Allotments 4 All

Apologies if this repeats - but, although not a lottie thing, I reckon it's as good as any tall story.

You read about the woman (sorry, person) doing 100 mph for 75 miles because her brakes failed - in touch throughout on her phone. Am I round the twist or, depending on whether manual or auto, might s/he not have cut the ignition - or dis-engaged??

Am I missing something? = Tim

She was probably too busy working her phone to think straight.

Popped my break lines once in an Alaskan winter. I drove about 10 km without any brakes (hand brake hadn't worked for a long time) at little more than walking speed, ready to dive into a snow bank on the side when needed. Cruised to a beautiful stop in the middle of the garage parking lot hahaha.

Something doesn't sound right about that story Tim,

On a car with power assisted steering turning off the ignition leaves one unable to steer. On  a manual gear box going into neutral would slow the car down and with the handbrake which is manually operated would halt the car. Tall story indeed.

Amazing isn`t it?  When I (and, of course, Tim) learned to drive - in the days of cable and rod operated drum brakes - every driver learned to reduce his (or her) speed by changing down through the gearbox (double- declutching, of course), and using the brakes only for the final stop.

Nowadays we are told by the experts that it`s `Gears to go and brakes to slow`, and my grandson`s driving instructor didn`t know what double-declutching was!

No doubt we shall all soon get in our cars and press a button, and everything else will be controlled for us by a central driving computer outsourced to somewhere in India.

- of course, Hugh - I was forgetting that extra feature - and one can engage 'low' even on an automatic!
Steering's a good point, but this was on a m/way, so not much needed. = Tim

Actually, Tim, one can steer a power assisted steering vehicle without the power assistance. The steering pump once packed up on my car 50 miles from home. The steering was heavy, but manageable - no worse than before power steering was invented.

I KNOW! - it was Eric who said it. But it is b......y heavy stuff, you will admit? = Tim

Well all I can say is that Hugh must be a lot stronger than me. When mine packed up I could only just manage to turn enough to get into the drive. (It went just outside the house). And I am considered to be fairly powerful, or I was then.

Ah, Eric, but I`ll bet you never had to drive a Mighty Antar tank transporter with 50 tons of assorted ironmongery on the back

I've drive a Crusader and a Churchill.
Thank God for the Airforce!! = Tim

Tim, they didn`t have steering wheels anyway

- so right! But it was a damned hard pull! = Tim

Talk of gears got me thinking.

When I was learning to drive I had profesional lessons, but was given extra practice by my Dad, who tried to teach me to change down through the gears to slow the car down. This instead of the brake method now taught. I thought i'd be clever and try this old/new technique during my next proper lesson. Suffice it to say my instructor soon put me right, giving the reason as brake pads being cheaper to replace than gear boxes.

I have ever since used brakes rather than gears.

In subsequent years though i have through experience come to realise that gears do have another function one i don tthink many people know or use. That is to limit speed.  It is far too easy to change up into a to high a gear in say a 30mph zone, and then end up breaking the limit (or having a hard job staying under the limit).

Much better (though i dont know what it does for fuel comsumption) to stay in a lower gear, since the engine rev noise will then tell you if you are going too fast. on this basis, in my car 3rd is about right for a 30mph zone.  

The system does though get a little tricky for 40 and 50mph zones