Seemingly trivial things that cheer you up

orraloon

While en route to the local recycling centre in my pickup truck fully loaded with green waste, seeing the realisation cross the face of an oncoming driver that no, you can't just sweep at speed around a bend in the next village on the wrong side of a road lined with parked cars just because you are in one of those flash-git Merc saloons. Might even have been one of those look-at-me AMGs Cue much heavy braking and trying to make itself smaller.

Stevo_666

orraloon wrote:

While en route to the local recycling centre in my pickup truck fully loaded with green waste, seeing the realisation cross the face of an oncoming driver that no, you can't just sweep at speed around a bend in the next village on the wrong side of a road lined with parked cars just because you are in one of those flash-git Merc saloons. Might even have been one of those look-at-me AMGs Cue much heavy braking and trying to make itself smaller.

It cheers me up that some people can post about others more successful than themselves without a hint of jealousy

Matthewfalle

bumping into someone you last saw 10 years ago and was lovely then and is still lovely now with an utterly wonderful smile that brightens your day.

#nicepeoplearenice

Mad_Malx

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

veronese68

Stevo 666 wrote:

Launch control should be fun, apparently you press a button, keep your foot on the brake, floor the throttle and then take your foot off the brake and hang on for dear life

Most modern* flappy paddle gearboxes use a clutch like in a manual car, but all controlled by electronics. The problem is the computers are very good at fast gearchanges and can do the clever launch control thing, but they're not very good for clutch life. The record I witnessed for using up a clutch was overnight, guy picked up his new car and probably ragged it around that evening then stayed in a hotel. Needed a clutch in the morning, he blamed the valet parking for driving it with the handbrake on. But the claim for the launch control was that the clutch could cope with 6 of them before it needed replacing. Not a problem on an F1 car, but you may not want to use it too often. Don't ask the sales guy how long it lasts, ask the workshop.

* Admittedly this was about 10 years ago, hopefully things have improved since but I suspect an element of it still applies. Also a Merc estate should be better than a 'Rari. If Vtech were around I'm sure he'd tell me I'm wrong and his computer could get a brazillion starts out of one.

Stevo_666

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

Well I did say 'some people'

shirley_basso

Matthewfalle wrote:

bumping into someone you last saw 10 years ago and was lovely then and is still lovely now with an utterly wonderful smile that brightens your day.

#nicepeoplearenice

Bumping into my ex. We didn't have the easiest of relationships but she is a very nice person. Because it ended a bit sourly, I always dread seeing her, but always come away feeling absolutely great (not because we are separated, but because she really is so damn nice!).

Stevo_666

Veronese68 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Launch control should be fun, apparently you press a button, keep your foot on the brake, floor the throttle and then take your foot off the brake and hang on for dear life

Most modern* flappy paddle gearboxes use a clutch like in a manual car, but all controlled by electronics. The problem is the computers are very good at fast gearchanges and can do the clever launch control thing, but they're not very good for clutch life. The record I witnessed for using up a clutch was overnight, guy picked up his new car and probably ragged it around that evening then stayed in a hotel. Needed a clutch in the morning, he blamed the valet parking for driving it with the handbrake on. But the claim for the launch control was that the clutch could cope with 6 of them before it needed replacing. Not a problem on an F1 car, but you may not want to use it too often. Don't ask the sales guy how long it lasts, ask the workshop.

* Admittedly this was about 10 years ago, hopefully things have improved since but I suspect an element of it still applies. Also a Merc estate should be better than a 'Rari. If Vtech were around I'm sure he'd tell me I'm wrong and his computer could get a brazillion starts out of one.

True, I remember the cost of replacements and the slightly jerky nature of paddle clutches from my track days. I think once I've put my eyeballs in the back of my sockets once or twice I'll put that little party trick away.

robert88

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

orraloon

My wife's car has that 'launch control' thing. Neither of us has ever used it, 'cos, you know, adults.

shirley_basso

Stevo 666 wrote:

orraloon wrote:

While en route to the local recycling centre in my pickup truck fully loaded with green waste, seeing the realisation cross the face of an oncoming driver that no, you can't just sweep at speed around a bend in the next village on the wrong side of a road lined with parked cars just because you are in one of those flash-git Merc saloons. Might even have been one of those look-at-me AMGs Cue much heavy braking and trying to make itself smaller.

It cheers me up that some people can post about others more successful than themselves without a hint of jealousy

The shallow measurement of success.

Stevo_666

Robert88 wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

Do your neighbours boast about how well their investments are doing?

Stevo_666

Shirley Basso wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

orraloon wrote:

While en route to the local recycling centre in my pickup truck fully loaded with green waste, seeing the realisation cross the face of an oncoming driver that no, you can't just sweep at speed around a bend in the next village on the wrong side of a road lined with parked cars just because you are in one of those flash-git Merc saloons. Might even have been one of those look-at-me AMGs Cue much heavy braking and trying to make itself smaller.

