OT: Mature driver review

It seems a very close ratio box. I'm often doing 1 -3 - 5. The Shi(f)t indicator would be better employed telling me what gear I'm in. Shifting up often means "it's ok at this speed but not if you are still intent on accelerating, or there is an incline ahead". I'm learning to hate my newly acquired new Ford eco boost 1.0 ST line, though engine performance has pleasantly surprised me somewhat compared the to 1.8 Mk2 (petrol).

Engine braking was old school from the days of drum brakes. I thought modern advice was to use the brakes not the engine as Dad says.

Some older vehicles had lower ratios in reverse than first.

That's correct, my dad's Austin A55 (that I learned to drive in) was drums all round.

The only time I use engine braking is on a long steep downhill when I change down one or maybe two gears below what I would otherwise use, and let the engine take on *some* of the braking, fine-tuning things with the footbrake. So, in aircraft terms, using engine braking like a coarse trim control.

But I always make sure that I change down while I am on the level, just before my speed starts to increase, so I can rev-match to engage a low gear smoothly, before the gearbox needs to handle significant torque from the wheels trying to turn the engine. How does the torque transmitted "backwards" from wheels to engine during engine braking compare with the torque transmitted "forwards" from engine to wheels during hard acceleration?

Even disc brakes can heat up on a long hill - they just do so less because the discs are usually better ventilated. And maybe even for the same drum/disc temperature, they suffer less from brake fade.

I remember seeing a very informative for-schools-and-colleges science programme about energy, in which a camera was mounted under a car so it could film the disc brake. The car was taken up to 70+ (on a runway, not on the road) and braked hard to a stop. It only took a couple of cycles of this for the disc to glow dull red, and after 10 cycles the disc was bright red. Change of kinetic energy into heat energy (preceded, of course, by conversion of energy stored in the fuel into kinetic energy).

It would be nice if shift-indicators responded quickly enough to say "change down still further" when the gradient changes.

My Peugeot 308 and my wife's Honda CR-V both have 1.6 turbo diesel engines, though of course her car is quite a bit heavier than mine. He engine is more powerful and has more acceleration as long as you are in the correct gear.

I'm so used to my car and what gear I need on a given gradient or when going round a given bend, that I still, after ten years, occasionally forget that her car needs one, maybe two, gears lower than mine in some situations, even though her engine revs are still well above idling so theoretically into the realms of reasonable diesel-like torque.

I've noticed that if I change down, let's say from 6th or 4th, just before the hill, it will take it fine in 4th. If I forget and the engine starts to lug, then it needs 3rd gear; changing belatedly into the gear that would have otherwise sufficed is not good enough. I wonder whether her engine relies so much on its turbo that the turbo is running out of puff and needs the engine to spin a lot faster to generate enough exhaust to get the turbo feeding enough air to the engine to burn the fuel that I am asking for. Or I could be talking bollocks!! I'm getting better at cosseting her car as it needs to be: it's rare that it catches me out nowadays. And in the right gear, it has s*it-hot acceleration for the rare occasions when it's needed for overtaking.

There is only one diesel car that I never got used to and that is one of the versions of VW Golf (maybe Mark 4) which had a "Pumpe Duse" engine (so not a true HDi engine). That engine was bizarre. If I was setting off from rest and didn't apply quite enough throttle or let the clutch in slightly too much, then engine didn't just lug a bit, giving me time to increase the power or slightly dip the clutch. It stalled. Stone dead, and very abruptly. And then it took several agonising seconds before it would fire again. It was as if the engine-management was in "toddler throwing its toys out of the pram" mode: "you haven't given me enough throttle so I won't just lug, I'll get all petulant and make damn

It happened with two different cars when I was test-driving them a few years apart, and salesman laughed and said that I wasn't the only new driver to make it happen, not by a long way. He said it was something you did eventually get used to. It's the only car, petrol or diesel, that I've ever repeatedly stalled. Quite embarrassing, really ;-)

I've always wondered how drivers managed to reverse up a steep hill and stay on the correct alignment, given that any self-centring action of the steering which (when you go forwards) tries to get you back in line if you stray off course (negative feedback) acts the opposite way round in reverse and becomes self-UN-centring (positive feedback), so you need to keep making conscious corrections. That's been my experience in every car I'm owned, both with and without power steering.

I bet!

