Hot brakes.

[foggyjames]

It's a fair point Dai. Anyone know the piston sizes? We REALLY should have pulled the dual piston ones from that 81 car

cheers

James

[340GLT]

Yep mate we should of!!!
Adam

[A M R]

hehe i had some pretty hot brakes last night (in mums 1.2 punto lol). went through some country lanes in warlingham and i was surprised how well it handles on the damp/wet roads. got blinded round a bend by some car with xenons and was trying to brake heavily at the same time. ended up hitting the kerb a bit

stopped further down the road to inspect damage. nothing at all...

BUT

THE BRAKES WERE SMOKING! i was like 'hahahahaihihihihihimwuhahaha'

nowhere near getting the discs to glow, but me and my mates thought it was pretty funny.


oh btw - i'll have a look on wensday if i can find out sizes of piston for the 2-pot callipers.

[Chris_C]

Smoking pads is a sign of bad technique, as I found to my cost on rallies. You will have been trailing the brakes a fair amount, the idea is a good firm push on the straight, then off the brakes completely to accelerate round the corner. This doesn't lead to a comfy ride for the passengers though

Other problem with trailing the brakes is most cars will understeer like anything if you are even a little on the brakes on a corner, as I'd imagine is what happened when you found the kerb Trick is to see ahead of other cars, expecially round lanes, try flicking your main beam down for a second as you approach, will let you see the other cars lights then.

Also pays to wait until you get your own car to muck around in... smashing up your car is bad, kill your mums and you'll never here the end of it

[A M R]

i was pushing it pretty hard but seeing as the roads were still wet from earlier (and the fact that it was mums car) i was making sure i got round the bends safely with no drama. the turn where i hit the kerb was a like a corkscrew down hill left-hander, there was noone in front of me and i started braking VERY late (my mate was telling me the bends and then forgot to keep telling me ). i turned off my high beams when i saw another car coming up, but then got blinded by his lights and i couldnt see the road anymore!

bear in mind its fwd and it was wet so its going to understeer a bit whether i was on the brakes or not. (plus the fact i didnt know the road)

[Nick C]

bear in mind its fwd and it was wet so its going to understeer a bit whether i was on the brakes or not. (plus the fact i didnt know the road)

or to put it more simply, you were driving too fast for the conditions - if you knew it was going to understeer you should have slowed down earlier, and if you don't know the road you should be driving that much slower to allow for unexpected hazards.

[Chris_C]

Having driven my first bit of front wheel drive experience (well, it was little, I was only in it for 4 weeks, but did do 7,000miles). I have to agree with Nick, they don't understeer unless pushed (usually when I was trying to clutch kick the thing, ooops).

Anyway, I can't take the el grande stance about what you should be doing, I know exactly what I was like when I passed , but I did have my own car if anything happened!

[classicswede]

I know what you are saying about the dazling lights. They are infact an MOT failure as they are blue!! you are only allowed pure white or yellow.

On the subject of driving passing your test is only the very fist stage of learning to drive. I would seriously recomend taking advanced lessons and skid pan training - It is worth every penny it what it can save you.

[A M R]

ive thought about doing the skid pan stuff before, but current funding doesnt allow for this. maybe when i can secure a decent job.

anyone in south london wana give me a job?

[SteveP]

(my mate was telling me the bends and then forgot to keep telling me ).

Who's the driver?! Take it easy dude, don't want you to crash - or crash into someone minding their own business...

[jtbo]

Smoking pads is a sign of bad technique, as I found to my cost on rallies. You will have been trailing the brakes a fair amount, the idea is a good firm push on the straight, then off the brakes completely to accelerate round the corner. This doesn't lead to a comfy ride for the passengers though

Other problem with trailing the brakes is most cars will understeer like anything if you are even a little on the brakes on a corner, as I'd imagine is what happened when you found the kerb Trick is to see ahead of other cars, expecially round lanes, try flicking your main beam down for a second as you approach, will let you see the other cars lights then.

Also pays to wait until you get your own car to muck around in... smashing up your car is bad, kill your mums and you'll never here the end of it

Trailbraking is one proper racing technique and it can be pretty good for some turns, but with these brakes in 300 it is not very possible to utilize even you would get better performance. Of course there is some corners where that does not work and rallying is completely different in this matter compared to track racing.

