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Nomad
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It's not just drivers abroad. A local trunk route (dual carrigeway, 2 lanes onto the roundabout, 2 lanes off) had so many crashes from exactly that, the council made right lane as "Right turn only", anyone going straight across or left had to go in the left lane. What had been a free-flowing bit of road became a nightmare bottleneck at rush hour.
Similar. I was stuck behind a chap driving slowly in the outside lane of an otherwise empty dual-carrigeway, I was going straight on at the roundabout a few hundred yards ahead so no point me changing lanes (left lane at the roundabout was left turn only). He pulled into the left lane as we got near to the roundabout - I increased speed as my route was now clear - he entered the roundabout in the left lane and went all around the outside to turn right across in front of me - all without indicating. My car spun backwards off the roundabout when I braked and turned to miss him. He got out - his excuse for not indicating was "The highway code says you only need to indicated when leaving a roundabout"
He never did explain why he was driving in the outside lane in the first place, or why he moved to the left lane approaching the roundabout when he was turning right. Ps. I was driving a Lancia Beta - great cars but both Lancias I had loved to lose the back end if you tried to brake while turning, an emergency stop going around a roundabout was guaranteed to end up going backwards.Back on topic, I drive classics (mainly from the 70s-90s), I got a new hire car last year, very smooth but totally soul-less. The cruise control was handy going through 50mph stretches on the motorways, decent fuel economy but very little else to recommend it.
"inside" lane relative to the roundabout . . .
But I've had it the other way too - I've driven around the outside lane (relative to the rounabout), correctly, and some twonk in van has straight lined it entirely, coming off it and across, left, into the lane where I already am . . .
I have several coupes, two HPE's and one Spyder - and I can't ever recall feeling the rear was loose - they didn't understeer much either - really nicely balanced cars. If I had room, I'd have another right now.
However, a Pug 106 was lethal after I had some new tyres put on the rear - would try to swap ends for the slightest reason - and with 1100cc of asmatic FRench power, no much to pull it straight - one change of tyres later, all was back to normal. Tyres were useless!
redlig
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There must be quite a few French and Spanish living over here then.
Nomad
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You have good taste
I'm surprised yours don't understeer. I had a Beta coupe and a Delta HF Turbo (originally in Martini colours then done as a factory promo car by a local graphics company). Both were amazing if you committed to a corner and kept the power on - both would lose the tail otherwise. By the time I sold the HF I'd got used to it and could drift it on roundabouts just by easing off the throttle. Great cars but I was constantly looking ahead to avoid having to brake on the curves. I found both of them dangerous when I first got them, and both surprised me. Until then I was used to driving fast in RWD cars, the Lancias are FWD with very little weight at the back end so handle very differently.I sold the Delta shortly after squeezing it between a telegraph pole and a hedge on a damp road at night (I'd overtaken a slower car - the road curved and I eased off the throttle, the back end slid sideways, I gave more power and all wheels bit so it went across the road and then offroad). The photo was taken the day after, you can see from the tyre-tracks in the grass how close the car came to the pole. Chap I sold the car to wrote it off after less than a month by putting it backwards though a hedge.
Farside
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Basically, anyone who is such a turkey-brain that they get distracted by a new shiny thing should be banned from driving.
Taking the eyes off the road to fiddle with a control is simply stupidity.
Pigeon_Droppings2
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Yup there's really no excuse....even 007 had all his cars armaments sensibly controlled by toggle switches and buttons with good reason!
Can you imagine trying to change the AC via a touch screen and accidentally activating the ejector seat!
Farside
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Which is why the ejector button is under a flap on the gearknob - cunning re-use of an overdrive switch that some boxes had.
Morrisman
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I thought the general rule was that all necessary controls that are required while driving have to be reachable without taking your hands off the steering wheel.
Apart from the gear stick, obviously.
Anything else you need to tweak is something you could/should do when stopped somewhere.
My 13 year old Mondeo is thus. Only the heater/demister controls need reaching for separately.
The radio/cd player is also adjustable on the steering wheel, and telephone too. Not that I’ve ever used a phone while driving, even ‘hands free’.
