Speed Awareness

[Pete Lewis]

having been knobbled exceeding the speed limit on the A30 coming back from holiday ive been on a speed awareness coarse which costs a bit less than the  £100 speeding ticket,    well it happens after over 50 yrs of driving youre bound to get spotted doing something you shouldnt.  

one impressive bit of the presentation was stopping distances not from the 1964 highway code or the 2017 version but from a actual measured live drive( even if it was fiddled a bit)

but comparing stopping distance at 30 mph if you do 35mph then you will still be traveling at +18.5 mph where you should have stopped

at 70  doing 80 you are doing 38mph at your stop point

and  on 70 doing 100  you are still doing 71 at your correct speed stop point

this was in a ford fucus with abs and   yeh     Tiff Needel at the wheel .  conducted with the AA

i thought this brings it home ...you want a gap when you stop not still be hacking along at 20mph of much more 

you only need 1/4" to avoid a collision  not an  extra 30 mph  

having said all that humans and va va room are a a mix we all live with  especially with a 6 on song 

christmas cometh

Pete

[Chris A]

As I've said before, bring back the man with the flag who walks in front of the car  Or you could sell the 6 pot for something you don't like the sound of....

[dougbgt6]

I've also been on one of those, very interesting and educational, I think everyone should go, not just us miscreants. Should be part of the driving test. 

East Berks Christmas dinner at Sweeney Todds cometh!

Doug

 

[Waynebaby]

I'm always acutely aware of how inferior my GT6's stopping ability is compared to the modern ABS equipped cars in front of me. I was involved in a multi-car pile up on the A1 20-odd years ago, just when ABS was appearing on the more up-market models. I was in a Scimitar and hit the back of an ABS equipped Scorpio. When you looked at the 30 or so cars involved in the crash, none of the ABS equipped cars had run into the back of the car ahead, but every one of them had been rear-ended by a non-ABS car!

Given that the small chassis Triumphs have pretty poor crash survival rates by modern standards (not counting effect of rusty panels and years of iffy welding) I always hang well back when traffic gets congested. Of course, when I do this a hair-gelled p*llock in a BMW invariably fills the gap.

Wayne 

[JohnD]

It's an urban myth that ABS makes stopping better, which should be obvious if you examine how ABS works:

Brake on, wheel starts to lock (rotates more slowly than others), ABS releases the brake pressure, to allow the wheel to spin again, brake on again.   Maxiumum braking effert occurs right on the point of locking, a most difficult point to keep at, so ABS cycles through, repeatedly.   This happens very fast, manyes a second, but still, it REDUCES the braking effort for part of that time.

The function of ABS is NOT to let you brake better, but to STEER better.    Locked front wheels cannot steer, so the terrified driever stands on the pedal, twists the wheel and careers straight on into the oncoming truck, when with ABS they can, with a bit of luck,  steer away from it.   An instructor demonstrated this to me on a skid pan, locking the wheels and twisting thesteering as we went straight ahead, only to veer off suddenly as he released the brakes.

ABS reproduces mechanically the technique of "cadence braking", pumping the brake pedal hard and fast that skilled drivers (Like Tiff Needel) used to use.   It's not as hard to learn as keeping the brakes on the point of locking, but is counterintuitive so worth practicing a few times on an EMPTY but slippery road.

John

[dougbgt6]

Wayne, well worth upgrading to Mintex 1144s if you haven't already done so. They make a considerable difference. And I like a servo. (Although I don't want to start the great servo debate again!)

Just looked in the club shop, wow! 1144s, around £80! That's twice what I paid a couple of years ago. What happened?!!

[JohnD]

10 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said:

Wayne, well worth upgrading to Mintex 1144s if you haven't already done so. They make a considerable difference. And I like a servo. (Although I don't want to start the great servo debate again!)

Just looked in the club shop, wow! 1144s, around £80! That's twice what I paid a couple of years ago. What happened?!!

Well for a start, Brexit.     The value of the pound fell catastrophicly on the night of the vote, has struggled to rise above that since, showing the World's confidence in our future economy, and only rallied recently in response to rumours of a bank rate interest rise - which didn't happen.  So it's slumped again.     

 

JOhn

[Waynebaby]

Thanks for the suggestion Doug. I'll add the Mintex pads to my Christmas list and see if Santa is kind to me, although at that price though I'm not sure if I've been nice enough this year to deserve them! If it helps to keep me out of the boot of another Granada though it will be worth it.

Wayne

[Pete Lewis]

One worrying result from the 21 on the course?  When asked about national speed limits 

5% thought  the motorway  circle slash sign meant 40 mph so some on a speeding tutorial where told to speed up !!!!

If fact what some didnt know was pretty alarming

Back to  whom reads the highway code ,,   its not promoted , and needs to be 

And one bit of info is the red circle speed restriction signs /camera on motorways can and will photo you, and the reduction in speed is  devised automatically by the rate and spread of approaching traffic , so spread out keep the speeed down and they will go out

 

[Colin Lindsay]

31 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said:

Just looked in the club shop, wow! 1144s, around £80! That's twice what I paid a couple of years ago. What happened?!!

