The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

I had a scary one once, we had all left work and to get home there was a small hill that needed to be driven down. All of us were being very careful because of the conditions but even so, we all ended up doing a car ballet down the hill.

Amazingly, no one hit anyone or anything else despite cars doing sideways (and sometimes backward) dances down the hill but suffice to say I avoid that hill when the weather turns wintry.

Has anyone been down Zigzag Hill in Dorset?
That would be a challenge in the ice and snow, (although I expect they grit it well).

Guess why it's called Zigzag Hill? :rotfl:

Gold Hill in Shaftesbury would also be interesting, though I'm not sure cars are allowed down it.
I bet it's used for tobogganing, though. (It was the cobbledy hill in the old Hovis ad.)
Even walking down it is a challenge, especially in the wet.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

LOL - Dancing on Ice with cars - my little pirouette got 10/10 for style, 0/10 for technical ability....:D

Well, they are resurrecting the Strictly Come Dancing on Ice format, so maybe you could spearhead an auto version?

chris_m

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

LOL - Dancing on Ice with cars - my little pirouette got 10/10 for style, 0/10 for technical ability....:D

Snow was rare in Southampton so, when we got some, a mate went out to find a quiet road so he could try and do 360-degree handbrake turns.

Having failed dismally he went home, tried to pull up outside the house, performed a beautiful pirouette and dashed indoors to change his trousers :rotfl:

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

Snow was rare in Southampton so, when we got some, a mate went out to find a quiet road so he could try and do 360-degree handbrake turns.

Having failed dismally he went home, tried to pull up outside the house, performed a beautiful pirouette and dashed indoors to change his trousers :rotfl:

How does one do a handbrake turn?

GDB2222

Pyxis wrote: »

How does one do a handbrake turn?

Go round a bend and jam the handbrake on. The rear wheels (they are normally the ones the handbrake operates) lose almost all grip, and the back of the car can swing out. Once it gets going, the car may continue spinning uncontrollably for some time, possibly until something hard stops it.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Go round a bend and jam the handbrake on. The rear wheels (they are normally the ones the handbrake operates) lose almost all grip, and the back of the car can swing out. Once it gets going, the car may continue spinning uncontrollably for some time, possibly until something hard stops it.

:eek: :eek: :eek:


I wouldn't mind having a go at that!

Not in my car, though, , and natch not on the roads........ on a skid pan thing, perhaps.
In fact, I wouldn't mind practising skidding on a skid pan, just so as to be able to cope if it happens for real.

chris_m

What IS handy with a front wheel drive car in the snow is the ability to turn round in a limited space.

I once went up Kirkstone Pass to find that it was blocked by snow near the top - and not one of the g!ts coming down, who must have gone up and turned back, bothered to flag me down to warn me :mad:

Anyway, there I was, on a narrow stretch of road (well I knew it was narrow but I couldn't see the edges) with the prospect of trying to reverse on snow for several hundred yards, not a pleasant prospect.
So I swung the car diagonally across where I knew there was road under the snow, yanked the handbrake on, gave it full right lock and put my foot down - round came the front a treat, the whole car pivoting on the back axle. Once pointed down the road, I straightened the steering, released the handbrake and off I went down the hill, piece of cake

Oh, and in view of my previous paragraph, yes I did flag down a few cars coming up to warn them

michaels

rachlikeswinter wrote: »

Yeah it’s just this stupid cold thing, I’m usually quite active so when I can’t do stuff it’s just annoying. Unfortunately my nan is in hospital right now but I cant visit her until I’m better in case she gets it. She’s gone in with a myriad of problems like heart failure, swelling, chest infection... she’s been in a week and now they think she’s picked up C. Difficile What is with hospitals making you sicker than you were when you went in?!

And yeah I think the whole avocado/millennial thing came about because they were cool in the 70s so naturally we like anything retro... and then an Australian property tycoon made the grand statement that if only us silly young people would stop buying avocado on toast, we could all afford 4 bedroom houses next week. Silly silly young people.

Naked avocado eating could be a thing. Especially if we stop buying clothes to afford a house?



Yez! Hi. Hoping this year I don’t break anything again....

Hopefully once you are in Europe it will be too cold for bugs and lurgies.

Do you mind saying where you are going? I did Montgenevre, Val D'Isere and then Zermatt and then made the major mistake of getting a 'proper' job

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

What IS handy with a front wheel drive car in the snow is the ability to turn round in a limited space.

I once went up Kirkstone Pass to find that it was blocked by snow near the top - and not one of the g!ts coming down, who must have gone up and turned back, bothered to flag me down to warn me :mad:

Anyway, there I was, on a narrow stretch of road (well I knew it was narrow but I couldn't see the edges) with the prospect of trying to reverse on snow for several hundred yards, not a pleasant prospect.
So I swung the car diagonally across where I knew there was road under the snow, yanked the handbrake on, gave it full right lock and put my foot down - round came the front a treat, the whole car pivoting on the back axle. Once pointed down the road, I straightened the steering, released the handbrake and off I went down the hill, piece of cake

Oh, and in view of my previous paragraph, yes I did flag down a few cars coming up to warn them

Out of interest, what does doing something like that do to the tyres?



How do I find out if my car is front-wheel or rear-wheel drive? (I suppose it's in the manual somewhere).
I'm just being lazy....... I should go and look.



Edit...... did. A quick google, and it looks like it's front-wheel drive.

Is that why it has a nice tight turning circle?

And what would I have to do in a skid situation? Does the usual advice of steer into the skid, (which I've never really understood) still apply?

GDB2222

Pyxis wrote: »

Out of interest, what does doing something like that do to the tyres?



How do I find out if my car is front-wheel or rear-wheel drive? (I suppose it's in the manual somewhere).
I'm just being lazy....... I should go and look.



Edit...... did. A quick google, and it looks like it's front-wheel drive.

Is that why it has a nice tight turning circle?

And what would I have to do in a skid situation? Does the usual advice of steer into the skid, (which I've never really understood) still apply?

Er, no! FWD cars tend to have bigger turning circles. The engine is usually transverse, which gets in the way of the wheels turning.

Yes, steer into the skid. If you yanked on the handbrake, I suggest un-yanking it. Get out the toilet roll ...

Most modern cars that aren't "sporty" tend to understeer. That means that when they skid they just keep going in a straight line, rather than the back of the car swinging round. There's no point steering into an understeer skid, really. Theoretically, you can tighten the turn a bit by accelerating with an FWD car, but that takes nerves of steel. Best not to go into the turn too fast in the first place.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

Out of interest, what does doing something like that do to the tyres?

On snow? They slip and slide, but it does bring the car around and no, it doesn't harm the tyres. Darned sight easier than trying a 22-point turn on snow

If I'd been on uncoated tarmac I'd have reversed to somewhere wider.

How do I find out if my car is front-wheel or rear-wheel drive? (I suppose it's in the manual somewhere).
I'm just being lazy....... I should go and look.

Edit...... did. A quick google, and it looks like it's front-wheel drive.
Is that why it has a nice tight turning circle?

Actually no - FWD cars tend not to have as tight a turning circle as RWD, because of the limitations of flexibility in the drive shafts.

And what would I have to do in a skid situation? Does the usual advice of steer into the skid, (which I've never really understood) still apply?

Yep.
The point of it is to get the wheels rotating in the direction that the car is pointing so that they can get grip and restore control instead of sliding sideways.