PH Blog: rain stops play
Harris takes issue with our inability to cope with a spot of rain
Unless you are filming very powerful cars on a race circuit, rain doesn't help driving. The general reduction in grip levels can be fun in some cars (no Trent/Garlick - not an invitation to fly the flag for MX-5s...), but in general, road conditions deteriorate and, more importantly, so do the driving standards. It's all very well enjoying the added slitheryness of your little roadster, but if the roads are clogged with lemmings unable to travel at anything above 27mph, your chances of enjoying that loose chassis are low to zero.
What a month of rain has confirmed is just how little the average UK motorist knows about the performance of his or her car in the rain. The same non-enthusiast who, in the dry, will happily scratch about on trunk roads above the national speed limit and hack down the M40 at 99.8mph in his Audi A4 2.0 TDi, immediately assumes that a single downpour transforms his car into a Ford Anglia on crossplies. With faulty rear brakes.
If people knew just how effective a modern chassis, on healthy premium rubber was on a damp or wet road, they'd be astonished. Of course there's less grip, but the drop-off isn't anything like as pronounced as most of the population assume it to be, and because people have no understanding or experience of grip limits, they just slow down to laughable speeds.
A few days ago I followed a car I have seen several times driven locally at a decent lick. It was raining and this car was now barely trundling. And yes, it did contain the same driver. By all means take 10-15 per cent off your speed, but 50 per cent? That's madness.
Should this read like a rallying call for people to drive much faster in the wet, I apologise, because it certainly isn't meant to be. That would be madness. We just don't need to slow down to the degree that we do.
The most dangerous aspect of wet roads is the unpredictability of surface changes: fresh rain on dry surfaces leeches out lubricants and other slippery stuff, downpours are sometimes absorbed by the drainage system, but they also tend to leave random lakes that a 285/35 P-Zero is notably incapable of handling.
I haven't driven much over Christmas partly because there hasn't been much need and partly because of all the reasons listed above. If lemmings are a frustration on a dry summer's day, they're too much to handle in a deluge.
But it's the other aspects of a sodden journey that I find almost more depressing. I hate getting wet walking to the car. I hate the way that water then spreads itself over the upholstery - and leaving the door ajar for a nano second always soaks the door trim. I hate the way that water then evaporates and coats itself onto the glass. Lots of hate there.
Living in the sticks, water means mud. Everything I climb into gets muddy - it's unavoidable and quite depressing in a car with 10 grand of light grey Nappa leather. Buying a loaf of bread leaves me looking like a failed Wipeout contestant.
Oddly, none of this seems to matter as much when you're driving a shagged-out old Range Rover -my wheels of choice in these conditions. The teddy bear seats are never too cold, the mud is indecipherable on top of the seven layers of older mud and a bit of water on the electric window switches tends to make them work a little better.
But no need to get too depressed about all this. Right now I'm dreaming of summer time. Blue skies, dry roads and something fast.
The DRIVE videos resume soon.
Here's to 2013, it's going to be fun.
Chris
My personal pet hate is people who dawdle out of a T-junction right in front of me assuming I'm also driving at 50% like they are, rather than looking at what the f*** I'm *actually* doing which is travelling perfectly safely at the speed limit. Cue me having to slam on the brakes, which funnily enough actually does bring me down to their speed before I slam into the back of them but no thanks to their actions...
The fact that there is no training for driving your car to its limit, means most people have no idea where the limit is, or what the car will do when exceeds the limit.
If there were more places with facilities like those at the Porsche centre, perhaps drivers would take the opertunity to learn more about their car and what it can do.
Either you have the crowd who slow to a crawl as mentioned or ones that refuse to allow more than a fag paper between them and your rear bumper, regardless of the fact that you obviously cant make headway because of the line of traffic in front of you.
A very particular incident of the above i noticed the driver was happy to do this with his two young kids in the car, he must have been in such a rush to get the 4 miles down the road to the MacDoanlds he pulled into!!!!! Madness!
However, the driving tests need to be A LOT more difficult and comprehensive.
I've been pleasantly surprised at how good the Michelin Pilot SuperSports are in all conditions, from the sub-zero (but dry) road temps we had last year (once they'd had 5 minutes to get a bit of heat into them), to coping well with 3 consecutive BTG laps, to the 200 mile each way weekly commute. They even managed 20k miles on the rears, and the fronts are less than 1/2 worn.
I was even more surprised at how much difference they made compared to a run-flat-shod MINI Countryman when my Z4MC was in for an Insp2. The trip in the MINI was awful, and I was constantly aware of every last MM of water on the road. The trip back (in my Z4MC) was so much better, and despite the rain/standing water not easing it was as if it wasn't there.
What gets my goat is the people in 4x4s (proper ones, not soft-roaders) who almost stop, or take over both lanes on a country lane when there's only 2 inches of standing water.
Night before last the road into our village was blocked by a focus on its roof. Young lad driving had lost it on a wet road with fairly gentle curve. He was on the phone to his parents and looking rather pale when I stopped.
People really do not know how to cope with wet weather whilst driving which is crazy since we know that it rains in the UK - a lot! and has done so for a long long time.
It's nothing new to the nation.
The other day a 4x4 was tiptoeing at about 35mph.
First available straight - take in the degree of water sitting on the tarmac and utilise the massive (ahem) power of my mk3 and overtake safely accomplished.
It's so doable to enjoy wet weather driving - drive for long enough and one can drop the roof (if one is so inclined)
Aside from that 4x4 I've found the latest go-slow culprits tend to be in either small- medium sized Peugeots and VWs.
At the weekend I led a small line of MX5s over the A4069 and then on in to mid Wales. It was wet. Did this deter us from enjoying the roads? of course not.
Caution - tis a good thing but there appears to be a good many overly cautious drivers.
Have fun in a 5 - and you don't always have to be going sideways
and, obviously, not just MX5s.
Driving standards in bad weather are'nt great. People do not leave sufficient gaps between cars even in good weather, so in the rain there is all too often an accident waiting to happen.
I've been rear-ended twice by people whose talent and attention levels were found wanting in wet conditions. And only last week I had to brake to avoid an understeering youth in his 05 model Fiesta understeering into my side of the road on a country lane.
I really don't have a problem with a Driving Miss Daisy type when it is lashing down. Rather that, than being taken out by the clown in the Fiesta as described above..
Too many drivers ( especially young men ) are not driving gods. They are morons. Why am I certain of this? Because I was one, once. One of the benefits of getting older is the ability to reflect on past misdemeanours. I'm just happy I am alive to turn grumpy about it.
Nothing like a set of ditch finders to focus you in the wet. It's not even the lack of grip some of these cheap tyres provide, it's the extreme unpredictability at the limit.
Driving standards in bad weather are'nt great. People do not leave sufficient gaps between cars even in good weather, so in the rain there is all too often an accident waiting to happen.
I've been rear-ended twice by people whose talent and attention levels were found wanting in wet conditions. And only last week I had to brake to avoid an understeering youth in his 05 model Fiesta understeering into my side of the road on a country lane.
I really don't have a problem with a Driving Miss Daisy type when it is lashing down. Rather that, than being taken out by the clown in the Fiesta as described above..
Too many drivers ( especially young men ) are not driving gods. They are morons. Why am I certain of this? Because I was one, once. One of the benefits of getting older is the ability to reflect on past misdemeanours. I'm just happy I am alive to turn grumpy about it.
Anyway. Try commuting on a motorbike in the wet. No traction control. No ABS. Not much rubber in contact with the road. Now THAT'S not for the faint of heart!
But on other days I'm inclined to agree, a bit of rain makes everyone slow down way too much!
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