Dickster
MB Enthusiast
on tarmac? I’ve always understood that **** out is bad because you’ve lost grip and that is bad. I’ve never seen an F1 car **** out around a hairpin
Left-foot braking
- Thread starter togthecat
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on tarmac? I’ve always understood that **** out is bad because you’ve lost grip and that is bad. I’ve never seen an F1 car **** out around a hairpin
Darrell
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So now I’m really confused.
Steeve
Active Member
What he said
I started driving automatic when I was 17 , at the same time as having road lessons in manual cars , although I had been driving my dad’s Land Rover , vans , trucks on private ground for a few years before that .
I never found it difficult at all to use both feet for auto and right foot for manual ; just the same when in go-karts , which no one has said they had difficulty with .
it really is very easy .
I also find it very easy to use knife/fork either way round . Handwriting is a little harder , but my writing is terrible anyway - I should’ve been a doctor . I do know a number of left handed people who write with their left hand - schools used to force such people to change .
How many on here touch type with both hands , or do we have one handed typists because it is easier ?
Nor to the contrary .
Oh so you ARE all doing it ?
I know that wasn’t what you meant to write
Largely because few have much interest in driving and once they pass their basic MOT driving test they stop learning .
It is only a minority who actually strive to improvise their driving and learn new techniques.
So many learn in this country on manual vehicles and stick to driving as if in a manual ( minus the clutch ) which makes no sense if you only drive autos .
It wasn’t taught , but I was already doing it when I did my advanced course at Tulliallan in the early 80’s and none of the instructors objected when they saw me do it in my own car - but all the course cars were manual and of course everyone was taught to double declutch .
After I did PI , I taught advanced driving for 11 years .
Incidentally, I was never in the police : I was a police trained civilian instructor : there are a few of us around .
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I mostly do indoor Karting which is on a wooden surface and in electric karts which run up to 50mph .on tarmac? I’ve always understood that **** out is bad because you’ve lost grip and that is bad. I’ve never seen an F1 car **** out around a hairpin
Rather than slow too much for 180deg corners , I turn in early ( into understeer ) and use a quick dab on the brake to flip the tail out as I go onto opposite lock , just miss the apex and power out of the bend .
Takes practice but I found it quickest way round .
I have typically been in the first three of mixed sessions . Unless I muff something up as we all make mistakes and it doesn’t take much to knock you down the board .
D
Deleted member 126251
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Beck in the 'olden days' we all had to double de-clutch because there was no syncromesh.
It was/is taught by police to train you to time your gear change correctly and have the pause in the middle to allow adjustment of revs either way .Beck in the 'olden days' we all had to double de-clutch because there was no syncromesh.
You know you are doing it correctly when you can dispense with the clutch and do smooth clutchless gear changes up and down the box .
Again that was something my dad taught me before I was 17 as he was a truck and bus driver , and that was normal for large vehicles . My dad drove everything from motorbikes to tanks ( in the army ) as well as Caterpillars with his haulage business .
These days , slow revving diesels lend themselves to it .
D
Deleted member 126251
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Karting has different cornering / racing lines compared to F1 on the same track - the smooth line is always the quickest (even if it is longer) because of the low power in karts (maintaining momentum). Not sure about electric karts but cetainly petrol.
F1 cars can afford to slam on brakes to make the apex and power out of it.
D
Deleted member 126251
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Back in the early 70s a friend had a (IIRC) a Chev Firenza. It had a terrible clutch ( I think it was too small for the engine). We could all drive it without the clutch - bunny hopping in 1st to start and then changing gear at the right revs. My now wife and then designated driver often drove us home without a clutch.....
I was a driver in the military (70s & 80s) and drove everything they had (except the MBTs) from Panhards (electric clutch on gearknob) Sextons, Saracens, Bedford & 'Magirus Deutz' gun tractors to large articulated 18 wheelers. I recall getting my knuckles or head rapped with a large allen key or small spanner for poor technique! We were the property of the army in those days......
D
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now you are just being argumentative. What was that point about not accepting others views?
any who says “it’s obvious” hasn’t articulated their point.
I’ve only driven petrol karts a couple of times as there’s an electric place near where I lived and that was where I always took my son ( since he was about seven ) . Now that he is 12 , he’s quite fast and has graduated from the slower ‘family sessions ‘ , limited to 25mph , to the adult ones , with the limiter off .
Of course one has to be mindful of others and can’t always take the ideal line if you are starting to lap the slower drivers .
My dad did his service during the war , drove buses in the 50’s and bought his first lorry around 1960 when I was about two .
He built up a fleet of mainly Bedford TKs , which I got to move around the yard once I was about 11 or 12 and could reach the pedals , a few Albion Super Reivers ( which had power clutches ) a Cat D9 and two D6s which I never drove .
I have responded to all criticism with reasoned discussion, my reply there was the same as yours
D
Deleted member 149005
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I have responded to all criticism with reasoned discussion, my reply there was the same as yours
touché
So it wasn't taught by the police instructors. Were they all too lazy to adopt it, as you accuse us of being, or did they simply not realise that having two feet meant you had to use them both?
D
Deleted member 126251
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The Bedfords (4wd gun tractors, troop carriers etc) I drove, were some sort of forward control (I don recall exactly which model). Basically they were those flat fronted units (probably UK army surplus
) with the engine in the cab and the gear lever behind my shoulder. 3 tonner IIRC.I was in artillery. My civilian regiment ran Sextons (radial engined, self propelled mobile artillery). We (Sexton Drivers) got a so called 'A' license which covered everything except MBTs and 6 of us were seconded to a depot with 1000s of army vehicles. Our job was to drive Sextons every day and hand them to the mechanics if there were issues but we got called on to drive anything and everything that was there.....had a lot of fun
First , I never accused anyone of being lazy , please read back .
It was another poster who claimed very close to the start of this thread that driving automatic was all about being lazy , and I countered that .
Second , when I did my training all the course cars were manual , but I did discuss autos with some of the instructors and indeed took in the Mk1 Granada 3litre auto we had in the family at the time ( course cars were either manual Granada’s or XJ6s ) and we did some runs out in it , to which the instructors were favourably impressed , indeed some also did it privately but wasn’t in course training - because all the cars were manual .
