Separation of braking and gear changing - WHY?
Discussion
As someone who openly disagrees with the above being considered a pre-requisite for being considered a good driver, I ask the question:
Why should you completely finish braking for a hazard, losing all available torque from the engine, before engaging the gear for the job? Or to be more succinct - why must you not change gear whilst braking?
Why should you completely finish braking for a hazard, losing all available torque from the engine, before engaging the gear for the job? Or to be more succinct - why must you not change gear whilst braking?
Thanks for all of your responses.
It was a loaded question of course. I was hoping for someone to suggest that downshifting while braking was inherently a "bad" thing for reasons of car balance... at which point I was hoping to mention automatic gearboxes and their own behaviour
However, you didn't... rats!
I agree it is a way of enforcing safety because it forces one to achieve hazard speed well before the hazard itself. However, I wonder how many drivers of automatics achieve hazard speed with the same margin of safety as someone driving a manual does due to the rules of system driving?
Perhaps it's my own intolerance of a very patronising IAM observer - who, although happy with my progress in all other respects, assured me some years ago that I would never make the grade until I adopted this particular aspect of the system - that I packed in the training with the feeling that the whole approach was very small minded; which is a shame, as I have always maintained an interest, and now find myself here trying to come to terms with it all again, and am beginning to suspect that my observer might have been a bit of a system evangelist....
Don't get me wrong - the observed runs helped me a great deal in roadcraft - I might have competed in motorsport for a few years, but that meant very little when it came to adopting the right attitude on the public roads.
However, I think the important philosophy behind these specific phases of the system is that the vehicle slows to the correct speed BEFORE entering the hazard, and not upon arrival. This philosophy shouldn't dicate HOW you bring the car into that state - that is an issue of car control, NOT roadcraft - IMHO!
It was a loaded question of course. I was hoping for someone to suggest that downshifting while braking was inherently a "bad" thing for reasons of car balance... at which point I was hoping to mention automatic gearboxes and their own behaviour
However, you didn't... rats!
I agree it is a way of enforcing safety because it forces one to achieve hazard speed well before the hazard itself. However, I wonder how many drivers of automatics achieve hazard speed with the same margin of safety as someone driving a manual does due to the rules of system driving?
Perhaps it's my own intolerance of a very patronising IAM observer - who, although happy with my progress in all other respects, assured me some years ago that I would never make the grade until I adopted this particular aspect of the system - that I packed in the training with the feeling that the whole approach was very small minded; which is a shame, as I have always maintained an interest, and now find myself here trying to come to terms with it all again, and am beginning to suspect that my observer might have been a bit of a system evangelist....
Don't get me wrong - the observed runs helped me a great deal in roadcraft - I might have competed in motorsport for a few years, but that meant very little when it came to adopting the right attitude on the public roads.
However, I think the important philosophy behind these specific phases of the system is that the vehicle slows to the correct speed BEFORE entering the hazard, and not upon arrival. This philosophy shouldn't dicate HOW you bring the car into that state - that is an issue of car control, NOT roadcraft - IMHO!
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