The cars and bikes thread!

[tribe125]

The dominant hand should be the one that keeps you on the road, but it means you can't drape your arm through an open window to show off your watch.

I'm glad I learnt to drive in a manual, like I'm glad I learnt to drive a tractor down a wet grassy slope with a two-ton roller on the back, but it would be tiresome to be practicing these skills every day. Manual changing is redundant for ninety percent of the time, and as you get older you care less and less about the other ten percent.

Anyway, it's a skill you never lose. It's kind of fun to drive my wife's manual, but after a mile or two I've had enough of it.

[happyscrappyheropup]

Manual boxes are still the most fun. I haven't driven any DSGs, DCTs, whatever crap that are as fun as a proper 3 pedal manual.

I had an E60 M5 with a single clutch sequential manual. It was great for that car. I wouldn't have wanted a 3rd pedal but the manual control was good.

My drag/fun cars have always been 3 pedal. Harder to drive but it can be done. My fast street sedans/wagons have always been autos or sequential manual.

I agree manuals​ are generally more fun, I just like hassling Raza 😀

-- Wayne

[Raza]

There are more. Clutch restrictors that slow engagement, electronic throttle body(is) that manage throttle inputs.





I'm going out on a limb here, but my guess is that you aren't disabling these systems. 


-- Wayne

I've done plenty of time behind the wheel (of the Z4 and my other cars) with traction and stability control off. Don't mess around with the other stuff.

But I did remove the clutch delay valve that BMW puts on their manuals. One of the worst pieces of tech that's ever been put into cars.

Worse than an automatic that masquerades as a manual to dupe people like Seriously into thinking they're different from all the other automatics.

[Raza]

The dominant hand should be the one that keeps you on the road, but it means you can't drape your arm through an open window to show off your watch.

I'm glad I learnt to drive in a manual, like I'm glad I learnt to drive a tractor down a wet grassy slope with a two-ton roller on the back, but it would be tiresome to be practicing these skills every day. Manual changing is redundant for ninety percent of the time, and as you get older you care less and less about the other ten percent.

Anyway, it's a skill you never lose. It's kind of fun to drive my wife's manual, but after a mile or two I've had enough of it.

I disagree. For the most part, steering means holding the wheel straight, which can be easily done with the non-dominant hand. Even light turning is easily done with the non-dominant hand. Any real steering should be done with two hands on the wheel anyway. Shifting requires much finer and more complicated mechanical movements, which is best left to a dominant hand. And as 90% or so of people are right handed, it makes more sense for the shifting mechanism to be to the right of the driver.

[Raza]

This




He'll probably say he knew already, but for instance fly by wire throttles have been on cars for years..........


You do know it's not real driving if you don't have a mechanically (bowden cable stylee) wired conventional throttle.

If you don't have to crank your ignition from outside of the car, it's basically a plane, and that's not driving.

[Raza]

Also automatic shifting manuals make total sense in hypercars as those are built solely to be as fast as possible but for sports cars, hot hatches and sport sedans, there should always be a manual option.

Funny enough, those cars, while built for ultimate speed, are meant to driven by people who take it very slow. Supercar makers were thanking their lucky stars when ACTs were invented; that meant they could sell their cars to people who desperately wanted an automatic, but couldn't admit it. Back in the day, an automatic Ferrari was an abomination and their owners were shunned. Now they're all automatic, and people go apeshit over them. I mean, they even called the "F1" transmissions, so you could pretend you were a race car driver, when in reality, the typical Ferrari drivers were just worried about stalling when driving their plastic girlfriends slowly through town.

When the next generation of Ferrari is a self-driving plug-in hybrid with a text message displaying windshield, people will think that's the best thing for driving too. It's all smoke and mirrors. BMW says the manual is just about dead. They should know. They had a hand in killing it.

[mlcor]

I had an E60 M5 with a single clutch sequential manual. It was great for that car. I wouldn't have wanted a 3rd pedal but the manual control was good.

My drag/fun cars have always been 3 pedal. Harder to drive but it can be done. My fast street sedans/wagons have always been autos or sequential manual.

I agree manuals​ are generally more fun, I just like hassling Raza 

-- Wayne

My Lotus was a manual, of course, and great fun. I would have loved to get the Vantage with a manual, but I had to go with what was available. It has the same type of transmission as the E60 M5, so there is still a level of involvement (it won't upshift unless you tell it to, including running into the rev limiter if you don't) even though there's no third pedal. The manual would have been more fun, but not as quick.

[Seriously]

. And as 90% or so of people are right handed, it makes more sense for the shifting mechanism to be to the right of the driver.

[93EXCivic]

Funny enough, those cars, while built for ultimate speed, are meant to driven by people who take it very slow. Supercar makers were thanking their lucky stars when ACTs were invented; that meant they could sell their cars to people who desperately wanted an automatic, but couldn't admit it. Back in the day, an automatic Ferrari was an abomination and their owners were shunned. Now they're all automatic, and people go apeshit over them. I mean, they even called the "F1" transmissions, so you could pretend you were a race car driver, when in reality, the typical Ferrari drivers were just worried about stalling when driving their plastic girlfriends slowly through town.

When the next generation of Ferrari is a self-driving plug-in hybrid with a text message displaying windshield, people will think that's the best thing for driving too. It's all smoke and mirrors. BMW says the manual is just about dead. They should know. They had a hand in killing it.

HAHAHA. I thought about saying that.

Anyway the enthusiast car is dead. There are literally three new cars I would have any interest in owning, any of Caterham's lineup, the Morgan three-wheeler and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio (even though that has pretty much everything I hate, it is an Alfa and it is amazing looking)

Modern cars are so fat and bloated because of safety standards, unnecessary luxury items, etc. They are stuffed with fun killing crap like drive by wire, electronic steering, self shifting gearboxes (DCTs, MSGs, or whatever stupid name they have), stability control, traction control (which manufacturers seem to have decided is a good substitute for an actual limited slip differential, looking at you Ford). They have no visibility. They're an absolute pain the ass to work on.

Really my ideal car would be a slightly larger Caterham Seven with a hardtop, A/C and a radio.

[tribe125]

Cars have taken all the fun out of getting about. Too much skill-sapping machinery. Get a horse.