BBC Panorama

Articles of interest to the AD community, currently in the news.
waremark
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby waremark » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:04 pm

true blue wrote:Gratuitous blipping on downchanges? Or can the GT4 be programmed to do that too?

I don't know about gratuitous but the blips it makes do sound pretty good.

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StressedDave
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby StressedDave » Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:30 am

It's only gratuitous when you're not passing a stone wall, at which point it is a) mandatory and b) to be repeated as much as possible until the wall ends. There is no better excuse for going from 6th down to 1st (road speed permitting)
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Gareth
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby Gareth » Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:12 pm

A couple more thoughts ...

TheInsanity1234 wrote:But that's an awful lot of gear changing between 3rd and 4th on a normal country road where your speed varies between 30 and 50.

You'll be needing to change down more often than necessary if you habitually try to use a lowish engine speed; try working in a slightly expanded rev-range and/or a slightly higher rev-range.

I know our cars aren't the same, but just as an example, I'm happy to use 1500-2000 rpm on motorways where physical hazards do not require much speed variation, whereas for more interesting roads I'll tend to be using 2000+ rpm most of the time. Once the engine has fully warmed up, I often use most of the rev-range to accelerate briskly, then picking a gear that allows a certain amount of speed variation without needing to change down.

If I change up, only to be forced to change down a short time later, I generally consider that a failure to see or imagine something, poor planning.

TheInsanity1234 wrote:Not nice and effortless at all when it comes to being tired after a long day

If you don't already do this it might be worth taking a moment or two to get your head around the change of task, before you set off for home. It's all too easy to jump from one mental environment to another without giving due consideration for what you're about to do, and the hazards you're likely to meet, and to switch your focus.
there is only the road, nothing but the road ...

rmj
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby rmj » Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:24 am

Gareth wrote:A couple more thoughts ...
If you don't already do this it might be worth taking a moment or two to get your head around the change of task, before you set off for home. It's all too easy to jump from one mental environment to another without giving due consideration for what you're about to do, and the hazards you're likely to meet, and to switch your focus.


I find that having a routine of a quick cockpit drill helps get in to 'driving mode'

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StressedDave
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby StressedDave » Tue Dec 01, 2015 10:15 am

Personally, I find sitting in a car with the steering wheel in front of me is sufficient reminder that I'm going to be driving soon...

But then I hate cockpit drills with a passion. It's your own car FFS - if you don't know where all the controls are I'd suggest walking would be a safer option for all concerned.
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Strangely Brown
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby Strangely Brown » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:28 am

StressedDave wrote:Personally, I find sitting in a car with the steering wheel in front of me is sufficient reminder that I'm going to be driving soon...

But then I hate cockpit drills with a passion. It's your own car FFS - if you don't know where all the controls are I'd suggest walking would be a safer option for all concerned.


You do know that a "cockpit drill", for want of a better phrase, is not just about knowing where the controls are, right?

Even assuming that you know nobody else has driven the car since you last did...

How about making sure that the mirrors (external) are still set where you left them, that all the doors are shut properly by looking down the sides in mirrors, that any/all passengers are properly secured, that all warning lights come on as expected and then go out as expected, that you have sufficient fuel for the intended journey... etc.

Which of these basic pre-drive checks are pointless? or are you just having medication issues.

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StressedDave
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby StressedDave » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:22 pm

Strangely Brown wrote:How about making sure that the mirrors (external) are still set where you left them,
that all the doors are shut properly by looking down the sides in mirrors, that any/all passengers are properly secured, that all warning lights come on as expected and then go out as expected, that you have sufficient fuel for the intended journey... etc.

Which of these basic pre-drive checks are pointless? or are you just having medication issues.


Believe it or not, I've been given yet another medication which has sorted the problem out, albeit 18 months later than the medical profession hoped. I can thoroughly recommend high strength local anaesthetic dripped up the nose to anyone suffering classic trigeminal neuralgia in the second branch of the trigeminal nerve.

My being miserable is entirely down to the previous post.

None of the aforementioned are pointless. However, all of them are obvious, and thus not requiring a grandiose title of 'cockpit check'. Certainly all the other crap that many people deem necessary, such as the static brake checks, ensuring car is in neutral before starting, checking the seat position hasn't changed needn't be done. Y'know, all the stuff that couldn't change unless a team of gremlins decides to break into your car, move everything about, just to piss you off.

Seriously, do you really, really need to do all this, or is it merely another bunch of IAM dogma, just like brake-gear separation, pull-push steering and making sure you have a decent jam recipe for the group meetings? I fear the latter... especially given the mass arguments that I believe happen about it on the IAM forum.
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Horse
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby Horse » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:49 pm

Strangely Brown wrote: How about making sure that the mirrors (external) are still set where you left them


Actually, this may be sensible even if they've not been moved. We change shape during the day (SD becomes The Hulk on occasion :) ), typically by shrinking slightly, so a mirror set in the morning may not be quite right in the afternoon and evening.

Strangely Brown wrote: How that all the doors are shut properly by looking down the sides in mirrors


Many cars have a warning light to save you the time :)
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby Triquet » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:49 pm

Pish. I bite my thumb at your "cockpit drill".

In my earlier days when I was working all over the place, many is the time I've ended up in airport car hire lots trying to work out how the hell the tin can in front of me works (you may laugh but my first experience of an automatic tank was in LA in 1970-something. Fresh (?) off the plane, jet lagged to the eyeballs and trying out left foot braking. I still have the scars).

More recently, trying to start Renaults using a slab of plastic ... or stalling a Beemer round Oslo airport ... nobody told me it had stop / start.

Happy days!

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StressedDave
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Re: BBC Panorama

Postby StressedDave » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:55 pm

Horse wrote:
Strangely Brown wrote: How about making sure that the mirrors (external) are still set where you left them


Actually, this may be sensible even if they've not been moved. We change shape during the day (SD becomes The Hulk on occasion :) ), typically by shrinking slightly, so a mirror set in the morning may not be quite right in the afternoon and evening.

What do you mean, on occasion... :twisted: But, in reality, do you actually shift your mirror position every 8 hours or so because you've contracted vertically?

Horse wrote:
Strangely Brown wrote: How that all the doors are shut properly by looking down the sides in mirrors


Many cars have a warning light to save you the time :)

Indeed - I've not driven a car less than ten years old that hasn't got one. No idea if there's some EU mandate for this excellent idea.

A very long while back, there was a competition for best acronym for cockpit drill. The winner was 'Wally goes slowly everywhere' or waggle gears, start engine. In most modern cars, the former is deprecated as you can't start the car unless the clutch is down anyway. You can waggle after the startup sequence.
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