Sooner or later A M R will learn when it is time to step on it and when it is not, what I read from situation I would say wrong time to step on it, there was just too many bad odds in game, dark, unknown road, little experience, traffic, public road.
After you drive more, let's say after first 200 000 miles you start to understand what it means to keep some marginals. Been there done that, I think everyone does at beginning, but sooner one gets it better

[A M R]

hehe cheers guys

i wasnt trail braking much, just braking quite hard (for a long time) as the car wouldnt slow down quick enough.
i need to sort out my jerky engine braking through the gears as well. so now im practising my heel-toe throttle blipping (which is kinda hard as the engine isnt that responsive). the powerband is pretty crap on it as well. after 5500 or so the powers gone but theres lots of noise lol.
i shouldnt really rag the shit out of this car too much especially as the roads are wet now and its mums car.

i still need a 360 glt, but since thats proving a bit hard to find (and costly it seems) i think i might have to go with a gle or even a 340 1.7.

suggestions?

[pettaw]

tbh, all 300s are roughly the same sort of value and cost so whatever you can find really.

Ebay is your friend, and the right car will come up that you'll just think: 'Yes'

If there's too much rust or you just don't like the look of it then walk away and get another one. If there's mechanical problems, if you've got time to fix it, then we're here to help and advise on the best thing to do, and they make a good bargaining tool but rusty bits are a complete no-no for cheapness and quickness

Also, stuff your Mum's car up and you'll never hear the end

[Chris_C]

Honest truth suggestion mate? Get a 1.4, and you'll be able to insure it yourself, which means you can get what you want later.

The 1.4 isn't slow, mine used to keep up with a 2.0GLT till 40-50, which at the trafficlight GP is plenty. Being rwd, the weight is all over the rear wheels, so you can plant it and not worry too much about wheelspin. They'll do well over the ton, you can get the back out easy enough in the wet (first time mine went I didn't mean it, just hit a roundabout too hot).

Insurance is your main worry, doing it under your parents is false economy, especially if things did go t*ts up for you, and depending on where you live you'll struggle to get a quote on anything above a 1.4 for a year anyway

I also reckon Jani has too many 0's in his number, you'll feel a difference after 1000 after your test, then again at 2, 5, 10 etc. I know I'm still picking up new stuff, but I also know I can read other traffic better than my mate whos just past

We've all been there, just want you to get to the fun stage too, theres enough retards who want to become statistics

EDIT: The 300 fullstop will teach you more about driving than most other cars, how to take corners, as it is forgiving as hell, but won't take someone being stupid)

[foggyjames]

First up, +1 for taking it easy on the driving. I'm not an old fart (none of us are, except V6_Man), and I well remember the first time I was alone in the car, and let the revs rise above 3000 (yes, I had one of those instructors...a bit square maybe, but an excellent tutor on roadcraft). You gotta learn by experience (they don't exactly teach you how to have fun behind the wheel!), but try not to kill yourself and a car full of mates. Every time I nearly stuffed it up (bearing in mind that I jumped straight into my 360 at 17, so had a 'bit' of go to play with), it was in the wet. The dry is massively more forgiving, especially if your tyres are a bit dubious, so I'd try out your skills there first.

As for car choice...definitely +1 on the 1.4. It's quite a hot tuned engine, so despite the fact that it's a fairly big car with a little engine, it moves pretty well - Chris ain't kidding about it being fast to ~40mph. More on that later. It's fast enough to show up your mates if they've got base-model superminis, and has the cheap tax, insurance...and it'll be good on fuel. Also, 3drs are way more common as 1.4s. Although I loved driving my 360 around, the 1.4 would probably have been a better first car, to be honest - for a start, the 360 cost a fortune in fuel around town for how well it went.

Back to the 'quick to 40' thing. There's a kid down our road with a barried up (mk5?) Fiesta. That thing is SIIIIIIIC. It has 17" alloys and Lexus lights. A few weeks back, he pulled up alongside my housemate at the lights when he was driving Nessy. I guess he recognised the car. Anyhow, the guy had his stereo up loud enough that he didn't hear Ryan dial in 3000 rpm... He dumped the clutch, the back end squatted down, it leapt forwards, and he pulled 4-5 car lengths on the Fiesta without really trying.

cheers

James