| Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006 |
| BeN |
All the stress and aggravation - A RantIt's no secret that I like driving. I love driving. It's one of the very few things that I'm good at.But sometimes, driving in crowded and congested Singapore, really makes me want to pull my hair out. There's so many things to think and worry about. Road tolls, parking, traffic jams, idiot drivers and pedestrains. Like today. I nearly knocked someone over because a) He was walking without looking in a petrol station, and b) I wasn't fully awake this morning, and the stress of driving to school probably got to me. Sometimes, I wonder, is it really worth it? Then I look at public transport (with the crowded squeeze on the bus/train, and the waiting and long journey from my home to anywhere). It's hard to make a decision. Travelling is such a pain. I don't win either way. I guess at least I enjoy driving, like, 90% of the time (when it's not morning rush hour). I enjoy public transport 0% of the time. Like someone said in the papers recently, it doesn't take a PhD to decide which one to choose. Rant over. Feel free to ignore. 
|
||||||
| woof woof |
BeN, you should move to East Cleveland or North Yorkshire. I haven't been to too many places the world over but I'm convinced that I have some of the worlds best driving roads around me.
Come on...move over here... |
||||||
| gonnabuildabuggy |
Ben, this isn't stress. Consider driving with also grappling with:
a) The likelihood you might lose your job tomorrow and you've a family to feed. b) You're wife has just left you for another person. c) You've got to make 50 staff redundant this morning. d) You've just been told you're child is seriously ill and needs a life or death operation. That's stress, driving is just hassle. I'd also suggest you pay more attention and drive slower in petrol stations. 
|
||||||
| BeN |
I want to. I really want to. Sponsor me? 
|
||||||
| BeN |
Yeah, I know. But it's so frustrating that something I love makes me go so mad as well. I was driving very slowly. (Walking pace. Any faster and it wouldn't have been pretty) It was 50-50 really. I didn't see him and he didn't see me. |
||||||
| gonnabuildabuggy |
Get a track car! Problems solved. | ||||||
| BeN |
No track to drive it on. 
|
||||||
| Turbonutter |
I'm glad I live in the area I do. Driving for me is still a pleasure - my route to work is an interesting B-road ( or I can take a dual-carriageway )
Snippet |
||||||
| Bob Sacramento |
Only if you're cycling here. 
|
||||||
| Boxer6 |
Oooh, cruel!
|
||||||
| DradusContact |
I got lost last week going to my mates and ended up in manchester city centre. Even though it was 7pm i rarely got up to 30mph. Its all red lights, make 20 yards, red light. It had me going mental, city driving is not for me. | ||||||
| TimR |
Given Ben's fondness for fast food (as stated elsewhere) I'm sure he's got a well enough padded arse for an epic cycle like that
|
||||||
| BeN |
Unfortunately my leg doesn't hold up for cycling. Doctor's orders.
|
||||||
| Turbonutter |
Nor me - I see so many of these threads wanting a comfy barge for £2k on PH and I can appreciate why people in cities want one...but it's not for me. I'd probably take the bus or train if possible if I lived somewhere like that. I like the joy of the open road 
|
||||||
| Bob Sacramento |
My stress levels dropped at least 50% when I switched to an auto. Having fought my way through traffic to and from work I'd arrive home mentallly knackered. Now I just relax, stick some music on and let the car creep through traffic by itself. Public transport isn't an option - well it is, it would just take 2 hours to get to work.
I'm sure that coming through the Tyne Tunnel I could just hop in the back for a kip and let it get on with it. |
||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Two journalists tried this with a Rolls-Royce on the banking at Millbrook. They got to the hands-off speed (100 mph, I think), set the cruise, and climbed in the back. |
||||||
| Scouse |
When me & mrs Scouse first got married we only had the one car as she got a lift to and from work whilst I had the 'pleasure' of having to drive to and from Sale every day. M6 south, M62 east, M60 anticlockwise of a morning, reverse on the way home. Leaving anytime after 6.30 -7 am turned into a 15 mph stop-start-crawl when I'd just manage to scrape into work for 9am. If my parents where on holiday I'd nick their Merc instead and thr stress would just bleed away as I left it in D the whole way. |
||||||
| Scouse |
Sutters and Goodwin wasn't it in a Bentley? IIRC there was a rather large bump in the outer lane which caused the cruise to switch off causing a mad scramble back into the front seats. |
||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Yes, I think it was them, and I remember about the cruise deactivating itself. | ||||||
| Bob Sacramento |
You're right. When you drive 12 hours a week through rush hour traffic, the fact that an auto might not give you that last 10/10ths of driving pleasure on the odd occassion you come across a quiet bit of driving road on the weekend assumes less importance. |
||||||
| woof woof |
You're all reminding me of my auto Jag S, a stress less drive and rode and handled very well too. I'd recommend them to anyone. | ||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
I had a similar though reverse direction commute in 1996-7: M56 west from Wilmslow, M6 north across Thelwall, M62 west for one junction, then round the boonies of Warrington to Lingley Mere. That was when they had the roadworks on Thelwall, so it was horrendous. Also avoided the worst by leaving the house before 7.00, but not much I could so in the afternoon. |
||||||
| Scouse |
Yeah, coming home was a nightmare. 5pm finish, M60 clockwise past the Trafford Centre over Barton Bridge... Took me over 6 hours to get home one friday night on the run up to christmas.
