Driving standards

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Ironically, the car in the photo is a Mini. Minis used to be among the smallest cars available. The newer ones are enormous compared to my old Calibra & that was not marketed as a small car.

[Welchester]

14 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

It looks as though the car on the left has had too many Hamburgers.

[kevinlms]

5 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Don't you just hate drivers who can't park straight and straddle white lines, hardly the biggest car in the world, but then again, hardly a mini!

 

Mike.

No, they repainted the lines after the Mini was parked. It's the white car in the wrong spot!

[Hroth]

If you strip the interior from a gross "BMW Mini" it is possible (and has been done) to assemble a real mini body in its cabin...

 

BTW I've parked alongside one of those Mini Countrymen.  Its about the same size as my Skoda Yeti.

 

Edited February 6 by Hroth
added comment

[MrWolf]

31 minutes ago, Hroth said:

If you strip the interior from a gross "BMW Mini" it is possible (and has been done) to assemble a real mini body in its cabin...

 

BTW I've parked alongside one of those Mini Countrymen.  Its about the same size as my Skoda Yeti.

 

 

Parked up in the yard at Embsay, my friend's Marina half ton van was invisible behind a Mini Countryman, we came out of the mess hut and for a moment thought it had been pinched!

[kevinlms]

5 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Parked up in the yard at Embsay, my friend's Marina half ton van was invisible behind a Mini Countryman, we came out of the mess hut and for a moment thought it had been pinched!

I've driven the same station wagon for 20+ years. It has a ladder rack and ladders on it.

It used to be easy to spot in a car park, because of the ladders, the majority of the time. Now sometimes I have to hunt for it, hiding behind the tall SUV's.

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I've driven the same station wagon for 20+ years. It has a ladder rack and ladders on it.

It used to be easy to spot in a car park, because of the ladders, the majority of the time. Now sometimes I have to hunt for it, hiding behind the tall SUV's.

 

You need a long radio aerial (doesn't neet to be connected to a radio) with a pennant on it.

You should be able to spot it then!

 

[Tankerman]

16 hours ago, big jim said:

Went shopping earlier, came out to this clown in a mini…

 

note how empty the rest of the car park is!

 

 

In the 1970's I lived in Taunton for a couple of years and sometimes we, me, wife and two sons used to go up to the Quantocks on a weekend. On one particular trip we went quite early on a Sunday morning and I parked the car in the middle of an open space about 8 to 10 acres in area. 

 

We went for a walk over a low hill which hid the car from view and returned about an hour later. With all that space to spread out in, the subsequent arrivals had first lined up parallel to our car and then made a second and third line behind the first one.

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

You need a long radio aerial (doesn't neet to be connected to a radio) with a pennant on it.

You should be able to spot it then!

 

 

When I had my first " modern" car, (A MK2 Astra GTE) I jammed an orange ping pong ball on top of the roof aerial so that I could find it in car parks. 

It was never a problem with the lime yellow '61 Cresta I also had at the time, the tail finned back end stuck out a couple of feet.

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, Tankerman said:

 

In the 1970's I lived in Taunton for a couple of years and sometimes we, me, wife and two sons used to go up to the Quantocks on a weekend. On one particular trip we went quite early on a Sunday morning and I parked the car in the middle of an open space about 8 to 10 acres in area. 

 

We went for a walk over a low hill which hid the car from view and returned about an hour later. With all that space to spread out in, the subsequent arrivals had first lined up parallel to our car and then made a second and third line behind the first one.

 

I had a similar experience on Pendine Sands, drove about a couple of miles along, parked up in splendid isolation and went for a walk and came back to find another car parked next to me in car park closeness fashion!

 

Mike.

[johnofwessex]

This

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/29/us-car-costs-insurance-unaffordable

 

explains why SUV's are so 'popular'

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Tankerman said:

 

In the 1970's I lived in Taunton for a couple of years and sometimes we, me, wife and two sons used to go up to the Quantocks on a weekend. On one particular trip we went quite early on a Sunday morning and I parked the car in the middle of an open space about 8 to 10 acres in area. 

 

We went for a walk over a low hill which hid the car from view and returned about an hour later. With all that space to spread out in, the subsequent arrivals had first lined up parallel to our car and then made a second and third line behind the first one.

