On Sunday I put my eldest on the train back to Uni. While she was with us, I accompanied her driving around with L-plates. After 6 lessons with an ADI, her clutch control was worse than after our first outing ever. She had apparently forgotten (been allowed to forget?) that you can declutch to save a struggling engine from stalling. Tricky business this accompanying L-drivers, especially when it's family.
After investing in the obligatory L-plates and extra inside mirror, I set a few ground rules e.g. remaining calm, limiting my vocabulary to e.g. slower, faster, etc. and driving the route myself with a bit of commentary. I've bought the HMSO book on accompanying L-drivers but found it little use.
We tackled the clutch control with a blue-peter style demonstration involving two pates and a fork, followed by an hour of practice and I think we made progress.
Worryingly, I found myself a few times commenting in such detail that it was as though I was driving the car by remote control, implying that Nicola was not developing any judgement or hazard assessment of her own.
Undoubtedly one of the problems is Nicola's deep lack of interest in cars or motoring. Passing the test is her idea of freeing herself from the constraints of public transport, and nothing else. A petrol-head she is not. Therefore I worry about her interest in being able to amass enough skill to pass her test.
Any backroomers out there causing a family rift by giving their offspring driving practice? Anyone care to offer any practical tips? Tom Shaw especially. David W - sorry if you've just got deja vu.
Oh, and a big thank you to the chap in a metallic red Rover 620 who headed up a queue of cars behind us while we recovered from stalling on Maison Dieu in Richmond. It seemed like 10 mins but probably wasn't.
And yes, Nicola and I are still on speaking terms.
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..which means you must be called 'Papa'? Night all...
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Darcy said
"We tackled the clutch control with a blue-peter style demonstration involving two pates and a fork, followed by an hour of practice and I think we made progress"
Did the pate taste good, and did you get equal turns with the fork? ;-)
On a more serious note, my daughter has got past that stage and today successfully took a practical test to be:.........
A bus driver !
Only the medical to go now!
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Re clutch control, make sure your daughter has her heel on the floor and is using her foot rather than her whole leg. You may have to put something eg a bit of plank, on the floor.
(PS you can borrow a plank from Cliff Pope who has a whole stack of them at home.)
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Why is that Richard?
I only ask because in my Vectra the clutch pedal travel is so far I'd require pretty amazing ankles to do it with my heel on the floor!
Dan
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Re clutch control, make sure your daughter has her heel on the floor and is using her foot rather than her whole leg. You may have to put something eg a bit of plank, on the floor.
(PS you can borrow a plank from Cliff Pope who has a whole stack of them at home.)
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Must say my Father was top notch and taught me well. Passed first time with only 6 lessons. Main reason for success was a nightmare of a Ford Sierra to drive with a clutch akin to that in a Formula 1 car (on/off) but also hours spent in the car. The day before my test I drove almost 200 miles in one day from Taunton to Bristol on the A38 and then back via Bath/Shepton Mallet/Yeovil, tackling every town/city centre - unbeatable practice. Compared to Bristol, Taunton was a doddle to drive through.
Best advice was - treat the clutch like two plates made of glass.
Trouble is, it didn't take long before the old bad habits crept in!
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Go to another chuffing instructor, unless there is a very good reason for staying with him/her, you will find it will be years before she can drive, if she has got worse cluch control now.
Also, my advice is to find an instructor she gets on with, that makes it a hell of a lot easier
Kev (currently with L plates himself)
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Darcy
Many moons ago I took SWMBO out for practice (she had a driving school instructor).
I reckoned the best thing that I could give her was lots of practice, in order that car control became second nature - then the instructor would teach her the finer points of positioning and highway code etc. We used a local industrial/trading estate in the evening, when all the businesses had gone home. That way she wasn't frustrating anyone, and the likelihod of colliding with another vehicle was negligible.
It worked a treat and she soon developed an empathy with the car, relating "sound" and "feel" to things that the car actualy did. Probably the only downside was that it was fairly level, but it was still worthwhile.
Ian
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classic typo, for "pates", read "plates".
and I have but one word for rickyboy, it's "eh?"
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Now you know what it can be like, Darcy! Seriously, some people get the hang of clutch control very quickly, others seem to take ages, no matter how you explain it to them. With someone who has difficulty, it is best to avoid getting too technical as to the workings of a clutch, the more you try to explain the worse they get.
