly. In the end you develop a style that works for you, and,. if you are nit a total dweeb, the car as well.

[T i m]

Our Meriva is like that, you really have to pull the handbrake up hard to stop it blowing away in the wind! ;-)

The Mk2 Escort based kitcar on the other hand can easily lock the back wheels with the handbrake and that's even with the bigger wheels and tyres.

Cheers, T i m

[polygonum]

I too hired a Vauxhall about a year ago - Insignia, I think. Auto with electric parking brake. Although I had driven vehicles with such brakes before, that one was awful. Seemed to remain ON until you really accelerated, so it was hard to start gently, if needed.

[John Rumm]

Mine has permanent AWD, with limited slip diffs, which makes snow somewhat easier ;-)

[Hilo Black]

I did it in the 60s with a landrover and a ton of soil samples with very steep hills. Worked fine, didn?t cost a cent.

[bert]

And to one who has overtaken MGs in a 2 litre diesel!!

[bert]

In article , Davey writes

I hit its just that your average driver will undoubtedly end up pressing both at the same time and the accelerator would probably win!!

..As it did when the cruise control went apeshit in the Exploder. (Allegedly)

[bert]

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Every auto gearbox place I've come across was a specialist who could dismantle fix and reassemble.

[bert]

The 1110 was one of the first 4 speed IIRC

[Steve Walker]

Because you can have an FBH linked to a timer so that it pre-heats the car while you are still in bed.

SteveW

[harry]

Electric cars are pretty useless in snow. Mine has ABS, but still not good.

[NY]

Useless in what sense? Not good at setting off from rest without losing traction? Or not good at stopping and steering once they are going, as the ABS comment implies?

[harry]

Braking. I think it's fitted with ABS because the regenerative braking can be very powerful. If you're not careful, sharply lifting off the throttle pedal on a bend (so causing regenerative braking) in slippery conditions can get you in trouble. Even with the ABS.

Setting off. It has ATC as well (automatic traction control.) Setting off on ice is virtually impossible without it. (For some reason you can turn the traction control bit off.) Works in a similar way to the ABS ie if a wheel spins, the brake is applied. It's still not good.

[Vir Campestris]

Well.. yes. So what?

I don't care what torque my engine produces. I only care what force it will produce at the driven wheels at a given speed - and that is a function of power.

It doesn't matter if I get my 100kW at 1000 or 10000 RPM. The gearbox will sort that out.

Look at the performance figures for BMWs - they fit a mixture of petrol and diesel engines in the same body, and publish power and torque. Performance is similar in petrol and diesel cars with similar _power_ outputs, _not_ similar _torque_ outputs.

Andy

[Vir Campestris]

An automatic transmission car will 'run away' on a hill if in a low gear, as it will automatically change up to a higher ratio when you lift off.

Our experiences seem to differ!

Andy

[bert]

Do you know what torque is?

[Tim+]

Personally I'm sceptical. Lots of people feared that could happen but few ever actually tested their cars to see what would happen.

It's so obviously dangerous I find it hard to believe that any car ignition lock would be designed like that.

Tim

[polygonum]

It depends on the car (and obviously the nature of the automatic box). In some circumstances, some will indeed change down. Mine does.