How good a driver are you?

[SVS]

How good a driver are you?

For anyone curious, here's the Daily Telegraph article featuring John Lyon's quiz about driving:
www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/9197574/H...

[leggly]

In my head I am a driving god I'm sure other people would say otherwise unbelievebly! The majority is not always the norm so I must be right. Now, where was I?

[randomeddy]

I did not even understand some of the questions.
Tyre trade off.I thought it was how much you wanted to spend/quality of tyre.

[Riley Blue]

John Lyon once told me I was 'average'. Coming from him I considered it a compliment.

[Chr1sch]

Christ, I guess I'll be getting the bus...

I knew stuff about understeer etc but some of those were just baffling questions let alone answers...

[Dave Hedgehog]

question 1 - can you lap the ring in under 8.30


that is all


is this carp even in english?? beige adenoid man syndrome ....

[rsv gone!]

Maybe it is just me but I thought the questions were written in an obtuse manner to make scores as low as possible.

Isn't 10 rev-matching and not double-declutching?

[Gooly]

I agree with you in that alot of the questions seem overly specific and academic and not really relevant to actually driving, but no rev matching isnt the same; double declutching involves rev matching but they arent the same thing. Rev matching is just blipping the throttle to match revs with engine speed, double declutching involves using neutral to match the gearbox speed with the rest as well, thus saving the synchros from doing any work.

Rev matching is useful, double declutching is a little obselete in modern cars but i still do it, i feel a bit dirty to not double declutch a downshift.

[Herman Toothrot]

Gooly said:

I agree with you in that alot of the questions seem overly specific and academic and not really relevant to actually driving, but no rev matching isnt the same; double declutching involves rev matching but they arent the same thing. Rev matching is just blipping the throttle to match revs with engine speed, double declutching involves using neutral to match the gearbox speed with the rest as well, thus saving the synchros from doing any work.

Rev matching is useful, double declutching is a little obselete in modern cars but i still do it, i feel a bit dirty to not double declutch a downshift.

I thought general opinion is double declutching these days in anything remotely modern is a totally pointless slowing down of gear changing? I remember being at a trackday and a chap in a Caterham came in after a lesson by the track day instructor and said to his mates how 'I need to realise its not the 60's anymore, told to forget double declutching'.

[JimmyTheHand]

randomeddy said:

Tyre trade off.I thought it was how much you wanted to spend/quality of tyre.

Or could have equally referred - the compromises to make tyre perform well on wet and dry roads to most people, which is probably more important to understand for most road drivers.

[JimmyTheHand]

rsv gone! said:

Maybe it is just me but I thought the questions were written in an obtuse manner to make scores as low as possible

It reminds me of comments about one of my college lecturers (by his colleagues, not students) - his tests were written to show how clever he was, not how clever the students were.

[SMGB]

Shirley the answer to no 13 is " a dab of oppo and I was away"

[Scuffers]

never meet the guy, but the way that is written is crap.

clearly done for effect, and to sell his book.

I strongly disagree that you can learn driving by reading.

[SMGB]

Scuffers said:

never meet the guy, but the way that is written is crap.

clearly done for effect, and to sell his book.

I strongly disagree that you can learn driving by reading.

+1, I mean front ARB FFS, yes I changed the one on my MGB but 99% of the populace dont even know they have one let alone what it does. yuo could move the roll centre while you have the spanners out, right.
Frankly he is trying a bit too hard so very uncool.

[R0G]

Scuffers said:

never meet the guy, but the way that is written is crap.

clearly done for effect, and to sell his book.

I strongly disagree that you can learn driving by reading.

I agree

As an IAM observer I can say that theory is great but only if it is used as underpinning knoowledge for the practical


A book will put it one way but we all understand things differently so any info needs to be tailored for the individual

[Blib]

Scuffers said:

never meet the guy, but the way that is written is crap.

clearly done for effect, and to sell his book.

I strongly disagree that you can learn driving by reading.

I agree. I learnt my very average driving skills by actually driving since 1977. The article is really about how good you are at taking exams.

[R0G]

How good a driver are you?

Only one way to really answer that question - ask another who you respect the opinion of to sit next to you when you drive and be open minded for them to be honest with you

Any of the advanced driving organisations will give a FREE assessment

[GokTweed]

Does anyone double declutch anymore or has the definition changed? i mean take the gear out, clutch out, clutch in, gear in and all that bks? i just blip the throttle inbetween changes to match the engine speed to make it smoother.

[R0G]

DDC with a synchro box = daft unless the gear changes need too be slowed down for someone who snatches at them

[Cliftonite]

GokTweed said:

Does anyone double declutch anymore or has the definition changed? i mean take the gear out, clutch out, clutch in, gear in and all that bks? i just blip the throttle inbetween changes to match the engine speed to make it smoother.

I must confess I double-declutch all down changes. It's the habit of a lifetime and means I do not have to think too much about it when driving classic buses or putting my Morris 1000 into first gear on the move.

However, I have been told off twice by instructors for doing it : once when driving a modern lorry and once when driving a Lotus Exige at Silverstone.