The only highlight of my drive home was the fianl stretch of motorway was the M58, Orrell interchange to the Ormskirk/St Helens junction. Probably the most lightly policed section of motorway in the land. Full throttle through three gearchanges to the top of the hill, where you get a good look for the next mile to see if Mr Plod is waiting, before deciding whether or not to give it beans through fourth or not. |
||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Don't even get me started on the &%$&%$"&$& Trafford Centre. Should bomb the place. | ||||||
| Scouse |
"Where should we build a fooking huge shopping centre with thousands and thousands of car parking spaces that's only sensibly accessed by car?" " I know! Just inside one of the busiest orbital motorways in the country, right by some of the most awkward junctions and a fooking steep bridge." "Genius!" |
||||||
| gonnabuildabuggy |
Agree totally, much as I love driving sticking it in D to zoom/crawl down the M1/M6 is far better. For country lanes there is always kick down. |
||||||
| DaveGibson |
Or in the IS, the flappy paddles. |
||||||
| Bob Sacramento |
Careful lads, if we start an autobox love-in we will be ostracised and banished to our own little corner of the forum where no self respecting motoring enthusiast will speak to us.
If they come looking you haven't seen us, right? |
||||||
| Martin |
Luckily my commute doesn't suffer much from traffic problems and I don't have to trudge across urban areas either, so I don't have to resort to getting an automatic. It also means that I have interesting roads (although not so interesting when you are on them every day) to drive on, with overtaking chances and proper corners!
It was pretty awful when our HO was just outside Croydon, the M4/M25 commute was terrible most days. Luckily I only had to go once or sometimes twice a week in the role I had at that time. |
||||||
| gonnabuildabuggy |
To be honest, I don't think the benefits of a manual are so great on a non tubro big NA car - kick down gives you pretty much whatever gear you want to be in and take off is immediate.
The only big downside is no dropping the clutch to spin the rear wheels.
|
||||||
| Martin |
I've not tried that yet....
The Suburban would happily spin the wheels in 2 wheel drive mode and that was an Auto! |
||||||
| DaveGibson |
My automatic IS will light up the traction control light if I try, particularly when turning out of a junction. I'm sure if you held it on the brake with the torque converter just about to stall and then released the brake, you'd get some wheelspin. |
||||||
| Apex clipper |
Yes. US manual fella's are watching.
|
||||||
| Blarno |
I drive an auto.
At work. FLTs would be a pain in the arse with a manual 'box.
|
||||||
| Guitar Zero |
It's no secret that I like driving. I love driving. It's one of the very few things that I'm good at.
I nearly knocked someone over because a) He was walking without looking in a petrol station, and b) I wasn't fully awake this morning, and the stress of driving to school probably got to me.
|
||||||
| gonnabuildabuggy |
The 328 will spin the wheels easily enough on wet junctions and I guess the other would work (at 170K miles I'm wary of stressing the box) but doughnuts seem to be out of the question
|
||||||
| Turbonutter |
A slippy diff will help enormously with donutting 
|
||||||
| Blarno |
Hey, I've fallen off my bike on the way to work due to the 'stress'!
|
||||||
| BeN |
I'm great when I pay attention.
|
||||||
| Turbonutter |
Looking at some other forums and the complaints re traffic, road restraints etc it must be incredibly frustrating to have a sporty car in London or similar and never really get the chance to drive it apart from one trip a year to France etc or the odd visit to relatives in North Yorks or the like. The irony is that the people who get the large amounts needed to buy these sort of cars tend to live in big cities. | ||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
One reason for choosing to live in Docklands was ease of exit from the city and, more importantly, just over an hour from the Channel Tunnel. Living further in must be horrendous though. | ||||||
| DradusContact |
I got my Ka into triple figures on that stretch
|
||||||
| DradusContact |
I couldnt commute in traffic in mine, the clutch hurts your foor if your sitting on it for more than a few seconds. | ||||||
| TimR |
You should try sitting on the seat instead.
|
||||||
| DradusContact |
Ah, of course! | ||||||
| DaveGibson |
You could try selecting neutral then releasing the clutch. That way you won't bugger the thrust bearing. |
||||||
| DradusContact |
I do actually. But you cant really sit in neutral when your moving along slowly in 1st, the clutch is sort of needed. | ||||||
| Turbonutter |
There's a similar bit going west from Overley Hill on the A5 bypass - as long as you keep an eye out for speeding policemen testing the 155+ mph speeds in their Vectras!
|