 

3 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I had a similar experience on Pendine Sands, drove about a couple of miles along, parked up in splendid isolation and went for a walk and came back to find another car parked next to me in car park closeness fashion!

 

Mike.

 

Its just that cars get lonely if they're parked on their own.  They appreciate the opportunity for a chinwag!

 

[stewartingram]

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

No, they repainted the lines after the Mini was parked. It's the white car in the wrong spot!

Always makes me smile shake my head, the number of drivers that go forward into a parking space (I was taught by the Police to always reverse in, as the Highway Code states), but they can't make it in one move - they have to shuffle in and out - which makes it a 3 or 5 position move. Its only like turning a corner! Can they not manage that as well?

And if the bay in front of that one is empty, they don't pull forward, which saves a reversal when they leave!

[big jim]

5 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Always makes me smile shake my head, the number of drivers that go forward into a parking space

I normally reverse into spaces, only problem is when it’s in a busy supermarket you can’t get the trolley to the boot to unload your big shop if other vehicles are either side or in front of you  

[Coldgunner]

My work insists on reverse parking, which I'm all in favour of except when I've chucked the bike in the back to go on a post-work ride (I like to cycle near work as its a nice area, and a ride after shift is a great way of avoiding rush hour).

[cctransuk]

50 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Always makes me smile shake my head, the number of drivers that go forward into a parking space (I was taught by the Police to always reverse in, as the Highway Code states), but they can't make it in one move - they have to shuffle in and out - which makes it a 3 or 5 position move. Its only like turning a corner! Can they not manage that as well?

And if the bay in front of that one is empty, they don't pull forward, which saves a reversal when they leave!

 

There are numerous factors that impinge on one's ability to front-park.

 

How wide are the aisles? (Varies greatly).

 

How wide are the bays? (Varies greatly).

 

Are the cars on either side centred in their respective bays? (Rarely).

 

How tight is the turning lock on your car? (Varies greatly).

 

How strong are you / does your car have power steering.

 

Frankly, I find that it is the reverse-parkers who make a performance out of parking their cars, rather than the front-parkers.

 

..... and, as has been said, reverse parking makes access to the boot difficult - with a supermarket trolley, damage to your or an adjacent vehicle is a distinct possibility.

 

CJI.

[MrWolf]

10 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

There are numerous factors that impinge on one's ability to front-park.

 

How wide are the aisles? (Varies greatly).

 

How wide are the bays? (Varies greatly).

 

Are the cars on either side centred in their respective bays? (Rarely).

 

How tight is the turning lock on your car? (Varies greatly).

 

How strong are you / does your car have power steering.

 

Frankly, I find that it is the reverse-parkers who make a performance out of parking their cars, rather than the front-parkers.

 

..... and, as has been said, reverse parking makes access to the boot difficult - with a supermarket trolley, damage to your or an adjacent vehicle is a distinct possibility.

 

CJI.

 

I generally park away from the store, less chance of a door banging, I don't see the need to park right outside unless you're disabled or have a bunch of toddlers with you.

 

Which takes the dimensions of the parking space and access out of the equation, although when forced to park somewhere crowded (or in my own garage) I park nose outward, ever since I had a bump in a car park. 

Basically I'd reversed out, stopped and was about to drive forward when some impatient cormorant* decided to swing round me into the wrong lane, not noticing that I had a spare wheel hung on the nearside rear door of my van.

 

Of course, it was deemed to be my fault!

 

Whilst modern cars are infinitely better in many respects, I'd say that it's at the expense of ease of parking. (there's many other things but not relevant here) 

 

Okay, my old bus has a feeble heater fan, it rattles and bangs over potholes, it's top speed is only about 75mph and if you crash at anything over thirty you'll probably get hurt, but here's some interesting figures compared to the New Mini.

 

Length:

 

Mini 3858mm, Herald 3886mm

 

Width:

 

Mini 1928mm, Herald 1524mm

 

Height:

 

Mini 1460mm, Herald 1321mm

 

Weight:

 

Mini 1645kg, Herald 860kg

 

Turning circle:

 

Mini 10,800mm, Herald 7,620mm!!

