There was a bit of mist across central Southern England this morning. Not a pea-souper by any means, but enough to warrant putting your dipped headlights on.
Naturally those of a moronic inclination opted for the "how many watts can I show" school of motoring. I'm typing this through a residual red haze, imprinted on my retinae.
As usual the worst culprits were those with only one functioning brake light, leaving you guessing as to whether they were slowing or going. Bless 'em.
So just to warn you all that for the next 2 weeks or so you can expect these same people to have forgotten that they switched the damn things on, thus blinding all and sundry once it gets dark.
Brings a lovely warm glow.... to your windscreen.
|
|
I just wish everyone was consistant with lights. 30 seconds after passing a mobile searchlight show you come across someone with only the nearside sidelight glowing through a filthy lens.
|
|
What? A "gratuitous use of fog lights" thread is up for a whole 12 hours and only one reply....? We should be ashamed of ourselves.
|
Meh. Anyone who foglights me get's my full beam in their rear view mirror. Petty? Certainly, but it makes me feel better.
And, on a completely unrelated note, I finally saw justice happen today. While driving from Exeter to Leeds (actually, a fairly easy trip, 4.5 hours with no stops), a black Golf tailgated me while I was doing 80ish overtaking slower traffic in lane 2. (I was in lane 3.) Obviously, because it was his personal motorway, he closed to within inches of me and flashed his lights etc. I moved over fairly promptly, cause I finished the manouver, but he shot off and did the same thing to the next guy.
Twenty minutes later, he was on the hard shoulder, with 2 police cars, in handcuffs(!). Brilliant, no?
And, finally, I passed an obviously new driver in one of the new Minis. She looked terrified and had scooted the seat up to within about 4 inches of the steering wheel. Isn't that dangerous if she had an accident?
|
{quote=DavidHorn}
Twenty minutes later, he was on the hard shoulder, with 2 police cars, in handcuffs(!). Brilliant, no?
And, finally, I passed an obviously new driver in one of the new Minis. She looked terrified and had scooted the seat up to within about 4 inches of the steering wheel. Isn't that dangerous if she had an accident?
{/quote}
Now you see, the first bit made me laugh. Wished that sort of thing happened more often.
I'd say it's pretty bad news to sit that close to the wheel, bit of a worry if the airbag goes off. The terrified look was probably down to nutters tailgating her at speed... ;-)
Course, since she's got such excellent taste in cars, she gets my full backing to drive however she wants...
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
|
Aha, when I was living in the UK, after being run into the back of twice, I did a bit of a naughty thing. I got a large diode (electrical one-way valve) and connected my brake lights to my fog lights. Brake lights then verrry bright! When in fog, fog lights work normally, and brake lights also work normally, adding to light behind as required. I did this on my Mazda 626 and a Rover 214Si. Funnily enough, I didn't get shunted up the back again. My feeling was, that even a somewhat dazzled driver might think to brake a bit earlier, which was in my favour...
(takes cover and awaits the mass opprobrium)
PM
|
Fog light related...
I was passed this morning by a MB CLK with a pair of front fog lights (fortunately, not switched on) attached to the bottom of the rear bumper.
Years ago I knew of a boy racer that stuck a powerful front driving light to the back of his car to dazzle any tailgaters (or perhaps the Police...) but on the CLK they would have been too low to be visible to any tailgaters.
Does anybody know what these additional fog lights might be for? Or is some kind of fashion accesory like blue washer lights.
|
|
Perhaps someone with a very dark driveway, uses them as reversing lights at night?
|
|
|
|
Meh. Anyone who foglights me get's my full beam in their rear view mirror. Petty? Certainly, but it makes me feel better.
I love people like you who give me full beams. The reason being is that I have an auto-dim rear view mirror so there is no blinding affect and it amuses me that the person "beaming" me thinks that they are annoying me.
PS can't remember when I last used my rear fogs. As many in the BR, I only use them when in very thick fog and when there is no car behind me
|
PS can't remember when I last used my rear fogs.
Sadly neither can many of the people you see driving around with them switched on......
|
Sadly neither can many of the people you see driving around with them switched on......
::chuckle::
|
Almost permanent feature in my area, especially with BMW drivers.
It's an image thing.
|
Almost permanent feature in my area, especially with BMW drivers. It's an image thing.
Not sure you are right there (and I really don't want to get into the wrongs and rights of fog lights, as like everyone else in the BR is tends to, how shall I put it, cover a lot of ground that has been covered before). I drive a BMW E39 and find the headlights particularly weak and when the road is wet and very dark I need as much light as possible. I have looked into upgrading to xenon but that is far too expensive!
|
|
I can confirm that (some) BMWs' headlights are not very good. I share driving to work with a colleague who has an L reg 520i: his lights are hopeless for the dark country road we have to travel, so on occasion he supplements them with the fogs.
|
|
|
|
|
