The team are back for a new series this evening. Channel 5, 20:30.
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Hope it's better than the last series !
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No matter what - it can't be worse than soaps or reality tv shows.
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After watching tonight\'s show:
Driving at 70 in fog is clever.
Discuss......
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only with X-Ray specs ....
Glad I wasn't in the Fiat.
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Sobering viewing. Scary how the small cars were trashed while the Merc(?) that ran into the back was relatively unscathed.
Never did fancy a Smart.........
Shame about the rest of the programme.
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Think I will be adjusting my headrest in the car tomorrow. Although would not have helped in the fiat!!
James
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Think I will be adjusting my headrest in the car tomorrow. Although would not have helped in the fiat!! James
It's astonishing how many think the correct place for the head restraint is to have the top level with the nape of your neck. One surefire way of cutting whiplash injuries, go for the broken neck instead.
Most handbooks have guidance on the correct positioning and it will vary from car to car. As a very rough guide, the top of the restrain should be about between 1 and 2 inches above your ears, however with some seat designs a position lower than this may be more suited.
Thatcham will have a link up and running shortly to allow you to see how your car fares in a rear impact. Right now the link is down, either because it isn't ready (as suggested in the show) or because to many people like me were trying to view at when it was shown on the tv. The only advantage to staying in a hotel during the week; TV next to my laptop.
When I know the link is up and running I shall post it here.
No Dosh, aka Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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I wonder if it would have any effect on the driving habits of those whose poor driving habits contribute to motorway pile-ups. Just like people who don't indicate and who think fog lights are mandatory in summer never read posts in this forum.
There's a part of me that hates seeing good metal trashed for no reason. Although not a particular Merc fan, I cringed when I saw it plough into the stationary cars. What a waste.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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For those who didn't get the chance to see it, Fifth Gear lined up a number of cars as if they had come to a halt blocking all three lanes of a motorway. They then took a Rover Metro (1989- model) and drove it into the back of these others at 70 mph using remote control.
The first car hit, a Fiat Uno, was pretty much completely destroyed. The driver of the Metro was also unlikely to see daylight again. Several other cars were badly bashed about.
They then took a large, older S class Merc and brought this into the rear of the existing pile-up. All very sobering.
Now some may point out that the cars used were all relatively old and don't fair as well as a modern car. Fair point. But these are exactly the kind of cars that new drivers are buying, that families with a tight budget are running, that you or I may own now or have once owned. And it is arguments about the newer cars being better at this that and the other that lead to suggestions that you will walk away from an accident at higher speed.
I don't think so....
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I agree!
I am sure modern cars are better but not that good to protect you in a impact. The worst place to be is sandwiched between 2 cars. It seems that when you are hit behind your car moves forwards hitting the car in front. In a high speed impact the structure will just become overwhelmed. I bet if thier had been nothing parked infront of the fiat it would not have been so badly damaged. Would have just been pushed forward in the impact.
Of course you are better of in the Merc but if the Merc had been parked where the Fiat was I certainly would not like to be sat inside it.
Very thought provoking since I travel 30000K year as a sales rep and regulary drive along the M42/M40. Drive a Alfa 156 (yes with airbag light stuck on!) Have ordered my next car which is new Primara which has active front headrests!
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Very thought provoking since I travel 30000K year as a sales rep
Oh boy, you really must be burning up the tarmac: 30 million miles a year! :) :) But I know the new Primera's are very reliable, so you should be okay for the next 12 months. :)
A pity I missed this prog. I didn't know it was on. Are CH5 doing a repeat? Anyone know?
C.
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Yes thanks for the corection! I did mean 30K.
Cheers
James
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A pity I missed this prog. I didn't know it was on. Are CH5 doing a repeat? Anyone know? C.
Some shots from the show:
tinyurl.com/qsby
No info about repeats on the Channel 5 website, but then content never was their thing.
No Dosh, aka Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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Channel 5 repeated the last series on late Sunday afternoon. Worst Driver is currently being repeated at that time so I expect fifth gear will be slotted in just before or just after.
teabelly
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Channel 5 repeated the last series on late Sunday afternoon. Worst Driver is currently being repeated at that time so I expect fifth gear will be slotted in just before or just after.