 

The original (1959) Mini had a turning circle of 9,630mm because of the limitations of front wheel drive.

 

The weight, weight distribution and steering geometry makes power steering unnecessary on the Herald, in fact, it would probably be dangerous.

 

Given the advances in design, materials and production methods over the last sixty five years, you'd think....

 

 

 

 

*Profanity substitution.

 

 

 

Edited February 7 by MrWolf
Date added for clarity

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

The original Mini had a turning circle of 9,630mm because of the limitations of front wheel drive.

 

8,550mm from the Mk2 onwards as they decided they could bend CV joints a bit more...

[MrWolf]

2 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

8,550mm from the Mk2 onwards as they decided they could bend CV joints a bit more...

 

I'd quoted the Austin 7 Mini as the original, I once had a 1976 850, (Mk3 with internal door hinges etc) never a problem to park due to it's size, but I didn't like the driving position for long distances (Of course, never the original Mini's purpose) and I hated working on the greasy bits. Lots of things broke, but it never let me down once. Not bad for an MOT failure bought for £80. It's almost a shame they're so valuable now that you rarely see one of the pre 80s version with ten inch wheels on the road unless it's off to a show.

 

Do you think that the change of suspension types also helped improve the turning circle?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Do you think that the change of suspension types also helped improve the turning circle?

 

Don't think so. The change in turning circle happened mid hydrolastic period. At some point the inboard driveshaft joints changed from rubber spiders to CV joints. Possibly this was when they decied to increase the steering lock. Spanish built Minis actuallly had simple universal joints as there was no local producer of CV joints. Not sure what that would have done for the turning circle...

 

I quite liked hydrolastic suspension. Compared to a rubber cone Mini it really feels like there's a longer wheelbase when going over bumps. Downside is it's a bit like driving a see-saw when you brake and accelerate.

[MrWolf]

I suspect that the bounce was due to the Mini's lack of length and weight and the system needed a little more damping, the Americans managed to create power steering systems on Buicks that was reactive to the relative speed of the car.

 

I've driven an ADO-17 Wolseley 18-85S before (they had the hydrolastic gear mounted on the bulkhead) and for ride comfort and road manners I could only compare it to the Citroen ID-19 De-esse. 

I think that design wise they (The ADO-17 series) were too much too soon for the UK market, rather like the Renault R16.

 

It didn't help that hydrolastic fluid seems to eat anything it touches, including the cans it was supplied in though.

 

Anyway, apologies for taking the topic sideways, is it too early yet for any up to the minute examples of Miscellaneous Be!!endery on our roads?

 

 

 

Edited February 7 by MrWolf

[Coldgunner]

Back on topic, yesterday in heavy rain on the dual carriageway was approaching heavy traffic at a standstill. As ever, the right hand lane is nearly always fuller becuz faster innit! There's me in the left hand lane about to pass the line of traffic when dick-face in a jag decides to start merging into my lane forcing me to brake hard.

 

Doucheface in the jag then decides that queuing ain't for him and moves into the joining sliproad on left to undertake the queue of cars.

 

As an aside from that, thank god for Macdonalds! Why do I always get a sudden urge to go number 2 when in heavy traffic?

[MrWolf]

Defined by Viz comic as a McSh**e. "n. To enter said establishment and use the toilet with no intention of buying anything."

 

Had a similar experience with a Jag driver recently, the predictable one of getting in the right turn only lane at the lights then going straight on in an attempt to overtake on the junction.

 

I've even had that when I'm on the bike.

 

Yes, it's seventy five years old in August, but you have obviously never heard of power to weight ratio nor do you know what a "Fast Road gearbox" is...

 

 

 

Edited February 7 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[Coldgunner]

You can just tell when they're going to do that. Normally its the edging forward where they want to get their nose in front of yours. What they don't realise is that my Golf might only be able to do 0-60 in a shade under 10 seconds, but I have a good idea on what their car can do. Your 1.2l Crapqai is gonna have the acceleration of a tugboat, bog off and don't even try it!

[MrWolf]

Yep, even got chumps trying it on when I had the Fireblade.

 

Ninety in first gear anyone?

 

Or the old Buick.

 

450bhp and 445ft/lb of torque*

 

*More than twice that of a 3.9 Range Rover.