Could/would you drive your car without driver aids

Man of Honour
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Ahh you have a two MX5 household. I bow to your superiority sir. <3
My wife tells me off. I think I have broken it actually and warped the discs through bad bedding in practices....

Needs new discs and pads all round due I feel to my thuggary :D

I broke her MXer :(
 
Soldato
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No, I didn’t imply that either. But my point was that things can go wrong. Using an exmple of a member was to make it seem closer to home because most people never think it’ll happen to them.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear but that’s what I meant.

Chris Harris is probably a better driver than most on here yet he still managed to have a prang recently. Nobody is immune.

To be fair, with the context of your previous paragraph, it came across as implying that he was driving recklessly - you had previously said, "I don't push my car to its limits on the road. There are just too many variables".

But, understood. What happened with DannyW was purely an accident - I don't personally feel it was appropriate to bring up in this context.
 
Caporegime
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My wife tells me off. I think I have broken it actually and warped the discs through bad bedding in practices....

Needs new discs and pads all round due I feel to my thuggary :D

I broke her MXer :(

Ahh well... Mine needs new wheel bearings on the front due to my idiocy. Sounds like some kind of tribal ritual throat singing is emanating from the front end whenever I drive along
 
Soldato
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This all applies to motorbikes as well. I was never a fan of traction control ect on bikes, especially on track. For me it lowered the skill required to ride a bike quickly. Then I bought a bike with amazing rider aids lol. The only thing I don't use is the ABS. It has cornering ABS which means it will change how the brakes are applied taking lean angle into account, so you shouldn't lock the front even if you grab a handful of brake at full lean mid corner. Very clever tech however most of my riding in on track and I hate the way the brake lever fights me if I'm still braking hard as I trail brake into the apex. So that is turned off. The traction control which is also lean angle based and can even set how much the rear wheel can slide on the power while leaning over is amazing. It does mean you can greedier and greedier with the throttle and if you go too far it should catch the slide before it becomes terminal. So far it has for me, it also helps look after tyre wear and when you have 105ftlbs of torque and 175hp going through it everything helps. So I'm a convert to rider aids.
 
Soldato
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I have driven cars when the steering power assistance is broken, without brake servos, no clutches, brakes. Hell it ain't too difficult, even ones without electric windows lol.
 
Man of Honour
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Why would I want a fat heavy lightweight sports car?

Also have you found your hair straighteners yet? I've been waiting to borrow them since the snowy meet... :p

50kg more than my zero spec NB is hardly fat and heavy, I'm very on the fence on selling mine and replacing it with an NC of some kind to play with
 
Soldato
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Why would I want a fat heavy lightweight sports car?

Also have you found your hair straighteners yet? I've been waiting to borrow them since the snowy meet... :p

Better chassis? More power? Less chance of you ending up in a crumpled mess if you have a crash?

It's a great car tbh.
 
Caporegime
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Guys guys, I was just playing around with bennyboy. :p

Don't take everything so seriously. :D

Although... He does have the folding metal roof, and a boot full of hairdressing equipment so...
 
Soldato
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Yeah no issues, driven my MK1 MX-5 through the winter last year and made it out in one piece. Lots of sideways bum twitching moments on icy country lanes but still in one piece! Has 0 aids no abs, traction etc.

But if I have them on the car I'll leave them on unless I'm out for a play and want to have some fun. My z4 had the "mid" setting for TC which I liked a lot as it allowed me to push the car harder but always kept it under control if things got hairy. On standard fully on mode it was way to sensitive cutting power at any sense of traction loss.
 
Soldato
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295 rear section tyres provide so much grip in the 911 with the weight over the rear that it's pretty tricky to break traction unless you're provoking it! Even then you'd have to be really going some.

I fear the car would reverse straight into a ditch if I were to take off traction control. Even when setting off from a set of traffic lights, or in a Tesco carpark.
 
Soldato
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Guys guys, I was just playing around with bennyboy. :p

Don't take everything so seriously. :D

Although... He does have the folding metal roof, and a boot full of hairdressing equipment so...
That's what you get :D

Wiki says the PRHT is another 43kg so not horrendous. It does make it a decent daily though with a plethora of modern comforts.

I think it'd probably be too sensible a purchase for you though ;)
 
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295 rear section tyres provide so much grip in the 911 with the weight over the rear that it's pretty tricky to break traction unless you're provoking it! Even then you'd have to be really going some.

I fear the car would reverse straight into a ditch if I were to take off traction control. Even when setting off from a set of traffic lights, or in a Tesco carpark.

Isn't that in summary the main issue with the older 911s, that the rear generated so much grip it in effect steerde the car rather than where the front wheels were pointing ;)
 
Soldato
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Isn't that in summary the main issue with the older 911s, that the rear generated so much grip it in effect steerde the car rather than where the front wheels were pointing ;)
Naa, its a myth. The problem started with the original 911 which had bike sized wheels and a rear engine which apparently made it interesting. Modern 911s are very good, i dont think i every managed to spin mine and wheelspin was very rare. You could corner at ridiculous speeds, they are fantastic cars.
 
Soldato
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They have lots of grip, but the down side to that is when you do reach the limit it will snap suddenly and you go spinning off. That's why so many 911 turbos ended up in ditches. On modern ones traction control will hopefully stop it.

In cars that are designed to slide around (like drifting cars), you can feel it coming and it's much more controllable.
 
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Caporegime
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Canada
I agree with Conscript's post on the first page. I would have little issue driving my vehicle without driver aids, but at the same time would rather not, for those "just in case" moments. I use feet to control the amount of power I ask the engine for, so rather than wheelspinning at every set of traffic lights I drive off smoothly...

That's assuming 4WD doesn't count! :p

As for whether I could turn them off, traction control definitely, the others like ABS, probably not. 4WD I can turn on when I feel like it.

All that said, even with traction control and winter tyres, 400hp RWD and a feather foot has still caused the occasional sideways move on ice when not in 4WD!
 
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