It cheers me up that some people can post about others more successful than themselves without a hint of jealousy

The shallow measurement of success.

I think you'll find that Looney brought the subject up - no smoke without fire

robert88

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

Do your neighbours boast about how well their investments are doing?

It's not likely since they probably aren't.

orraloon

I like Rolf's way of doing, as posted above. I had a series of Saabs over the years, last one a 9-5 HOT estate which I kept until it died. Loved them. Liked the total lack of bling, no chrome logos with 'i' or 't' or whatever. Just this innocuous looking estate car. But wind up that turbo and whoosh.

I did once get my passenger to do the 5-4-3-2-1 fingers thing to the d!ckhead driver tailgating me on a dual carraigeway while I got the turbo up to 'Go' and... bye bye mr D-head.

orraloon

On the 'success' thing, all depends on how you define it, eh?

I suppose I must have been successful enough to be able to give up the corporate desk jockey life in 2003. Here we are, 15 years later and life is good. Though I might be 97 but then again this is t'internet and you cannot believe all you might read.

cowsham

Veronese68 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Launch control should be fun, apparently you press a button, keep your foot on the brake, floor the throttle and then take your foot off the brake and hang on for dear life

Most modern* flappy paddle gearboxes use a clutch like in a manual car, but all controlled by electronics. The problem is the computers are very good at fast gearchanges and can do the clever launch control thing, but they're not very good for clutch life. The record I witnessed for using up a clutch was overnight, guy picked up his new car and probably ragged it around that evening then stayed in a hotel. Needed a clutch in the morning, he blamed the valet parking for driving it with the handbrake on. But the claim for the launch control was that the clutch could cope with 6 of them before it needed replacing. Not a problem on an F1 car, but you may not want to use it too often. Don't ask the sales guy how long it lasts, ask the workshop.

* Admittedly this was about 10 years ago, hopefully things have improved since but I suspect an element of it still applies. Also a Merc estate should be better than a 'Rari. If Vtech were around I'm sure he'd tell me I'm wrong and his computer could get a brazillion starts out of one.

No gearbox no clutch -- simples

cowsham

Getting a real good deal on a new bike.

slowbike

orraloon wrote:

I did once get my passenger to do the 5-4-3-2-1 fingers thing to the d!ckhead driver tailgating me on a dual carraigeway while I got the turbo up to 'Go' and... bye bye mr D-head.

I liked my old Rover 200 2litre Turbo diesel - donky's years ago now mind ..

We all had a long detour due to flooding on the main road - nose to tail - except the driver behind me thought that I should go just a bit faster - either that or he wanted to see what I had in the back seat - let alone the boot ... anyway ...
slowed it right down to give me a bit of a gap, dropped into 2nd and floored it ... queue one MASSIVE black cloud ... he gave me a bit more room after that

If you want to go back a bit further - I used to race an old class of dinghy - mine was a good 20 years old - although you could get new ones ... did a big race event one summer and a school friend turned up with his brand new model - he was there waxing the shrouds (the wire that holds the mast up) - we did giggle - and never saw him on the water he was so far back ... just proves you can have all the bling/new stuff you want, but it's not what you have, it's what you do with it that counts ... mind you, last I heard he was something big in the Olympic Squad - so jokes on me there

Stevo_666

Robert88 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

Do your neighbours boast about how well their investments are doing?

It's not likely since they probably aren't.

It doesn't stop people boasting about them falsely though. Which you sometimes expect for that sort of person

Stevo_666

orraloon wrote:

On the 'success' thing, all depends on how you define it, eh?

I suppose I must have been successful enough to be able to give up the corporate desk jockey life in 2003. Here we are, 15 years later and life is good. Though I might be 97 but then again this is t'internet and you cannot believe all you might read.

Just wondering why you brought it up in the first place then

Stevo_666

orraloon wrote:

I like Rolf's way of doing, as posted above. I had a series of Saabs over the years, last one a 9-5 HOT estate which I kept until it died. Loved them. Liked the total lack of bling, no chrome logos with 'i' or 't' or whatever. Just this innocuous looking estate car. But wind up that turbo and whoosh.

I did once get my passenger to do the 5-4-3-2-1 fingers thing to the d!ckhead driver tailgating me on a dual carraigeway while I got the turbo up to 'Go' and... bye bye mr D-head.

I used to absolutely love my old 205gti. Ditto my old Evo 6. Had great times driving them very hard on track and haven't lost the taste for fast cars. Although it seems that some people on here are incapable of differentiating fast from flash - as they see it. Bit of a sad indictment of the chip on shoulder mentality that is all too common.

Matthewfalle

orraloon wrote:

My wife's car has that 'launch control' thing. Neither of us has ever used it, 'cos, you know, adults.

how do you mean "cos, you know, adults"? too grown up to have fun?

robert88

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

Do your neighbours boast about how well their investments are doing?

