Driving classics in the rain.
Discussion
That's a great video! Alpi seemed to cope remarkably well.
When I first got my Saab, back in 2001, we were camping just south of Lyon when a storm hit. We first noticed the hail when it started smashing the fairy lights outside the restaurant. Within minutes it was so loud on the tin roof we could no longer hear each other shouting.
The hailstones were bigger than golf balls and dead birds were dropping out of trees. Caravans suffered shattered roof lights and the thunder and lightning went on for seven hours.
Next morning it looked like a battle zone and the Saab had suffered some pimples on the bonnet and boot, but the soft top had just bounced them off!
When I first got my Saab, back in 2001, we were camping just south of Lyon when a storm hit. We first noticed the hail when it started smashing the fairy lights outside the restaurant. Within minutes it was so loud on the tin roof we could no longer hear each other shouting.
The hailstones were bigger than golf balls and dead birds were dropping out of trees. Caravans suffered shattered roof lights and the thunder and lightning went on for seven hours.
Next morning it looked like a battle zone and the Saab had suffered some pimples on the bonnet and boot, but the soft top had just bounced them off!
Classics are better in crappy weather than you might think. For one thing, narrower tyres tend to cut through the snow and slush better than low profiles. A few years ago I set off for work in an A6 quattro and thought “this is a bit boring”, and went back to get the TR6. It handled the snow perfectly well. Admittedly it wasn’t deep snow, and also I froze. Also, I’ve found Triumph sportcars horrible in spray, on the motorway. Terrifying actually.
May 2019 we set off to drive LeJoG in our Riley One-Point-Five. The drive south from our home in Derbyshire was uneventful, boring even until we neared Okehampton on the A30 when the sky turned black, the heavens opened and for an hour or more we battled through the heaviest rain I've seen in a long time.
Traffic slowed to less than 40mph, cars, motorhomes and caravans sought refuge in laybys, lorries were to be kept well clear off and the Riley's single speed wipers were struggling to clear the screen which was also misting up and needed constant wiping - luckily it's within easy reach.
I found that with the car well laden for our trip the relatively skinny tyres cut through the water rather well so where modern cars were having to stop, we were able to splash on and eventually the sky lightened and the rain stopped.
It was around then I discovered the indicators had failed, due to the rain I guessed but we carried on as best we could and reached Penzance, parked outside Halfords and I set about fault finding. The horn had also stopped working but that wasn't so much of a concern.
A new fuse fixed the horn but I couldn't find what had caused the flashers to fail; it didn't appear to be water ingress so called our recovery service. John, who responded, found the flasher unit had died - it was one electrical spare I didn't have, neither did Halfords nor did John but he suggested we call in at his base in St Just the following morning where there might be 'something'.
In case they didn't, 'Where did we want to be taken?' he asked.
'John O'Groats' I replied.
The look on his face was priceless...
Next day we called in at the garage in St Just - no luck but I called a MG specialist in St Agnes and after stopping there we were flashing again within ten minutes and the sun shone all the way to John O'Groats too
(Sorry for the lengthy post, O/H is watching tennis.)
Traffic slowed to less than 40mph, cars, motorhomes and caravans sought refuge in laybys, lorries were to be kept well clear off and the Riley's single speed wipers were struggling to clear the screen which was also misting up and needed constant wiping - luckily it's within easy reach.
I found that with the car well laden for our trip the relatively skinny tyres cut through the water rather well so where modern cars were having to stop, we were able to splash on and eventually the sky lightened and the rain stopped.
It was around then I discovered the indicators had failed, due to the rain I guessed but we carried on as best we could and reached Penzance, parked outside Halfords and I set about fault finding. The horn had also stopped working but that wasn't so much of a concern.
A new fuse fixed the horn but I couldn't find what had caused the flashers to fail; it didn't appear to be water ingress so called our recovery service. John, who responded, found the flasher unit had died - it was one electrical spare I didn't have, neither did Halfords nor did John but he suggested we call in at his base in St Just the following morning where there might be 'something'.
In case they didn't, 'Where did we want to be taken?' he asked.
'John O'Groats' I replied.
The look on his face was priceless...
Next day we called in at the garage in St Just - no luck but I called a MG specialist in St Agnes and after stopping there we were flashing again within ten minutes and the sun shone all the way to John O'Groats too
(Sorry for the lengthy post, O/H is watching tennis.)
When I'd not long had the XK150 I'd arranged to meet up with someone at Oxford M40 services as I'd bought a set of HD8s on a bored out manifold from him. Naturally I took the 150 as the other guy wanted to see it. Returning home I didn't really fancy sitting on the M40, so pulled off at the Thame junction to head up the old A40 towards Stokenchurch and then turn to Christmas common and home on the minor roads. It was late November, England and therefore raining. As Aston Hill climbs from Lewknor it's a lovely twisty bit of road and at least back then there were two lanes going up and one down. I caught up with some modern GTi thing and was aiming to pass it in the outside lane, but everything I got to one of the bends the rear end would step out and slide gracefully around the corner. Probably not sensible to over take in a large angel drift. Fortunately next straightish bit was long enough to pass safely.
