Car ride height law

Lum

Only when you're close to the car in front does it cause a problem in fog (unlike rain, or a clear day when they dazzle from over half a mile away) and in any case the rules say to use them once visibility is below 100 yards.

Personally I turn mine off once there is a car behind that I know has seen me, but very few other people do this so I'm not going to begrudge them for it when every other idiot on the road is running around with no lights on at all.

Their choice of lighting was the safest option available and in compliance with the rules.

Inactive

vl2588 wrote: »

The rear fogs would alert a car behind that there is a car in front as they work through fog...surely that is their function?! Lum is perfectly correct.

Only Lum knows the exact conditions at the time, but it sounds to me as if they were not necessary if headlights were deemed to be not necessary.

cyclonebri1

Lum wrote: »

Dipped headlights usually make it worse in this thickness of fog as they just illuminate the moisture particles making it harder to see. It's daytime so the extra illumination wasn't needed anyway, sidelights are plenty for being seen.

And their lies the problem, they are not, :wall::wall::wall::wall:. In daytime fog the car outline will be seen before sidelights, and in many cases that is just too late.

Sorry Lum, but you fail to differentiate that the real issue is that of being seen, not being able to see which in daylight fog is secondary

epninety

Lum wrote: »

Personally I turn mine off once there is a car behind that I know has seen me, but very few other people do this

After 20 odd years driving, I thought I was the only one who understood and did this :T (except for those who take the hint from slow flashing mains and spots when I finally blow my cool )

optimus_primera

Harry_Flashman wrote: »

Much more fun to lift motors and take 'em green-laning - that's what many of my chums do (4x4s of course )

Been there done that ........ but a badly done job can be asking for trouble ......

optimus_primera

bigjl wrote: »

Maybe we need to adopt the strict rules on such things like they do in NZ and I believe also in Aus.

Can only speak on Western Aus, (from friends who live there)
Seems you can do what you want,you only have to have an MoT equivilant test when you come to sell the vehicle(you cannot sell without).
However Aussie plod can 'insist' you take the car for a safety check (at your expense of course) if they suspect anything is 'not right'

optimus_primera

bigjl wrote: »

Isn't it more to do with modifications that are deemed to make the car unsafe, rather than a specific amount of lowering, if you look at some cars on the Dub scene they seem very happy when their suspension arms are less than a fag packet distance from the road.

A lowered car can handle much better than it did when standard, but when the roads are as uneven as they are in the UK then it can make the car very skittish, as lowered suspension means less travel before the car can be bumped off the chosen line.

If new regulations or laws are brought in to prevent people cutting springs or heating them up to lower the ride height then I am all for it, as these cars can be dangerous, if the car is lowered using decent parts then fine, but consideration must be given for safety before style.

The Essex Police still have a few Mondeo ST 220's, which have pretty much the same suspension as other Mondeos, apart from the fact they are lowered, so obviously there is a time and a place for such modifications.

Though I drove a mates WRX with coil overs and it was a nightmare, bouncy and twitchy, my WRX was much better, which was standard apart from Prodrive Geometry.


In my day we where happy to have a subwoofer and a Peco back box, exit stage left mumbling like Victor Meldrew.

Yes but Ford would have ensured all the suspension geometry to be correct using purpose designed components.

What issue concerns me (apart from Europe telling us what we can and cannot do) is the wannabe racer types just fitting shorter springs,and not bothering with any other components .....Just the same as offroaders lifting motors without fitting cranked suspension arms etc......

catflea

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Probably gets away with it as the reg predates the vehicle lighting 89 or whatever regs, and will have been built prior to sva and still be registered as an austin A40 or something:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

And yes, the question has to be WHY?, :T

Fiat 126 Actually.

Have to say though, when it comes to mods I've always been a fan of the wolf in sheeps clothing thing....

anewman

Lum wrote: »

First they decided to set up an impromptu vehicle checkpoint on a mini roundabout. This roundabout serves Asda and McDonalds. They pulled over and checked over a number of cars, but failed to pull over my mate's Volvo estate with blatantly illegal aftermarket HIDs. This checkpoint caused a tailback that ground the town centre to a halt. For bonus points it was next to a 20' tall wall with a KFC car park there, so a small number of aggrieved chavs gathered up there to throw drinks and stuff at the police.

TBH it got rather bad there though. Maybe the complainants were somewhat vocal but the attitude and driving skill of those chavs leaves lots to be desired, even if there were no injuries or deaths caused. Maccy D's car park is not a small race track circuit (with some nice bumps) to drive round and round all night with your loud xorst and bangin toons, unlike some of them seemed to think - they should all club together and go on a track day if they want some fun in their cars, then they can drive like normal sensible people on the public roads and go to maccy d's when they actually want a burger instead of to drive around and scare off customers.

Lum wrote: »

Visibility is down to under 50 metres because of the fog, yet the only car (apart from my own) with any lights on at all is a barried Corsa occupied by two baseball cap wearing youngsters. They were running sidelights and rear fog light. Everybody else was basically appearing out of nowhere making things dangerous indeed on the roads that are full of parked car.

Youngsters, they're all idiots eh?

Yeah you gotta be careful when you're insurance fronting and those mods aren't declared to the insurance company, wouldn't want to end up in an accident and be royally screwed

Besides they're probably one of those idiots who leave the fogs on all the time when there's the slightest amount of fog around and you just caught them in thick fog

atrixblue.-MFR-.

anewman wrote: »

TBH it got rather bad there though. Maybe the complainants were somewhat vocal but the attitude and driving skill of those chavs leaves lots to be desired, even if there were no injuries or deaths caused. Maccy D's car park is not a small race track circuit (with some nice bumps) to drive round and round all night with your loud xorst and bangin toons, unlike some of them seemed to think - they should all club together and go on a track day if they want some fun in their cars, then they can drive like normal sensible people on the public roads and go to maccy d's when they actually want a burger instead of to drive around and scare off customers.


Yeah you gotta be careful when you're insurance fronting and those mods aren't declared to the insurance company, wouldn't want to end up in an accident and be royally screwed

Besides they're probably one of those idiots who leave the fogs on all the time when there's the slightest amount of fog around and you just caught them in thick fog

and again ill say it wasnt all of us who did this, it was spoilt by the 17,18,19 year old nelwy possed with sad mods, most of us parked up chatted and exchanged info and parts and fault found.
we allways flagged a plod when we seen bad behaviour coz we knew the plod would clamp on us otherwise, just our voice wasnt heared after the new police cheif of blackwood got in.