I have found the best method is to take them somewhere quiet where they won't be pressurised by other drivers and get them to inch the car forward by getting the biting point on the clutch and counting to five with their foot held still, and only then releasing the clutch fully by which time the car will have gained enough momentum to avoid stalling. This eventually instills in the pupil the sensitivity needed to feel the clutch take up the drive. It requires patience and practise and there are no short cuts, but at least with modern cars the clutch can take a fair amount of abuse and still live to a ripe old age.
For those who blame the poor old instructor, remember that not everybody has a natural feel for driving a vehicle. Nobody goes round saying that the Maths teachers at their kids school were crap because their offspring didn't get an A-Level after twelve years of lessons, but if said sprog doesn't become another Jensen Button after 10 lessons the instructor must be an idiot.
Well done on giving you daughter additional tuition, nothing beats experience behind the wheel, but don't forget that driving is a very complicated skill to learn, especially in modern traffic conditions with other drivers lacking the consideration they showed when motoring was still a minority sport with the attendant respect shown to fellow drivers. When you have been driving yourself for years it is easy to forget the pain and frustration you suffered at times when it all went wrong.
Good luck and don't forget to keep the handbrake adjusted!
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Do you still have to reverse around a corner ? Oh, how I hated that.
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And nowadays into a narrow parking bay, that makes a few hearts sink.
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Reversing around corner?
Tell me about it!
I recently moved from London to South Coast.
I have been an Advanced Driving instructor for 15 years in London.
Local Advanced Driving tell me a REALLY important thing I have to teach is reversing around a corner. What?
I have not done that myself for about 20 years.
Reversing around corner in Central London?
You must be joking.
What do you do in reality? How about drive around the next block?
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Hill starts I found easy, generally moving through the traffic was fine, emergency stop was easy.
However, reversing around a corner, parallel parking, and three point turns were a nightmare.
I remember a Sunday out in the countryside with my mother sat on a farm gate with her book and a flask of coffee while I reversed around the corner, and repeated for hours until I got it right.
Matchsticks stuck in the rear window trim, trying to line up the kerb and the top of the back seat.
The greatest feeling when I passed was not being able to drive, it was never having to take a test again.
Ironically I have taken a fair few since when I have changed countries. No longer the terror of that first time, but one has to concentrate so hard not to resort to normal driving habits while on the test.
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Started Ann (daughter) on a beach in Barra about 14, and by the time she got to a real instructor she could manage clutch and the first three. She never really caught on to catching the tail, though!
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Tomo wrote:
>
> Started Ann (daughter) on a beach in Barra about 14, . She never >really caught on to catching
> the tail, though!
Was this some sort of skid pan exercise a game of catch with the Twin Otter that uses Barra's main beach as an airfield?
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Well, to be fair I do reverse into driveways and suchlike before heading off in the opposite direction.
But it always seemed a dodgy practice at road junctions to me - of course, the fact that I couldn't do it made it completely clear to me that it was stupid. The alternative was to believe that at 17yrs (I think) I didn't know everything I need to know about driving a car - clearly a ridiculous point of view, because I was sure I did know everything.
I still give myself cold sweats thinking about some of the things, and speeds, I used to do on bikes. Its so easy to be an idiot at that age - at least it was for me.
17yrs old with a Norton Dominator - lunacy. It was an early 50s 99SS if any of you actually know what one is [was].
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What I do find strange is those people who choose to reverse into parking bays in supermarkets, leaving their boot conveniently, er, away from where they would ideally be loading their car.
As for reversing around a corner - get to know the 'landmarks' of your car once you get used to where the road and kerbs are in relation to the C-pillars, A-pillars, and so on then it becomes almost second-nature to get it right.
When I went through the IAM it wasn't simply a case of reversing round a corner - it was reversing round corners with tight and wide radii. Fun fun fun.
Reversing into a parking spaces on the road, though, did become a lot easier.
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Thanks for your replies.
Tom, I'll give your method a trial.
Mark, reversing round a corner. My instructor used a corner of insulating tape on the nearside mirror to mark the position of the kerb during the manoeuvre.
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If all else fails we can legally put 'D' for learner of our cars in Wales.
( D - Dysgwr, it's Welsh but use it as you like )
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