Porlock Hill is nasty. I drove up it, probably in my Peugeot 306 2.0 HDi, and it managed it OK but you could tell the car was glad to get to the top ;-) My wife remembers years ago coming down it in a Bedford Bambi motor caravan and her friend had never heard of the concept of engine braking so went down it in top with only the brakes to retard the car - and the brakes were smoking before long...

The two "killer hills" near me are Rosedale Chimney Bank (1:3) and one between Littlebeck and Blue Bank (itself a notorious hill in days gone by). Both of these are in North Yorkshire, "Heartbeat" country.

The Littlebeck hill was particularly scary because just on a hairpin bend going up, I encountered a Land Rover coming down who cut the corner and I had to drive onto the inside verge of the bend. Fine, but when I came to set off, one front wheel was on soft ground and so I had no traction. When I rolled back very slowly onto tarmac to get the front wheels on sold ground, I heard the back end ground. I had to "wriggle" my way backwards, trying to steer across the gradient so my back end remained clear of the tarmac, without the front wheel hitting solid ground which would tip me further over. The Land Rover, meanwhile, had disappeared. It took me about 10 minutes to ease my car back so the front wheels were on tarmac and I could do an "extreme hill start".

The most alarming hill was a steep one just outside of Kettlewell (before I got to the notorious Park Rash further on). My little Renault was labouring up that hill and on a sharp bend, so probably the steepest part of the road, the tailgate flew open and a load of bedding and a suitcase fell out of the back. I had to park at the top and jog down the hill to retrieve my luggage. Maybe the boot lock hadn't quite fully caught.

It was Rosedale Chimney where I did my Superman impression! I was following a car up the hill, keeping well back. And he ground to a halt. And every time he tried to set off (with very high engine revs that must have been torturing his clutch) he rolled further and further back towards me. Eventually I decided that he needed help before he ran into me, so I parked (first gear, handbrake pulled well on, wheels set to run my back end into the kerb) and ran up to him to offer to help. He was panicking so I offered to drive his car to the top for him. OK, I stalled on my first attempt but maybe that's because I'm used to a diesel rather than petrol engine, and I was unfamiliar with e bite-point of his clutch. But I didn't roll back an inch because I know not to release the handbrake until I feel the car straining forwards. I did it on the second go. He was *very* relieved and grateful. Once I'd run back down the hill - to ironic applause (*) from a Land Rover that had stopped behind me - setting off in my own car was a great deal easier, though still not something I'd want to have to do any more than I had to.

(*) And a few "bloody tourists" shared comments between us ;-)

That was when men where men and driving was a very difficult and strenuous art to master... ...Now even women can do it :-))

He should have bought a Saab 96 with the 2-stroke engine and built-in free-wheeling front hubs. But that was to stop the engine seizing up on overrun.

But did he swing out into the middle of the road immediately before turning LEFT (as lots of older drivers seemed to do) ?.

Leyland Octopus (no power steering)

I do 200 mile motorway journeys on a fairly regular basis and 5 or 6 is normal most of the way.

I do believe he did. :-) He'd have made a good HGV driver where you need to swing out to get the back wheels round the corner without mounting the kerb ;-)

I've one of these and that's what I find. It also doesn't like my shifting from 4 to 6 without going through 5

Brian

Experience.

If you turn left at a fairly square corner, you have the choice of either approaching the corner wide or leaving it wide. Given that you can only rarely see approaching vehicles around the corner, I normally prefer to approach wide and stay close to the kerb leaving the corner. I do frown on people who arrive around a corner well on my side of the road as I am approaching a junction.

Similarly, I approach the bar of a T junction fairly slowly, watching for vehicles coming from my left and cutting the corner. A very large proportion of people do this if they don't actually see a vehicle stopped at the corner.

When I took my driving test I was expected to be in top gear if I was travelling at the speed limit of 30mph. My first car wouldn't comfortably do

When my children learned to drive they were expected to be in a lower gear at 30mph. I don't know what will be expected of my grandchildren.

My automatic won't go into top gear below 40mph.

It won't be an issue soon with electric/hybrid vehicles.

It is a requirement for the brake lights to come on when decelerating at more than a certain G force in electric/hybrid vehicles.

I agree. Slowing and swinging out (while indicating of course) makes it clearer to other drivers what you are doing and reduces the risk of someone overtaking.