Wing mirrors on cars

[James Wilkinson Sword]

But you might aswell in a car.

[rbowman]

When I was driving a truck it had cruise control, which I would set at

1. Then on the interstate someone on a Gold Wing, which also has cruise control, would apparently have theirs set at 65.02. I ride bikes, so I know both worlds. A truck as 18 tires, all inflated to about 100 psi that sometimes blow out or peel the tread. It may also have coolers, tools, tarps,and other junk bungeed on here and there which may fall off. When I'm on a bike the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time hanging around next to a truck but the Gold Wing pilots never seemed to mind.

[rbowman]

They don't make horns that loud. When I had to drive through Los Angeles I always put suitable music like Slayer or Megadeath on the deck and cranked it up to 11.

[Clare Snyder]

After a few months you don't even notice any more. I grew up with the train tracks just behind, within hearing distance of at least 5 crossings, and where I l;ive now, on calm days I can hear the train blast for at least 3 crossings - the closest over 10km away

[Tony Dragon]

I have a bad back that means twisting round is painful, so I use my mirrors.

[Tony Dragon]

Depends on the van, if you drive a 'car derived van' (Corsa, Fiesta) then the mirrors are the same.

[Tony Dragon]

Is that played with a sack?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

In the UK automatic transmission hasn't taken off. No idea why, it's brilliant, and it would probably reduce a lot of accidents. Why make the driver change ger when they should be controlling the car?

[Tim Streater]

When passing a truck (especially the Turkish or other south-eastern Europe ones) I always hang back until there is room for me to fire up the afterburners and get past it pronto. No sense in sitting next to a truck at 70mph.

[NY]

Is it just the UK where automatic has never become as popular as in the States and Australia, or does the same apply to other European countries?

Automatics used to be thought of as much less fuel-efficient, and in Europe fuel is more expensive so every little mpg matters.

I find automatics rather unpredictable, though I've never driven one long enough to build up proper muscle-memory for controlling the speed and regulating the instant when each gearchange occurs using the throttle. I'm used to being able to use the clutch as well as the throttle to control crawling speed, and to have absolute control over whether I accelerate with light throttle and a lower gear or heavier throttle and a higher gear; when approaching and negotiating a roundabout it is a lot smoother to be able to stay in the same gear than to have to change down (and get an unexpected surge of power). I also find it disconcerting to have a fluid connection between engine and road speed, as cause by the torque converter.

I'd like to test-drive a VW DSG gearbox - the sort which has two manual gearboxes, one for 1, 3 and 5, and the other for 2, 4 and 6, with computer-controlled clutches which alter the engine speed to match the new gear and coordinate the engaging of the "even" gearbox and the disengaging of the "odd" gearbox to give a seamless gearchange.

Of course, eventually we will all be driving electric cars which are usually single-gear because an electric motor can develop torque right from being stationary up to some maximum speed.

[Clare Snyder]

Today's automatics will give better milage than all but the very best british drivers with a standard.

The new electronic transmissions are a LOT more predictable than the old hydraulics and shift so smoothly it's pretty much a non-issue anyway with 6 speed trans.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Today's automatics are very efficient, more efficient than most drivers shiftin on their own.

Evidently you've never driven a decently powered car with a good auto gear box. It would be smooth, even throttle response, no unexpected surge of power. When I was in Italy, one trip I had a Smart ForFour and it resembled some of what you mentioned. Nothing at all like a larger car is like.

Given the price of fuel, if I was on your side of the pond I'd probably not be driving my car either.

>

[rbowman]

I use the same approach for rigs with Mexican tags. I'll take my chances explaining to a cop why he clocked my at 120 rather than hang around Jose too long.

[rbowman]

I lived near the tracks in an area that was used as a switch yard. One night I woke up to some shaking and some dim mechanism in my half asleep mind told me there wasn't supposed to be a train. The next day I found out there had been an earthquake.

There was also a firehouse with a siren. I managed to sleep through the whole kerfuffle when the hotel down the street burned to the ground.

If I'm awake in the middle of the night I'll hear the trains blowing but like yours the closest is about 10km.

[rbowman]

I think they call a penalty if you kick someone in the sack.

[Clare Snyder]

The Smarty uses a "rubber band" CVT trans, doesn;t it? Like driving a blasted snowmobile

[rbowman]

When my elderly mother went looking for a new car I had to convince her she could drive an automatic. She'd only been driving since 1920 or so. I learned on manuals and prefer them although the current Toyota is an AT. At the time Japan was having a minor nuclear disaster and I decided ordering a manual was shaky.

Conversely many Americans cannot drive a manual. My fiance learned one evening when the choice was either to drive a manual or wait for me to get sober enough to decide which of the two underpasses was the real one. She only made it to second but got us home. After that we had a more formal training session if she was going to be the designated driver.

[NY]

Once I'm asleep I tend to sleep very soundly. Apparently when I was little my mum used to hoover my bedroom when I was asleep because it was the only time I wasn't cluttering up the carpet with toys.

I slept right through The Great Gale of 1987 when very fierce winds swept across south-east England knocking down many trees (including six of the seven oak trees that allegedly gave their name to Sevenoaks) and causing widespread damage to buildings. I woke that morning and set off to work, only to find trees across the road I normally used and several of the diversions I tried, and some roads strewn with roof tiles. Only when I got to work and heard everyone's "war stories" of their journeys to work did I realise how serious and widespread the damage had been. And I slept right through it all! One interesting phenomenon that I saw with that gale was the way it had snapped off a lot of pine trees in a forest which started a few hundred metres from my house, breaking them just above root level but leaving each one standing vertically with its trunk offset from its roots and held up by all the other densely-planted trees around it.

[Huge]

[9 lines snipped]

The word british (properly spelled "British", since it is a proper noun) is not required. And IME, most Americans can't drive "stick" anyway.

[15 lines snipped]

I've had two cars with DSG and TBH it's not that different to a slushbox.

And indeed, an electric motor generates maximum torque when stalled, which is one of the reasons Teslas can accelerate so quickly.

[Huge]

In the Yoo Kay, if you pass your driving test in an automatic, you cannot drive a manual car other than as a learner (that is, under the supervision of someone with a full license.)