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In Mrs P's GTi (Luckily). Turning from the 50mph A road into our lane, held up by an oncoming car, I glanced in my mirror to see a baseball hated youngster fishtailing his car towards me, smoke coming from his rear tyres. I was in second gear and still rolling, so I cancelled my indication and booted it and the Golf took off, right gear, right speeds. If it had been wet I doubt whether the Golf would have been able to rocket as quickly as it did and his stopping distance would have been reduced - by me. It all happened in slo-mo, I'll never forget his pallid, grimacing face and eyes out on stalks, his passenger's mouth open (no doubt screaming) - I bet his undies need changing. I went round the block and came back and true enough 20 feet of tyre marks. What ifs include being in the Landie, on the bike or in the Skoda - none of which bear thinking about - the Golf went on boost and like the proverbial scalded cat - who said performance cars are pointless ?
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There's a couple of local routes that we use (to the tip etc) where if I can't make a flowing right turn off the fast single carriageway A roads then I always carry on and use another route.
Something you'll be aware of, but motorbikes overtaking lines of slowing traffic as the lead vehicle turns right are a huge hazard - I've seen so many near-misses.
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"hated youngster"
Like it! Did he have a baseball hat on? ;-)
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Hatted - a Freudian slip.
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Well done PU. I bet you feel pleased with yourself for doing the right thing quickly enough to keep you and Ms PU out of baseball-cap's accident.
Of course if you didn't have a performance car and hadn't been driving in what I hope and assume is your usual brisk and no-nonsense fashion, the little carphound might not have got all competitive and decided to floor it while looking somewhere else at the wrong moment.
I wouldn't go quite as far as saying the accident, if it had occurred, would have been your fault though.
:o}
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Well done PU, a slick piece of roadcraft there, i'm duly impressed, do i hear reason number 127 being filed to aid the replacement of the Roomster with a flying machine?
Just shows how imortant to keep an eye on the mirror at all times.
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Just reflecting on a couple of issues.
1. How poor the rear indicators on the MK5 Golf are, especially when braking.
2. What must have gone through his mind when I decided to do an impression of a sidewinder going off the rack
3. How lucky I was (again) that road is busy with pedestrians crossing from on part of the village to another - there were kids about, I saw them after my circuit....
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Just reflecting on a couple of issues. 1. How poor the rear indicators on the MK5 Golf are especially when braking.
>>
A pet hate of mine, and on the new passat, stupid, fashionable, and completely useless, get a bit of sun on them and you might as well have not bothered indicating in the first place.
Also whilst you've got me whining again, the front indicators being in the same cluster as the headlights, i'm sure i'm not the only one who has missed a indicator signal of golfs, but also many other cars with that equally silly design.
Bring back trafficators i say..;)
I wouldn't worry about the mind of the baseball hatted (i think you were right first time tbh) youths, possibly not taxed too greatly.
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"poor rear indicators on the MK5 Golf are.....get a bit of sun on them and you might as well have not bothered indicating in the first place."
I noticed this the other day when pulling up behind a Golf with brake lights on - didn't realise he was indicating at first - on a narrow rural road - thought he had just stoppped for an obstruction ahead but he was turning into a farm entrance. Also thought it was my fault for not being observant enough.
Not sure I would have had the brain speed or reaction time to do what PU did - might have sat there wondering for a fatal (not literally, but you know what I mean) second or two. Good driving PU.
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Possibly the young driver had been lectured in road observation by the road traffic officer I saw today. Riding down the road I saw a patrol car approaching me, adjusted my speed ahem... and went past him without him even noticing me.
The officer was writing in what looked like some kind of log book resting on the steering wheel while driving on a 50mph road.
Edited by gmac on 29/06/2008 at 19:53
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A guy who worked at the same company as me was given a company car. Brand new Cavalier I think. The second day he had it he failed to notice the back of the queue for the Mersey tunnel and smacked it into the back of a newish Jag. The Cavalier was undriveable and the Jag was hurt. The dozy fellow was given a hire car and astonishingly enough the following morning had the same accident with the hire car at the same place with the same Jag. Expecting a tirade of abuse from the Jag driver he was amazed when, with dry scouse humour, the Jag driver asked him "how the (blinking heck ) d'ye stop when I'm not here" ?
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I don't bother with a pad, my hand does the job nicely. All the plates put out over the air courtesy of ANPR have to be noted somewhere..and approaching the big 40, my memory isn't what it was :)
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Had to react in a similar way to PU twice many years ago....
1. First incident on the M6 and the traffic slowed as it does. Car behind to close and would have hit me if I had stopped breaking, i.e. I am getting a lot closer to the car in front. His tyres were visibly smoking and I could hear them too. The look on his face said he too probably needed a change of underwear. The hung back after that.
2. On a roundabout on the outskirts of Leicester I was going around it when someone pulled out without giving way and going fast. Only way I avoided a collision was to turn to go around the roundabout again - I was indicating to come off.
Well done PU - saved a lot of hastle with quick thinking.