It's not likely since they probably aren't.

It doesn't stop people boasting about them falsely though. Which you sometimes expect for that sort of person

What sort of person? People with flash git cars? TBH I doubt if they actually own them since they would probably buy the car on the company and they change them like they change socks.

Next door has a big Merc hybrid (and a large BMW). I like the way the Merc can start on electric and drift silently away in the morning before the fossil fuel kicks in. They have their own company - architecture - and I doubt if they have time to do investing as they are also starting a family, due any day now.

Further up the road someone has a Tesla - that's a crazy beast.

veronese68

Stevo 666 wrote:

I think once I've put my eyeballs in the back of my sockets once or twice I'll put that little party trick away.

I think most people would do that, it's a bit of a pointless gimmick on a road car. But probably easy for them to put into the electronics as all the sensors are there anyway for ABS, traction control, etc. Then they can claim better figures for the all important 0-60. Having done it a couple of times you'll think that was 10% of the price of a cutch and that would certainly limit the appeal for me. I'd have to try it at least once though, turning the traction control off and melting the rear tyres could be cheaper. :shock:
Best way of stopping someone tailgating was many years ago when I drove a van for my old man's company. There was a bridge locally that the van would just fit under, then they fitted sensors and big light up signs to stop people getting stuck under it. Turned out that whilst the van was low enough to fit under the bridge it was tall enough to trigger the sensors. I'd barrel through as the car behind me threw out the anchors expecting my roof to land on their bonnet. Great fun but obviously limited to the one location.

robert88

Best way to deal with tailgaters is ignore them totally. Have never understood the reason for it because even when they have an opportunity to overtake they rarely do so. Of course they are irritating but accelerating away from them just burns your fuel up for nothing.

Stevo_666

Matthewfalle wrote:

orraloon wrote:

My wife's car has that 'launch control' thing. Neither of us has ever used it, 'cos, you know, adults.

how do you mean "cos, you know, adults"? too grown up to have fun?

I think he's quite old....and drives a 4 wheel shed. Nuff said

Stevo_666

Veronese68 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

I think once I've put my eyeballs in the back of my sockets once or twice I'll put that little party trick away.

I think most people would do that, it's a bit of a pointless gimmick on a road car. But probably easy for them to put into the electronics as all the sensors are there anyway for ABS, traction control, etc. Then they can claim better figures for the all important 0-60. Having done it a couple of times you'll think that was 10% of the price of a cutch and that would certainly limit the appeal for me. I'd have to try it at least once though, turning the traction control off and melting the rear tyres could be cheaper. :shock:
Best way of stopping someone tailgating was many years ago when I drove a van for my old man's company. There was a bridge locally that the van would just fit under, then they fitted sensors and big light up signs to stop people getting stuck under it. Turned out that whilst the van was low enough to fit under the bridge it was tall enough to trigger the sensors. I'd barrel through as the car behind me threw out the anchors expecting my roof to land on their bonnet. Great fun but obviously limited to the one location.

If I fancy smoking a few tyres then an airfield day would do nicely. Especially if the traction control is going fully 'off'.

Stevo_666

Robert88 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Robert88 wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Knowing that driving a flash-git car does not equal success

That's so true. All my neighbours have flash-git cars but are far less successful than I am.

Do your neighbours boast about how well their investments are doing?

It's not likely since they probably aren't.

It doesn't stop people boasting about them falsely though. Which you sometimes expect for that sort of person

What sort of person? People with flash git cars? TBH I doubt if they actually own them since they would probably buy the car on the company and they change them like they change socks.

Next door has a big Merc hybrid (and a large BMW). I like the way the Merc can start on electric and drift silently away in the morning before the fossil fuel kicks in. They have their own company - architecture - and I doubt if they have time to do investing as they are also starting a family, due any day now.

Further up the road someone has a Tesla - that's a crazy beast.

Not particularly, just people who like to make out they are more successful than they really are.
Although clearly having a nice car could be an indicator of financial success. Of course there are other measures but since Looney was focusing on the car the person drove...

Personally I never do car finance. Bit of a rip off.

orraloon

Stevo 666 wrote:

orraloon wrote:

On the 'success' thing, all depends on how you define it, eh?

I suppose I must have been successful enough to be able to give up the corporate desk jockey life in 2003. Here we are, 15 years later and life is good. Though I might be 97 but then again this is t'internet and you cannot believe all you might read.

Just wondering why you brought it up in the first place then

The situation just tickled me, with seeing Flash 'Arry suddenly realise that this boy in his go anywhere, 4 wheel drive, old and reliable 'shed' was not intimidated in the slightest by Mr My Road. There are quite a few plus points to driving a 13yo truck, both with the sh!tfest of potholes round these parts and the self entitled numpties one encounters.

So thought I'd go fishing, see if I got any nibbles. Not that it was personal in any way, this being the impersonal internetz and that.