@string said:
Sometimes it seems like the older wives get, the more difficult we guys are to live with. Mine thinks I need more supervision.
LOL, that has got to win Most Diplomatic Post of the Year Award.
And yes, I live in a nice area if you like rural. My “Needs Supervision” and I feel fortunate to be here. It is beautiful.
New automatic transmissions with 6, 8 & 10 speeds are more fuel efficient than a stick.
Hey PaddleDog52, I don’t doubt that. I hope those new transmissions can make a little engine climb and accelerate as well as a manual, too. In the past automatics have not. Hopefully our grandchildren will be scooting around in electric cars powered by the sun and they’ll laugh at our stories about shifting gears.
@PaddleDog52 said:
New automatic transmissions with 6, 8 & 10 speeds are more fuel efficient than a stick.
I drove a little delivery car (I called the "Barbi car) with all those speeds and on any grade it would just keep down and up shifting until it drove me crazy.
Turned out to be not that efficient because I would take the truck instead…
@PaddleDog52 said:
Adding grip pulling out if your driveway?
Barely any throttle to go 1.5 times the speed limit?
Few page thicknesses on the accelerator pedel?
I find this comments bizzare.
Good foundation for a vehicle is required for the intended purpose. Honda fit will never carry a Libra XT well.
It’s not strange at all if you’ve ever driven a motorcycle but in the end, the truth is that going fast is 90% doing as little as possible because most of what people do “driving hard” unsettles the drivetrain and suspension burning up grip or traction. Even on the cheapest car, there is so much grip available because the gas is basically the grip button. Physics has it that if you’re turning the tires faster thus accelerating the car the net effect is to suck the car into the ground thereby increasing available grip and traction. The gas thing only works if you do it in sync with the rest of the car, thus unwinding the wheel and timing everything else.
I used to be a very aggressive driver but my speeds have not decreased much, only the amount of throttle that I give. You’d be surprised how you can power on the highway at 80, 90+ mph and barely do anything at all. The less you do the more momentum you save and that’s how it’s possible because every time you mash the gas, mash the brake or flick the wheel is energy you’re wasting.
It’s all about weight transfer but in the end the grip that is possible with modern cars is so spectacular that you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s like a novice in relatively good shape paddling for their life to try to exceed hull speed and getting all unbalanced vs an experienced kayaker that is matching or exceeding the speed by hardly paddling. Less is more…
I don’t see tires doing much of anything to add down-force especially coming out of a driveway. It’s weight transfer not downforce and after weight transfer stops wheels add zero.
Someone here must get a slug of speeding tickets, or lives where there aren’t any cops. Ya know, I’ve been driving for over six decades and I sure can’t remember many times when any of the hot driving tips had any application for my driving experience. I wouldn’t argue that about racing on a road course. I did own a sports car for a while and maybe I could have used some of those driving tips back then, but my aim was to stay out of trouble with the man.
I have tracked and or raced things for decades. Boats, cars, and motorcycles. .
When it comes to weight transfer during acceleration, you only gain traction in a rear-drive or (perhaps) AWD vehicles. In front-drive vehicles, the rearward weight transfer reduces traction at the front wheels.
Yes, this is why I had to drive up my street backwards in the slush and snow. I was driving front wheel drive and needed rear drive to get up the incline. I once impressed an older man by driving his Civic up a snowy hill when he couldn’t… I went backwards.
Yep… My daughter with front wheel drive has to negotiate her steep driveway in reverse. This is very entertaining or not depending on if it is you driving or watching especially on ice.
I get a kick out of the aggressive techniques proposed. How do they work on hardpack snow and ice with moose roaming the roads?
They don’t, obviously. Neither do anti-lock brakes or traction control, which is why I disable them.
Neither of you mentioned using snow tires. I’ve found that they make a night-and-day difference in the winter and I consider them indispensable.
@bnystrom said:
They don’t, obviously. Neither do anti-lock brakes or traction control, which is why I disable them.
Neither of you mentioned using snow tires. I’ve found that they make a night-and-day difference in the winter and I consider them indispensable.
I assume everyone in snow country uses them. Not only for snow traction but the rubber used is softer and grips cold surfaces better.
bnystrom
Not sure who you are talking about above, But last winter was the first one in many years where I went thru winter on other than specialty snow tires. First year I could forego some of the reasons I never went w/o snows before - having to make a five day a week job, or climb the worst driveway in a small VT town where my sister used to live, or take someone to chemo treatments.
I gave a shot to the new true four season tires I got on the car and found myself agreeing with the pundits. If you have the luxury of skipping driving when the snow is going full tilt, these 4 season tires will do. If you have to be out in it day after day, in rough terrain like living in the mountains or having others dependent on you, then it is better to get proper snow tires on the car.
I’m smack in the middle of North Carolina. It’s not snow country but we occasionally have some winters with some pretty respectable snow events. If I lived in the western part of the state; the mountains; I’d likely own snow tires. Hard to justify here in the piedmont.
@bnystrom said:
They don’t, obviously. Neither do anti-lock brakes or traction control, which is why I disable them.
Neither of you mentioned using snow tires. I’ve found that they make a night-and-day difference in the winter and I consider them indispensable.
I assume every> @Celia said:
bnystrom
Not sure who you are talking about above, But last winter was the first one in many years where I went thru winter on other than specialty snow tires. First year I could forego some of the reasons I never went w/o snows before - having to make a five day a week job, or climb the worst driveway in a small VT town where my sister used to live, or take someone to chemo treatments.
I gave a shot to the new true four season tires I got on the car and found myself agreeing with the pundits. If you have the luxury of skipping driving when the snow is going full tilt, these 4 season tires will do. If you have to be out in it day after day, in rough terrain like living in the mountains or having others dependent on you, then it is better to get proper snow tires on the car.
Do those new “true four season tires” have the Snowflake symbol on them? If not do not drive in the Province of Quebec… After Dec 15 - sometime in April it is illegal not to have such marked tires on your car… If you ignore that it will cost you $300
I think your vehicle has to be registered in Quebec for the snow tire rule to be in effect, although I definitely think anyone driving in Quebec in the winter would be crazy not to have snow tires on!
@ptickner said:
I think your vehicle has to be registered in Quebec for the snow tire rule to be in effect, although I definitely think anyone driving in Quebec in the winter would be crazy not to have snow tires on!
I checked and you are correct. Why this occurred to me is that when we went to Quebec a few weeks ago we had a wicked snowstorm both ways… each more than a foot. We had not changed tires yet and someone at the hotel said we could get a ticket… Aargh…
Snow tires would have been a very good idea even though it was Nov 12.
kayamedic I haven’t looked for it. But I haven’t had the time to do any homework on traveling in Quebec either, like tire images or whether I am exempt carrying a US New York state license plate.
I can’t imagine winter driving w/o four snow tires. They go on the first week of November and stay on until late April.
As to aggressive driving techniques on snow and ice, they’re usually the vehicles rolled over on the side of the road. Typically downstaters coming up to ski. No moose, but we do have elk. One section of I-75 has elk warning signs for a few miles.