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I'm not having a dig at the BiB, this was a German copper, and looked to be well on the otherside of the big 40...must get my copdar fine tuned for spotting silver and green though.
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Alternatively.....
I was having a driving lesson today and the instructor told me to have a go at an emergency stop.
Thought it was a bit odd, there was nowt behind, but there was a guy in a Golf up ahead.
Anyway, as I brought the car to a swift stop, the Golf shot off like a scalded cat.
I mean, he was indicating and he wasn't to know I was stopping.
Good thing I did, or there would have been a nasty smash.
There's some idiots on the road, I can tell you.
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I was coming down the A71 from Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, a couple of years ago.
There were some roadworks signposted up ahead, just round a bend, and I slowed and stopped at the tail end of the queue of traffic waiting to go through.
Glancing behind me, I see a rapidly approaching Suzuki Jimny, the driver chatting animatedly to his passenger. Not looking ahead. He's doing at least 50, and I have nowhere to go. I brace for impact.
And then I see him look up, his facial expression turning to one of panic, hitting his brakes...and somehow, I dont quite know how to this day, he manages to drive his jeep between the stationary queue of cars on the downhill side and the slowly-moving cars coming up the hill.
10 or so minutes later, when I got through the roadworks, he was at the side of the road. I've never seen such a shocked expression on anyone.
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Nice one PU.
!977, Dewsbury Road, Leeds, light rain, and I'm at a Pelican crossing on red with a bin lorry on my left and an island on my right watching alternately a young mum, hooded head down against the rain, pushing a pram, and, in the mirror, a Vauxhall Chevette fishtailing as it headed for the rear of my stationary Renault 16 TX. I seriously thought of flooring it against the light in front of the pedestrian but the picture of the out-of-control Chevette collecting the pram on its bonnet stopped me. I just shut my eyes and waited for the bang. I was nudged to within inches of the pram and got a scowl from the mum. She probably never knew.
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Just been back to the "scene" with the dogs (not that they had a contribution to the visit) - the tyre mark was around 7 meters in length nearside only - which bears out what I saw the puff of smoke as the wheel locked, his brakes probably weren't right as one side locked and no doubt induced the violent fishtailing. The junction was approx 50m from the end of the tyre mark - a lot closer than I thought. He would have tail-ended me I'm sure if I hadn't have done what I did, his option would have been to go over the nearside grass verge and into a stone (not dry-stone) wall or to try and overtake me which would have been curtains for the guy coming towards me. I did the unexpected - no-one more surprised than me.
Told Mrs P I want a fast car now - I like VAG and an RS6 estate would be just right. (Dream on)
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So PU you watched TopGear and the RS6 :-)
If I could afford it I would be on the list. I cann only dream. £10k more than an M5 but if only I was wealthy. Mazda6 will do for now.
If I was really rich and could afford a Bentley Continental GT.... I'd have the RS6. The saving of around £40k will pay for a lot of petrol :-)
Edited by rtj70 on 30/06/2008 at 00:41
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as it headed for the rear of my stationary Renault 16 TX.
Completely off topic, but I had completely forgotten about these. I had a mate in the early 80s whose parents had a Renault 16TX. Rose tinted memories include an unbelievably supple ride and super soft velour seats. It also had electric windows - a real novelty back then.
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And it had an excellent column gearchange, 5-speed in the 16TX. I don't have many regrets in life but having a second Maxi instead of a 16 is one of them. A 20TS a few years later was the first of seven excellent Renaults and showed me what I'd been missing.
The Maxis were both very reliable but the design faults, particularly the gearchange, always irritated and were never put right by British Leyland.
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The Maxis were both very reliable but the design faults particularly the gearchange always irritated and were never put right by British Leyland.
Early or later Maxi?
Early ones with cable gearchange were a nightmare. Later rod change system a lot better.
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An undertaker I knew used a Maxi as his non-service hearse - running coffins around to and from the mortuary and so on.
The seats were folded flat and he had steel running rails attached to the loading bay/seat backs to slide the coffins in and out.
The rails were at a slight angle across the loading bay because, I presume, a standard coffin was too long to fit in dead (ho-ho) straight.
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"Early or later Maxi?"
Later - a '73 and a '75, both bought new. The original (1969) was underpowered as well as having as you say a cable-operated gearchange. The rod change was a bit better but still not great - baulking into first was particularly infuriating. So much for progress from the 50s to the 60s and 70s - my first car was a 1955 Austin A50 with a delightfully smooth column change.
But Maxis were tough (attempting to get back on topic...). I remember a Ford Anglia bashing into me from the rear while I was waiting at a roundabout: the front of the flimsy Ford was stove in but the Maxi completely undamaged.
I still feel sad when I think what happened to Austin. My A50 was a much better and more reliable car than the equivalent 1950's Ford: the Maxi and Cortina each had pluses and minuses; but the Montego was one of the cars that killed Austin, whereas the Mondeo is one of those that gives Ford the good name that it has now.
Edited by Avant on 01/07/2008 at 21:51
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