I was driving home tonight just about to take the slip road from the southbound M25 onto the westbound M40 when a car cut across me at the last minute to take the same slip road. Two of my most hated types of people rolled into one - a BMW-driving estate agent (the car was logo'ed).

If you don't know the slip road it is a long clover-leaf that turns left through almost 270 degrees, but with a large radius and so fairly fast. Once he got on the slip road the BMW driver floored it, then braked hard just before turning in to the corner. He's obviously in a hurry and driving the corner as fast as he thinks he can.

Just before the clover leaf unwinds to merge with the M40 it tightens a bit, not enough to be a problem if you know it is coming as you can drive a line which smooths it out. Either he didn't know the road or had never worked this out - as he got to this bit he obviously felt he was going a bit quick because he hit the brakes! Good job he wasn't really testing the limits as he would have gone backwards into the barrier at some speed.

 

I see this all the time.
I am under the impression that people are not taught it.
All of us are not the perfect driver, we all have off days ect. But you can often tell how well trained someone is by siting behind them and looking at their road positioning, braking points, how much survival space they leave as well as how,or when, or if they indicate.

This is the good thing about traction control, ESP ect, I guess it saves alot of lives. But you cant defy physics for ever.

 

not taught it, or more likely just dont bother listening and forget all about it :/

im sure my instructor told me about it

and like the above post, some peoples road positioning is bloody crap :|
and the amount of times i get people floating about lanes on roundabouts or cutting across lanes when going around corners (dual carrageway)

 

You think that's bad u should try driving around Swindon in the rush hour Taxi drivers are the worst to, then you get the suicidial late Mums going to work after dropping their kids off, it's insane out there. Driving at speed safely is easy it's all the other morons on the road you have to make space for

 

I'm a BMW driver but I'm certainly not the estate agent type

That's a great corner and I love it, I always have my M3 on the limit around there and accelerate out of it and it's a great feeling. Some people aren't blessed with talent though and they think because they are in a decent car (BMW or Audi) they are driving gods

I've noticed this alot since I've been using my Impreza recently that german rep mobile drivers think they have better cars and look down their noses, little do they know

 

Why would anyone want to break on a corner? its the fastest way to losing steering and grip. Im lucky both my mum and dad taught me to drive meny moons ago.they were both into competeing in rallying :-) grew up in a petrol head family . Its nice to be able to drive properly its a lot more fun and safer. The amount of people round where i live go on back roads cut corners and have foot on the break every 2 mins doing 40 mph in the 60mph road . I hold many of them up in the 30 as i stick to the limit but i will be doing 60 in the 60 even round triccy bends

 

My 2002 STI has EBD, so nothing wrong with braking anywhere, IMHO.

dunx

 

That corner can catch you out if you dont know it but i agree its nice to play with it if you are aware and much fun can be had in my scooby

 

imo, when learning to drive, your only just grasping the basics - its a lot to take in.

but the instructor is just getting you to pass a test, not learning everything aboutdriving.

ive been travelling the correct way round a large roundabout, where a few motorways join, and a old man drove up the slip road and turned right on the roundabout onto all th oncoming traffic. i had to swerve to miss him, literally by an inch, and my mrs was behind me with my kid in the car. the old guy just looked right at me aas he trundled past, possibly causing a major accident

 

It's one of the benefits of being older.
Modern cars are too forgiving & genarally have decent handling & grippy tyres.
If they had driven the cr*p I had as a kid they would have learnt a lot more about
the limits of handling & how to 'nurse' a car instead of abusing it.

 

Driver aids like stability control (common in modern executive cars such as BMWs) are fantastic developments, but do have a lot to answer for fostering a sense of invulnerability in drivers and for negating the need to develop a feel for the car and an understanding of the physics of driving quickly. This is fine and dandy when the individual is driving a car equipped with ESC etc. The problem comes when said individual exercises the same degree of clumsiness in a car without the electronic safety net!

In an argument between you and Sir Newton, he ALWAYS wins.... it's just a question of how long it takes him!

 

Im worried the other way round to be honest.

I have always had older vehicles and my current one the Pulsar GTiR has power steering which I hated in the beginning but got used to it . I prefure to feel exactly what the cars feeling when driving so i can gauge how far to push it on the road surface and conditions im in at the time.

I have driven an evo 6 around quite a bit and find the drive is almost disconnected from the car with no feeling of what the cars feeling .

I am worried that by getting a 2001-2005 era Scooby I am not going to like the disconnection as it so much newer than what I am used to. so I am aware I may have to tweak my driving style to match. I wouldn't dare get in one and shoot down the road like I do in my car id be in the first hedge.

Sometimes age and wisdom does have its benefits

 

i see people brake mid corner when their speed is far lower than requiring any braking at all. this drives me mad..

 

I just wish everyone had to do a year on a motorbike before getting in a car. you learn where you can/cant brake/accellerate very quickly, or you end up part of a hedge somewhere.

 

Eh ? Mine is heavy, powerful and grippy, I haven't any need to learn how dangerous a motorbike is !
Nor have I had any reason to visit a hedge during the last 14 years of Subaru ownership.

dunx

P.S. Have slapped a few cones around on a few trackdays tho'.

 

Either that or they just didn't grow old.

 

You car drivers know nothing about going around corners full stop

 

A lovely little corner just after a downhill bit of the M25. Would be brilliant apart from other traffic and (usually) a slightly slimy surface. Be measured on the approach and smooth thereafter. Unless there's usually present other traffic!

J.

 

if you had done a year on a bike, you would know what i mean. i aint saying everyone who aint been on a bike for a year is crap, i am just saying a year on a bike teaches you more about various road conditions, different road surfaces, how breaking/accelerating at the wrong time unsettles the vehicle, be it bike or car than you would otherwise learn if you had only driven on 4-wheels on the road.

for example, on a bike, because of the sequenchial box you have to follow the gears down as you slow. you also have to blip the throttle (Especialy in the wet) as you change down so that you dont unsettle the rear wheel.
when i gave up 2-wheels and went to 4, i taught myself a variation of heel-toe breaking, which i do on the road all the time in the car now.
End result = smoother ride for my passangers, the car is more stable under breaking and isnt unsettled should i need to react quickly to something on the road. and if i do need to break mid-corner, I can now do it with heel-toe breaking so i have the revs to get back on the power should i need to.

heel-toe breaking isnt something that i would have considered learning if it wasnt for the bike