goldnrust
West Midlands
Minimalist
Posts: 1,872
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Nov 16, 2017 22:17:28 GMT
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Toughest car to drive I've driven was my old Rx7, when it was fitted with a lightweight flywheel and paddle clutch.
It was actually quite easy to drive, as long as you were happy to pull away from every stop with plenty of wheel spin, but to pull away smoothly without creating a scene in traffic was a serious challenge.
Add to this very stiff suspension with an open diff, this meant it would tripod over slope transitions in things like multi-storey carparks and getting on and off my drive. Once the inside wheel started to lift, there was no drive, so yeah parking the car often involved lots of revs, a run up and a fair amount of tyre squeal.
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Nov 19, 2017 22:39:18 GMT
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love column change , learned to drive in '70's hi aces and mazda b1800..great fun!! image-cdn.beforward.jp/files/pictures/201303/105744/BF111393_1.jpg
That reminded me of a red W reg Hiace pickup pool hack we used to rag around East Devon when I was an apprentice at Seaton Toyota back in the eraly 90's. It was massively abused but I remember loving it and it's column shift! I was 17 and used to wheelspin its very light back end off every junction thinking how cool I looked! No pics of it but it looked like this green one. I'd love one of the camper versions of these someday...
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Nov 19, 2017 22:41:24 GMT
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Green? I meant white!
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My wife would probably say either of my manual Falcons if asked this question. One with column three speed and no power steering, the other, two generations newer, one with five speed floor change and very heavy clutch.
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Nov 29, 2017 22:18:00 GMT
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I have two candidates for the title of "hardest to drive"... I'm ignoring the word 'car' coz I'm a rebel like that!
The first candidate is a Mercedes-Benz Atego 7.5ton truck that I had the misfortune of having to drive for a week. As trucks go, it seemed fine at first, quite comfortable, quiet enough and not unpleasant. However, Mercedes had fitted this thing with an automatic transmission; which is fine until you pull up at a junction on a gradient, apply the parking brake (pneumatic lever on a truck) and wait for a gap in the traffic... It is at this point that you realise that a 7.5ton truck simply won't pull away on an uphill gradient without plenty of gas, there's no clutch pedal and that the pneumatic parking brake is basically an on/off switch, so you need to have your foot on the brake pedal to stop it from rolling backwards when it's released. You then look down at your feet and discover that the left one has a massive steering column between it and the two pedals. In short, a hill-start is impossible.
Several people have mentioned Land Rover in this thread, and my second candidate is the ultimate 'hard-to-drive' version... the V8 Forward Control (101") Land Rover. Getting in is not elegant. Starting the thing is a tricky process. First gear is at arm's length towards the passenger's knees. The steering has about 45 degrees of free-play in either direction before the wheels begin to turn. The steered wheels are beneath you, not out in front, which is a bit disorientating. The engine is surprisingly powerful, and the gears are short, so as soon you accelerate you have to dip the clutch and find second, which is at arms length somewhere behind you. By this time the thing has wandered across the road, so you need to find a new straight-ahead position for the steering wheel. Now lift the clutch, accelerate in second, lift off, drop the clutch, find straight-ahead again, move the gear lever the three-and-a-half feet from 2nd to 3rd, straighten the steering, lift the clutch, roar off again, steer, clutch, steer again, 4th is almost behind you, surge forward, steer.... and start braking because something's stopped half a mile ahead of you and we're up to about 30mph. If you're thinking of driving for more than 5 minutes, you'll need ear defenders as the engine is under your left elbow and the tyre noise is horrendous. If it's raining, you have no hope of seeing through the 10" wiper blades crawling across the screen as slowly as possible, and the heat from the engine will almost certainly steam up all the windows.
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Last Edit: Nov 29, 2017 22:24:06 GMT by marky2202
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Nov 29, 2017 23:14:22 GMT
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Marky! As you said, I totally agree, I've driven both. The Antigo was a hire truck, not driven one for 15 years and then rented one to drive from wiltshire to kings cross. It was utterly hopeless in traffic on hills, and it lurched so badly in traffic that how I didn't rear end someone is a miracle.
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tdk
Part of things
Posts: 958
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