h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Advanced Driving Techniques - A952049
Author: Gnomon - U151503

Everyone's an expert when it comes to driving. So I hope you'll all have comments to make on this entry.

I do have some comments, but I want to do some reading at home first.

Interesting - the way I learned to use double-declutching involved giving the throttle a quick burst when changing down while the gearbox is in neutral, before you change into a lower gear. This works with changing down to a lower gear when climbing hills, or just when using engine braking during normal deceleration.

The thinking behind this, as far as I remember my Dad telling me, is to match the engine speed with the faster revs demanded by the lower gear, and avoiding putting extra strain on the clutch. It is also a necessary technique with older cars that don't have synchromesh gearboxes... I spent the greater part of my early twenties herding a variety of vans and minibuses around the country and have had a variety of elderly and classic cars, the last two being a '66 Riley Elf and a '72 Ford Transit Camper, although now I'm a born-again cyclist.

My Dad still has a 1953 Riley RMF 2½ though.

Who came up with the idea of changing the position of your hands on the wheel to avoid the air bag? If having your hands higher up gives you better control of the car then that's what you should do. Less control = more chance of needing the airbag. If the airbag poses a serious risk to the arms in that position and not in the other a redesign of the bag is in order.

I'm not sure about this thing about the position of the hands on the steering wheel either. But I might not be as up to date as anyone else as I haven't driven proffesionally for over a year now. An extra comment I'd like to see added to this section is that you should also sit as far away from the wheel as you can so that the arms are comfortably stretched. In the event of a collision the seat belt should stop you hitting the wheel and windscreen, but not if you are scrunched up against it. I'm not sure that short people can avoid it though.

More could be added to bends than just braking I feel - positioning is very important as well, also attention should be paid to the camber of the road. Older roads normally dip at each side, where newer ones are more likely to slope across the whole road in the direction of the corner (obv I'm talking from UK perspective here). This is worth looking out for, and should really be included in anything about advanced driving. You also need to know how sharp the bend is - you can tell this from the speed the road moves away from you on the bend, also by looking at other clues, trees along the side of the road, telegraph poles, etc.

I'm going to post this now cos my pc is bound to crash and I'll lose it otherwise. Be right back!

ok, back again.

For a righthand bend you should position your car on the nearside so that you can see further around the corner earlier. For a lefthand bend, you should be close to the white line in the middle of the road. Trained advanced drivers put their car on the wrong side of the road when they have bends in this direction, but I don't recommend this to anyone with no training. I assume for other countries this would be reversed. That confuses me a little...
Bends should be negotiated with the engine at a constant speed, with the engine just pulling, but circumstances don't always make this possible.

Driving without using the clutch - if you drive in perfect harmony with your car, in sympathy with your engine, you'll never need a clutch again. But instructors and car people don't like you knowing this.

Jump starting a car - you should probably add that you should run the car for a while - don't go for a short run and then stop it, as it'll keep going dead and then die totally.

Some of these points could be useful as a separate entry - I wouldn't want them to be missed because someone avoids an entry about advanced driving. Starting a car like this (or jumping it) would be useful to any driver.
(going to post again to be safe)

Driving on ice - this could be altered to driving on a slippery surface. Mud and oil are also very slippery. Is there something already in the Guide about dealing with skids? If not, maybe you could add it here? Otherwise making sure tyres are correctly inflated, and have good tread and making sure speed is kept low are also very important in preventing skids.



Some reversing hints might not go amiss either...

But I think I'm encouraging you to write a book, rather than an entry. I hope some of these ideas are useful.

Number Six, I'll do some more research into double declutching.

Naita, I don't know who decided that the position of the hands on the wheel should change, but manufacturers often now put little indentations in the back of the wheel at the "quarter to three" position to encourage people to use it.

Mina, you've provided a lot of stuff there. Would you like to rewrite the sections on steering and driving on ice yourself and become a joint author? Do you think I should split the entry into "Advanced Driving" and "Starting your heap of junk" entries?

Push starting a car is often strictly forbidden in the manual these days. They claim unburnt fuel gets to the catalyst in the exhaust and ruins it, but I don't know how many push starts it would take to damage it. You can't push start an automatic, either.

When jump starting, if at first you don't succeed, try leaving the charged car running with the leads in place for a few minutes. This will charge the dead battery a little, and help with your next attempt.


Hed

You might like to look up "heel and toe" gear changing, which is certainly an advanced technique, although it is deprecated by some of the advanced driving courses.

One badly spelled description is here:

http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Healtoe.html


Hed

One more comment: Driving on ice should not be in the "What to do if your heap is not behaving itself" section, and as well as staying in a high gear, you should stay off the brakes and accellerator, and avoid sudden steering changes.


Hed

Driving on Ice is a separate section, but unfortunately, the Brunel Headers and Subheaders look very similar so it is not very clear.

I think you should point out that the hand position is still an open question, rather than promote the 9-3 position. This article http://www.drivetrainusa.com/resources/merc-news.html shows how many different authorities have different recommendations. I doubt any of them base their decisions on more than 'common sense', apart from 'The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration' which 'takes a neutral position on the grip, saying there is not enough evidence of arms or wrists being broken by exploding air bags to recommend 9-3 over 10-2 or anything else.'

Attempting to force yourself to hold the steering wheel differently is probably more dangerous for an experienced driver. The most important thing is to have two hands on the steering wheel with a reasonable distance between them.

Personally I think the 9-3 position would be uncomfortable in the long run. The angle of the wheel at 10-2 gives a more relaxed wrist position, for me at least.

I'm happy to write something for the entry Gnomon. I do think that some help on dealing with a bucket of bolts when it won't work could be a helpful entry in itself, although that's my opinion as a driver of rubbish cars, rather than a 'word of God from an Editor'. When I was doing my advanced lessons I was told by the instructor that the examiners liked to see a car in tip-top condition, so maybe an entry about advanced driving could include tips on how to keep your car that way. It's up to you though, I don't suppose it makes a great deal of difference.

I've taken a lot of your suggestions on board and have added you all to the Author list. Anybody who doesn't want to be credited should remove themselves from the list.

I'll have another read.

Are you going to put in the bit about blipping the throttle in between going into neutral and into the lower gear? The more I think about it, the more important I reckon it is - because otherwise it's going to be a shock to clutch, engine and gearbox when the lower gear engages and suddenly everything has to move at twice the speed.

I thought I had included it, under the 'heel and toe' manoeuvre.

Thanks for the credit, by the way!

Incidentally, this brought back happy memories of push-starting from when I had my '66 Riley Elf at University. As you probably know, an Elf is a Mini with a posh front grille and a slightly longer boot...

I spent about six months with a dodgy battery, and couldn't afford to replace it - but as I lived in a shared house with four other guys, this wasn't a problem. We lived 100m away from the Egham bypass on a slight downhill gradient, so if I wanted to go anywhere, it was just a question of recruiting some help, pushing off, getting up to speed, leaping in and off we went! Of course, Minis don't weigh that much so usually only one helper was required - it was much like the two-man bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics. Great fun! Although the full four-man bob was even speedier and better...

For the return journey, it was just a question of ensuring I parked on a downhill slope.

Sorry Gnomon, must engage brain before putting fingers to keyboard...

Incidentally, I'm not angling to have my little story above included - or recommending it as a long-term strategy - it was just in the hope of adding a little entertainment to this thread.