Horrific MLM'ing

[catman]

Block shifting generally was only used when changing down, so the type of car was irrelevant.

I lost count of the disagreements that I had with other Instructors about not using every gear when slowing down or stopping.

Tim

[JonRB]

I find when 'pressing on' that block upshifting isn't helpful and when driving normally, short shifting seems (to me) to be preferable.

However, for downshifting it's hard to argue against it.

[Muddle238]

AC43 said:

I recently had a lift from a young fella back into London on the M40 from the Wycombe junction. He was straight into lane 2 and stayed there that whole way indicating 65-75 mph. Loads of people passing on the left, staring, gesticulating and so on. I was mortified and worried for my safety. He was utterly oblivious. Very very strange.

I had something similar once, a mate giving us a lift in his 02 Fiesta, four of us plus luggage, heading down the A3. Straight out to lane 2, foot flat to the floor. Going up some hills the heavies in lane 1 were actually pulling away from him, but he was desperate to overtake (eventually). After many terrfying miles (I never brought myself to look to see what size of queue had built up behind us), he was approaching a van in lane 1 but decided there wasn't enough drama in actually managing an overtake, so he dived in behind the van, on the brakes, wound down the windy-window and started waving all the traffic past. Shortly after, having lost all momentum, back into lane 2 and repeat...

Never been in a car with him since.

[JonRB]

The scariest passenger ride I ever had was when my sister was learning to drive.

Before I go any further, and especially as I know that my sister's husband reads my posts, I should point out that my sister is a very competent driver and that this happened when she was a learner which is quite a long time ago now when we were both little more than kids.

I was passengering her as the titular "instructor" (although really I was just fulfilling the legalities of her driving on a Provisional licence - I didn't presume to be coaching her as I had only myself passed about 2 years previously and didn't want to undo the training of her actual driving instructor. It was just so she could gain experience.)

We were approaching a roundabout on a two lane dual carriageway and it went something like this...

"You should really think about braking soon...
"I think you should brake...
"You really need to brake...
"Brake please...
"Brake!...
"BRAKE!!...
"For GOD'S SAKE BRAKE!!!"

and she turned to me (actually, literally turned to face me), took her feet off the pedals, all but put her hands on her hips (thankfully that wasn't literally) and said
"Don't you tell me what to do!!"

To which I screamed
"BRAKE OR WE DIE!!!"

Happy days. We laugh about it now. I think.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 25th November 19:55

[Baz Tench]

JonRB said:

Before I go any further, and especially as I know that my wife's husband reads my posts,

I don't think he has this time....

[JonRB]

Baz Tench said:

I don't think he has this time....

Oops! ha ha! I meant my sister's husband - my brother-in-law.

Post corrected.

[Blakewater]

JonRB said:

It's true. I had a discussion with my ex-wife (whilst we was my wife) about block-shifting the gears once and she hotly told me "well that's not what my driving instructor taught me to do!"

I passed my test about 12 years ago and I was taught block shifting, but mainly when going down the gears. My instructor used to talk about the difficulty in taking on pupils who'd been learning to drive with their parents for a while before they went to him and about having to get them out of doing things their parents had been taught and had passed on to them that weren't considered best practice any more. The main example was going down through every gear when slowing and stopping and he was very keen to get that out of anybody who'd been taught to do it.

[JonRB]

Blakewater said:

I passed my test about 12 years ago and I was taught block shifting, but mainly when going down the gears. My instructor used to talk about the difficulty in taking on pupils who'd been learning to drive with their parents for a while before they went to him and about having to get them out of doing things their parents had been taught and had passed on to them that weren't considered best practice any more. The main example was going down through every gear when slowing and stopping and he was very keen to get that out of anybody who'd been taught to do it.

Well, that's encouraging.