Kit's Khaos

[Captain Canada]

Idiots everywhere these days !

[Rheged]

As I said in the weather thread,  there's a great many villages seem to have mislaid their idiots.

[kerick]

I love the people in their monster four wheel drive SUVs being afraid of driving through a puddle. I think a lot comes from people reading and believing everything on social media.
Then there are the people driving 80 mph in a blinding blizzard on the expressway. Overly cautious or no caution at all!

[Charlie_c67]

Does make you wonder what the driver of the Chelsea tractor was doing going down that road if he was remotely worried about going through a ford. 

[Gondor]

If that woman was worried about it being a code red, why was she out and about?

[zenrat]

Because what she had to do was important.  Whatever anyone else (including Kit obviously) had to do was trivial and so they should obey the rules and keep out of her way.

[Old Wombat]

I wonder if her name was Karen? 

Sparky had, obviously, already fried his gonads & neurons. 

[PR19_Kit]

Quite often I'm following some monster 4x4 along a road with 'sleeping policemen' bumps in them, and they often slow down to a walking pace, presumably engage Low Ratio and 4WD as well, and very slowly drive over the bump.

Makes me wonder if had I wasted a large amount of my time installing and maintaining the manufacturer's 4-Poster road simulators that tested their vehicles to ensure they'd ride OK over bumps a couple of FEET high!     

[Old Wombat]

Quite often I'm following some monster 4x4 along a road with 'sleeping policemen' bumps in them, and they often slow down to a walking pace, presumably engage Low Ratio and 4WD as well, and very slowly drive over the bump.

Makes me wonder if had I wasted a large amount of my time installing and maintaining the manufacturer's 4-Poster road simulators that tested their vehicles to ensure they'd ride OK over bumps a couple of FEET high!     

They're obviously not me ... I don't slow down in my Navara for anything less than 6" high! (& even then it needs to be pretty-much a vertical face.) 

[PR19_Kit]

Yeah, vertical faces are not to be sneezed at!   

In my 1960's test driving days we had a 'British Standard Pothole' built at the MIRA Test Track, which was a 12 ft square, 9" deep shallow pit, through which we'd drive test cars at various speeds. It had a collection of wooden ramps of various angles that fitted in front of the vertical faces of the hole so we could adjust the force of the impact.

One day, while testing a Mk V Hillman Minx, my colleague Bill driving and me observing, facing backwards to see the instrumentation as was the norm back then, we had to do a 20 mph, 90 degree run as the last one of the series, and it really WAS the last one too!

Bill warned me over the intercom we were about to drop into the pit, and we did with a fair thump, he got the speed right while I watched the traces and we hit the far side with an even bigger thump. Bill said 'Oh F****k, the wheel's gone!' and all my traces vanished as we turned sharp right and dived into the Wading Pool that was 'conveniently' right next to the BS Pothole!   

The entire right hand front suspension had failed and the wheel, brake, spring and damper etc. had all taken off for places unknown (we later found it in a hedge a way down the track) and we had to paddle our way out of the car, which was nose down in the pool!

One way and another it was NOT a good day!

[Rheged]

The entire right hand front suspension had failed and the wheel, brake, spring and damper etc. had all taken off for places unknown (we later found it in a hedge a way down the track) and we had to paddle our way out of the car, which was nose down in the pool!

One way and another it was NOT a good day!

In one respect it was a VERY good day.  When one considers the worst case scenario............the Minx performing acrobatic gymnastic manoeuvres  and ending up on its lid in the pool,,,,,,,,,,,things could have been much worse!

[scautomoton]

Yeah, vertical faces are not to be sneezed at!   

In my 1960's test driving days we had a 'British Standard Pothole' built at the MIRA Test Track, which was a 12 ft square, 9" deep shallow pit, through which we'd drive test cars at various speeds. It had a collection of wooden ramps of various angles that fitted in front of the vertical faces of the hole so we could adjust the force of the impact.

One day, while testing a Mk V Hillman Minx, my colleague Bill driving and me observing, facing backwards to see the instrumentation as was the norm back then, we had to do a 20 mph, 90 degree run as the last one of the series, and it really WAS the last one too!

Bill warned me over the intercom we were about to drop into the pit, and we did with a fair thump, he got the speed right while I watched the traces and we hit the far side with an even bigger thump. Bill said 'Oh F****k, the wheel's gone!' and all my traces vanished as we turned sharp right and dived into the Wading Pool that was 'conveniently' right next to the BS Pothole!   

The entire right hand front suspension had failed and the wheel, brake, spring and damper etc. had all taken off for places unknown (we later found it in a hedge a way down the track) and we had to paddle our way out of the car, which was nose down in the pool!

One way and another it was NOT a good day!

Yes, when telling people about driving prototypes for a living they think it's all glamour, doughnuts and doing 200mph. Then you point out some of the big smashes that inevitably happen during your career and they look surprised. Not too mention the endless hours when the damn things don't work....

[Gondor]

Or the incremental testing that goes on and on and on and on, etc, etc....

[PR19_Kit]

In one respect it was a VERY good day.  When one considers the worst case scenario............the Minx performing acrobatic gymnastic manoeuvres  and ending up on its lid in the pool,,,,,,,,,,,things could have been much worse!

Could be right Mike, but I'm not sure a Mk V Minx could generate enough energy to turn itself onto its roof, they were VERY heavy!

Yes, when telling people about driving prototypes for a living they think it's all glamour, doughnuts and doing 200mph. Then you point out some of the big smashes that inevitably happen during your career and they look surprised. Not too mention the endless hours when the damn things don't work....

That's very true, I did have a few quite exhilarating drives in my time, but mostly it was just driving 'on the numbers', 35 mph round the Ride & Handling track for 6 hrs., Back and forth through an Australian Spoon Drain 50 times, 45 laps round the Cross Country track in a Ford Thames Trader truck (Pressed Steel bult the cabs for them....) etc. And the latter had me in hospital for a slipped disc too!

Mind you, being told to 'put miles onto' a Sunbeam Tiger wasn't too bad. 

[Old Wombat]

Back and forth through an Australian Spoon Drain 50 times

I do that almost every day ... I try not to send the shocks of the Subaru Forester work car (& my off-sider) through the top of the car.