Fraid not. \"At Home with the Eubanks\" is on before Worst Driver, and then \"Toys (Film)\" is on afterwards.
www.mydigiguide.com/dgx/wbl.dll?a=2&h=49&dt=3f9254...5
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You can see stills of the carnage on the 5 website
tinyurl.com/qscp
Beat you! ND
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This highlights a very real problem, that NCAP and stars do not address. You are in a pile up. You hit the car in front at whatever speed. Your crumple zone crumples & absorbs impact The guy in front's rear crumple zone crumples and absorbs impact. somone else hits you and his front crumples and your back crumples. The third car comes along and whamo, where are all the safety margins and crumple zones gone? All used up thats what. All thats left is the shell.
The point here is in a multiple pile up, each impact becomes progressively more serious to the occupants and you end up with the very very small fiat (which at that age was rated poorly anyway)
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I've checked with MediaBullet and it lists several Fifth Gear shows being shown tomorrow night at 10:00 on the Discovery Home & Leisure channel.
But they may be repeats of the last series. :( :( :(
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several Fifth Gear shows being shown tomorrow night at 10:00 on the Discovery Home & Leisure channel. But they may be repeats of the last series. :( :(
Yep, I can confirm they are repeats of the last series.
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Coincidentally I posted a point about this sort of thing in another thread recently. RF is right about the danger of several impacts but will showing this sort of thing improve driver behaviour and reduce speeding in poor conditions ? Not a chance ! We've seen it all before a million times before and nobody gives a damn really. Those who drive carefully will continue to do so and those who don't aren't going to start now. Sadly, they'll only learn when it happens to them or theirs. By this time next week it'll be a distant memory - if a memory at all. I sincerely hope some people will modify their behaviour but when you're stuck in 3 lanes of heavy, fast moving traffic, there's a limit to what you can do as an individual. It needs mass awareness and that's what we just don't have. What's required is for all drivers to wake up and realise that driving too fast/close is very dangerous even in good conditions but it's potentially catastrophic in any other.
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Digiguide ( www.digiguide.com/ ) only shows it being on once a week...
Makes a nice change not having repeats ;-)
John R
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No Dosh:
Cheers 4 the rundown on last night's show as some idiot (me) set the video 4 the wrong time...
Bet it wasn't an S600 though...
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When I lived in Kuwait, I say the results of a game of chicken when local youths would race at night with their headlights turned off.
Want to know how to shorten a Merc S class by at least 50% ?
Easy.
Hit the blade of a parked, truly massive, bulldozer square on.
I recall that the speedometer needle was stuck at something over 200KPH (120MPH), and judging by the carnage, I can well believe this to be the true speed of impact.
I never intend driving at night with no lights, but as a then eighteen year old, this certainly reinforced Force = Half Mass x Velocity Squared that I'd learned at school.
On the same stretch of dual carriageway, I saw the results of a cow that jumped out of the back of a Toyota pickup truck, and got hit by the car following behind. The bloated, rotting carcass was then left on the hard shoulder for months..... in 50 deg C heat. Yuk.
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Hi SjB,
It's actually Kinetic_Energy = Half Mass x Velocity Squared
Just to keep things right ;-)
Vagelis.
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Indeed, force = mass x acceleration
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I decided to keep quiet when I realized my error, as the effect on the car is the same, but you're too good for me! ;-)
I did indeed get my potential and kinetic energy entwined, as f= mgh.
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I thought the show was excellent. It's about time car shows devoted some time to safety and Stiff Needle and Vicky Butler-Henderson (isn't that a brand of cigarette ... 20 Vicky Butler Hendersons and a bottle of gin please ...) often make comments about the poor driving standards of some people.
It was on Top Gear or in the Sunday Times Motoring supplement that Clarkson reviewing a car said that it was so good that it prompted him to go round corners faster than was advisable. That strikes me as a shameful comment.
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