I can’t actually visualise what else there might be that needs manually fiddling with on the move, but I’m sure the manufacturers have dreamed up no end of useless, pointless, totally unnecessary gimmickry since I last drove a modern car though.
redlig
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Believe me they have . However they are all perfectly safe as 90% of the drivers have no idea they are there and wouldn't notice if they were in operation.
Nomad
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I can't remember which car I was driving (post-2000 BMW?) but that had everything apart from the heater where you could control it without taking your hands off the steering wheel.
It sounds great in theory but in practice trying to work out which of the 4 multi-function indicator stalks (or the dozen or so buttons on the steering wheel) actually controlled what you wanted, it was often easier just to not bother...
I've never joked about BMW drivers not using their indicators since I drove a modern BMW. I found out then it was often less confusing for other motorists to just not indicate at all. Self-cancelling indicators that don't self-cancel, different modes for the indicators (3 flashes only or flash until cancelled), no "Off" position on the stalk so to cancel you had to briefly indicate the opposite direction - but move the stalk a fraction too much and it puts on the opposite indicator...
There's a lot to be said for the 70s Fords and similar, a single indicator stalk marked "Left-Off-Right", easily located switches on the dash for everything else...
It sounds great in theory but in practice trying to work out which of the 4 multi-function indicator stalks (or the dozen or so buttons on the steering wheel) actually controlled what you wanted, it was often easier just to not bother...
I've never joked about BMW drivers not using their indicators since I drove a modern BMW. I found out then it was often less confusing for other motorists to just not indicate at all. Self-cancelling indicators that don't self-cancel, different modes for the indicators (3 flashes only or flash until cancelled), no "Off" position on the stalk so to cancel you had to briefly indicate the opposite direction - but move the stalk a fraction too much and it puts on the opposite indicator...
There's a lot to be said for the 70s Fords and similar, a single indicator stalk marked "Left-Off-Right", easily located switches on the dash for everything else...
I sold my last couple and Spyder when I bought a 16v integrale, simply due to lack of space. Sold my Alfa 75 ts as well - that taught me rwdYou have good taste
I sold the Delta shortly after squeezing it between a telegraph pole and a hedge on a damp road at night (I'd overtaken a slower car - the road curved and I eased off the throttle, the back end slid sideways, I gave more power and all wheels bit so it went across the road and then offroad). The photo was taken the day after, you can see from the tyre-tracks in the grass how close the car came to the pole. Chap I sold the car to wrote it off after less than a month by putting it backwards though a hedge.
View attachment 482501
Techniques- wonderfully balanced. The 16v was on Italian plates so got that registered correctly. Found space for a part built Stratos replica - registered as a Beta (or rather, the number plates from a Beta had been screwed to it). I sorted it out, SVAed it and got it correctly registered. Put 100,000 miles on the 16v, including a year commuting to working Germany every couple of weeks. Sold the Stratos replica as I wasn't using it and bought a house. Where an evo1 integrale turned up . Sorted that out with the lessons learnt from the 16v, sold the 16v after a year and have run the evo1 pretty much ever since - tow car, commuting car, house moving car. That's now done 205,000, probably 150,000 of those under my control over the last 20 years. It racked them up rapidly to begin with, but slowed down over the last decade as I spent a lot of time in the US.
Rear toe settings on all those Lancias really makes a difference between feeling like it's going to kill you, and feeling you could have used more power . Just a touch of toe-in on the rear, a touch of toe out on the front. ,Very similar design of a trailing link, transverse lower arms and a mcphergson strut.
Toe out on the rear is an invitation to the scene of the accident if you aren't on a track where everyone is hopefully going the same way.
Morrisman
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Andre Citroen, the French equivalent of Henry Ford, when it came to innovation, development and experimentation.
OJCar
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Blood Pressure returning to normal...
Craig-SM
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I’m an accountant, blood pressure will continue to rapidly increase until 31 January tax return deadline.
Farside
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Problem is, any attempt in the past to have codified that into law would have met with lobbying and stubborn resistance from the auto makers.
