In most cars, including my 3.5, one can gently move off on a flat surface in first gear with tickover only . Learned this from the Stig’s brilliant book.
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Many years ago a lorry driver used to show us his party piece. We had a yard at our works with a long sloping run up which passed the offices. He set it in gear and let it drive it’s self and jumped out. We watched unbeknown to some as the lorry passed the office with no driver, he was behind it pushing it, well making out he was.
Things they used to get up to back in the 70’s.
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At the end of SWMBO’s first attempt at driving we were in my old series IV Humber Hawk. It was ridiculously low geared with a long-stoke torquey 2.2litre engine ticking over at about 500rpm.
So she has had enough and wants to stop, slows down, changes down to first, and pulls in to the kerb both feet off the pedals, and the car happily mounts the tall kerb on tickover because I forgot to tell her to disengage the clutch and put her other foot on the brake. I managed to stall it with the handbrake.
No harm done, but I was impressed by the car’s ability to carry on regardless.
Right then I also decided to pay someone to teach her how to drive.
And when she eventually passed the test I bought her the woody traveller mini, so she would not be driving my car, by now the rocket-propelled bitsa with only the middle 3mm out of 3" of clutch travel between on and off.
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A friend of a colleague wanted to start the family car on a frosty morning in order to facilitate defrosting it.
She opened the door, reached in inserted and turned the key. What she didn’t know was that another family member had left it in reverse. The car started, the door knocked her over and because the wheels were on full left lock, the front wheel ran her over.
She lived but it was touch and go…
I remember in the 70’s I went on holiday with my cousin. It was a long drive so her parents put a blanket in top of the cases in the estate car and we both slept there for the first part of the journey.
Perfect solution, but probably not allowed these days!
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No insult intended, but surely these, and many other driving “tricks” you know just from driving, not having to read a book? Slow moving traffic queues, just let the clutch up slowly. If it moves a bit faster, then second gear at tick over. And certainly most diesel’s and reasonable capacity petrol engines will be happy in 3rd gear at tick over as long as there is no appreciable slope.
Things like changing gear without the clutch are just part of the joys of doing car “stuff”
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None taken. I would be fascinated to learn more techniques to handle everyday driving problems. I confess I have found the art of clutchless driving a bit too hit and miss but I have many a time found moving away at tickover useful on muddy campsites and on gravel although I was taught never to do this.
Sadly my trusty old Astra was scrapped after missing essential bits of clutch falling out onto the road - no drive at all in any gear.
First breakdown in 205,000 miles but an “Uneconomic Repair”…
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Is it this book?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-to-Drive/dp/B072M5Q9R7/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+stig&qid=1628420285&sr=8-1
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My dear departed sister once got her car home after a total clutch failure.
It was a 4.2 litre e-type…
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That’s the one. I have one by the loo and the other in the Mazda to read between runs at North Weald.
I originally borrowed it from the library, a good route if you want to give it a test drive.
It’s worth it for the ninja gearchange method alone.
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I reverse (uphill) into the very narrow and very short garage here at our temporary home on tickover (1.5 ND). Not only does this make it much more controlled, it also dramatically reduces the heat and wear in the clutch when it is slipping. It’s comparatively easy on modern cars because the EMS doesn’t allow the revs to drop (unless I am hamfooted enough to stall it), it just puts a bit more fuel in and shoves me up the slope.
I hate to hear lots of revs and a slipping clutch - and the smell as they roast is unmistakeable.
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My nc2 doesn’t seem to do that, ie hold the revs to compensate for load.
Within reason I suppose I mean - much as the revs dip momentarily when the air conditioning compressor kicks in, and then come back up almost immediately. There’s no doubt mine does it.
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I have an NB 2.5, what is this thing called traction control that you speak of? Isn’t it by design that the tyres spin faster than you drive every time you pull off from a stopped position?
The father of a school friend of mine had a coal delivery business. He told us about one of his drivers who was messing about like that and managed to run himself over with the coal lorry!
When our kids were small I used to own a Volvo estate and a caravan. On hitching up for departure from a caravan site in Hampshire I had to briefly reverse the outfit and there was a loud bang from the clutch. It was impossible to disengage it.
I managed to drive the whole lot to our house near Sheffield using clutch less gear changes, most of it via the M3 then the M1. The only time I had to unhitch the van was to get it back in our drive, I couldn’t reverse it with no clutch.
I took the car to a local clutch repair place and warned them about the problem, clutch was locked. They did the job but afterwards they said they were amazed that I’d got the car to them like that because they almost put it through the back wall of the workshop. I don’t think they believed me when I said I’d towed a caravan 150 miles home like that.
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It turns out that one of the front brake callipers was seized half shut. So when i moved off, the back wheels struggled to get the car moving more than usual.
Mystery solved!
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That’s interesting, I think it would have been more noticeable on the steering side of things than traction control?
That’s what i thought. I’m not 100% sure it was the reason because i didn’t notice the car pulling to one side. There’s a chance the calliper seized very recently and had nothing to do with the wheelspin. But it seems like a big co-incidence.