Cross Plies do drift nicely.
Would never have been half as much fun in a modern.
On the other hand my first attempt to drive the 150 on the track at Goodwood in the pouring rain was hopeless, neither end wanted to go where I wanted it to. Fortunately the guy who'd done the development driving for the Blockeley cross plies was parked next to me in the paddocks and was able to give me some sound advise to setting them up for the conditions... best advise was just wait for it to blow over
Cross Plies do drift nicely.
Would never have been half as much fun in a modern.
On the other hand my first attempt to drive the 150 on the track at Goodwood in the pouring rain was hopeless, neither end wanted to go where I wanted it to. Fortunately the guy who'd done the development driving for the Blockeley cross plies was parked next to me in the paddocks and was able to give me some sound advise to setting them up for the conditions... best advise was just wait for it to blow over
That video was a bum puckerer. Thanks for sharing!
Funnily enough my commer van is fine to drive in the wet. It's the dry that it is pretty average in and probably because I'm going faster. Having the engine tucked all the way up beside me probably helps too.
My 66 Chevy C20 is a nightmare. I have heavy duty rear coil springs on the rear and truck tyres so it has very little give. The first sign of any wet and the back end goes where it wants. So it makes an already slow journey even slower.
Funnily enough my commer van is fine to drive in the wet. It's the dry that it is pretty average in and probably because I'm going faster. Having the engine tucked all the way up beside me probably helps too.
My 66 Chevy C20 is a nightmare. I have heavy duty rear coil springs on the rear and truck tyres so it has very little give. The first sign of any wet and the back end goes where it wants. So it makes an already slow journey even slower.
bartelbe said:
The issue isn't handling, as others have said. People in the past didn't all fly into the nearest ditch at the first hint of rain or snow. The problem is your car will start to dissolve if you let it near a road which has had salt on it and is wet.
In the good old days people struggled to afford one car, never mind two, whereas today the majority of classic cars are second or third cars so exposing them to salty roads is far less necessary. I reckon the biggest risk to my Riley are other drivers hence the arrival this week and impending fitment of a front disc brake kit.
To return to a watery theme, I have an unnatural urge to drive through fords
Riley Blue said:
Unnatural? Really? I thought we all had that urge from our first very first pushbike onwards...
Unfortunately, no pic's exist of us "fording" a swollen river on our way back from a visit to Stoke Mandeville. The fifty year old Triumph 2000 handled the conditions admirably despite the bonnet being underwater for part of the time, other than trying to drift away down the river, and cutting a dinner plate sized hole through the radiator with the fan blades... still made it home. (Not my most sensible decision, but we were going through a seriously bad time and it did give us some laughs which were in short supply round about then... could've gone badly wrong, but it didn't.)
Riley Blue said:
"Cross Plies do drift nicely."
You're not kidding. I discovered when I drove my Riley home after buying it, the first mini-roundabout took me by complete surprise; I switched to radials within days.
Oh, I liked the cross-plies, there wasn't a shortage of grip, my comment was that when you do exceed it, they just drifted nice and smoothly and even a ham fisted klutz like me could feel in control. The bit that others found disconcerting was they way they follow imperfection in the road, so they tend to hunt about on the road and you have to concentrate more. Radial tend to keep a straighter path, well they do till people stick stupidly low profile wide things on cars. Before buying LadyB8's current Merc we test drove a demonstrator E class (W212) which tended to tramline more than the XK ever did. You're not kidding. I discovered when I drove my Riley home after buying it, the first mini-roundabout took me by complete surprise; I switched to radials within days.
Hi Shezbo,
Sorry that you think it wasn't sensible. We were out away from home when the weather changed, we didn't set out is such awful conditions . You are right that we could have parked and waited for the storm to pass but it would have been a wait of 4-5 hours until it had changed significantly and the car can take bad weather with few problems.
If we got caught out again we would do exactly the same.
Best Wishes,
Puddles
Sorry that you think it wasn't sensible. We were out away from home when the weather changed, we didn't set out is such awful conditions . You are right that we could have parked and waited for the storm to pass but it would have been a wait of 4-5 hours until it had changed significantly and the car can take bad weather with few problems.
If we got caught out again we would do exactly the same.
Best Wishes,
Puddles
In nearly 40 years of ownership I have only been defeated by rain twice and both times on the same rally in 1996. Once on the motorway in the south of France when I had to park under a bridge because even with the three wipers I couldn't see, and the second time climbing the Jura and the clouds got blacker and blacker, so I stopped at a bar and asked if he had a garage or shelter for the two cars nearby. I know how savage storms can get up there. Just as well we did, because I have never seen bigger hailstones, and other cars turned up at the hotel after us looking as if someone had gone over them with a hammer.
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