The price went up. Simples! (No intention of playing the blame game, or I'd be mentioning the scare mongers who doomsay at every turn and try to block plans or thwart negotiations which in turn lead to exasperated investors going elsewhere, plus the businesses who want to plan for an exited UK but can't as they can't finalise details yet have to wait in limbo....)

John's graph is actually my heart which sinks to a new low every time some new opposition is mentioned.

Re the pads... prices vary online from £39.50 to Spitfire pads in the link below, which makes Doug's price increase look quite reasonable.... £999 per pair?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-TRIUMPH-SPITFIRE-1500-1-5-75-80-FRONT-RACING-BRAKE-PADS-MINTEX-MGB533M1144/171052020151?fits=Car+Make%3ATriumph&epid=1229816454&hash=item27d37eb1b7:g:KVsAAMXQDfdRrSkf

[clive]

MGB633 is the mitex pad designation, and you want 1144.

Should be available at under £60 if you look about, maybe much less. You may need to drill the holes out a little as teh pads are meant for the late, metric caliper, cars which use a smaller retaining pin. Not hard to do if you own a drill!

As to Brexit, I was anti, but as we voted for it, I wish everybody would get their finger out and get on with it. Really, once it happens I am convinced things will settle down and in a few years nobody will remember the grief caused by the transition. Mainly caused by politicians bleating......

[dougbgt6]

Clive,

I am also a remainer. I sat in St Mary's church and listened to my MP, Mrs May, tell us all the reasons we should stay. Now here she is driving the bus over the cliff. Politicians! Anybody who wants to be one should be automatically disbarred. Unlike you, I am not convinced this ends in Brexit.

Doug

[Anglefire]

On 16/11/2017 at 4:31 PM, Pete Lewis said:

And one bit of info is the red circle speed restriction signs /camera on motorways can and will photo you, and the reduction in speed is  devised automatically by the rate and spread of approaching traffic , so spread out keep the speeed down and they will go out

Not on the M42 it don't - Sunday morning and 4 lanes open and 60 limit - with 2 of those lanes empty for miles.  I agree that is the theory, but I've yet to see it happen in practice. 

20 hours ago, clive said:

Mainly caused by politicians bleating......

Ain't that the truth.

It will sort itself out eventually - but unless the press stop putting down the UK and start having ago at the EU, then the UK will remain downbeat.

A lot is brinkmanship from both sides - but the EU can't expect the UK to agree £10's of Billions of cash without anything in return.

I'm all for saying to the EU now, that we will hard brexit and use the money to fill the gap of the WTO tariffs.  Then see who comes back - The german car makers won't like a 10-20% rise in the cost of their cars in the UK.

[Chris A]

1 hour ago, Anglefire said:

 

 - The german car makers won't like a 10-20% rise in the cost of their cars in the UK.

The British car buying public would like it even less ? "Buy British" as the old campaign slogan said. Not easy to do though.

 

[Anglefire]

Well, true when you consider the only british made cars are Nissans from up north and JLR products. The latter being outside of many peoples pockets. Or smaller impractical marques like Morgan. 

Mind you the german offerings aren't much better! £50k for a decent 5series? Really?

 

 

[Pete Lewis]

we still have Vauxhall at Eĺlesmere port

Honda at swindon

Ford bridgend  

Toyota  burnaston

 

[Anglefire]

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about them - Must admit I did think Vauxhall had pulled out. 

We even do work at Toyota (Not that I do) 

[thescrapman]

Don't forget MINI at Crowley.

lots of cars are made in the U.K. Just the money goes overseas with most.

arent LTI back making vehicles again as well? 

Also, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Lotus, and McLaren. Also TVR again soon.

1.6 million a year at the moment

[Pete Lewis]

as the list grows it off sets all the ones lost in takeovers, going broke etc.

think unions and politics sounded the death bell for most mass produced british  bread and butter everyday marques 

[dougbgt6]

Morgan?

Edit: Missed AF's Morgan reference earlier.

[Pete Lewis]

there are some downloaded  Highway code booklets     eg  http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/download-pdf.html

 

good bedtime reading     ZZzzzzzz 

[dougbgt6]

I vaguely recall, when a learner, being told "If you're going across a roundabout to the junction directly opposite, no need to signal, it just causes confusion".  Due to offspring nagging and then checking the HC, I now signal right and then left. Amazing the number of drivers who don't do this, or don't signal at all!

[Chris A]

The French operate their indicator stalk with their hand as they turn the wheel, or so it seems.

[Pete Lewis]

 Yes  i cant stand the ones who persist in indicating left when driving round all the exits on roundabouts , how do they avoid a whack ?

its contagious down here ...who the heck teaches them , you only indicate left when approaching your exit not the whole bl**dy  roundabout

i dont pull out till i see the way the wheels are turning or the whites of their eye's ,  so round here I ignore anyone indicating leave from a roundabout or you get a noisy happening

 

[dougbgt6]

I have a significant  birthday coming up and have to re-apply for my license. There is a test, apparently.

"Is your eyesight OK?"

"Yes"

"Here's your license"

Old codgers should be properly  re-tested.