A driving thread

[Nantha]

Hannah, did you do that course in the end? I'm planning on doing it to avoid points too, I didn't realise it cost anything though? D:

Ive booked it but its not til march. The course cost me £85 but if i hadnt done it the fine would be like 90 quid so it actually worked out rather well! No points is a bonus too.

Just paid for my car insurance, only £430! I thought it would be way more cos i drive loads for work and ive got 3 points. Drive like a girl are fitting one of those tele boxes in my car as well, so i get £20 back if i dont drive like a dick over the next 2 months.... probably will though

Are you still lying about it being for business though?

Nope, 100% legit!

[metalsam]

:O

[thehairyone]

Felt like a dick, but I had to put my front fog lights on earlier to be able to see properly. It was not foggy. New headlights have just gone from "would be nice" to "Order tonight, fit tomorrow."

Now, do I stick with halogen, or get some nice shiny xenon...

[Jim]

Don't xenon require rewiring?

[thehairyone]

It'll mean adding a ballast in for each lamp but there is plenty of space. Apart from that it's powered off the standard 12V wiring. I'll just get the halogen conversion kit for now - I'd need it anyway to be able to fit the xenon.

[Noodle]

As long as you understand every driver in front or going the other way will wish you a crashy, burny death. Xenon headlights are one of the worst things to happen since the BMW Driver

[TheLotusEater193]

Are those the bluey blindy ones?

[Jim]

Blue/White - they come in a variety of temperatures (that is, colour) - but they are incredibly bright, and the pitch angle doesn't seem to affect them.

Like, most headlights are angled downwards so they don't dazzle as much. Xenons have a wider 'spread' of light so dazzle regardless of pitch angle.

EDIT: Actually, lights that are brighter but are more controllable (in terms of angle) are LED lights (not just daytime running, but LED headlamps) - they're starting to become more common in cars from '13 reg onwards.

[thehairyone]

It depends how well you focus the beam. Xenon headlamps' degree of spread just as much as halogens, however due to the brightness of them they're perceived to be more dazzling. If you have the correct lenses in front of them to angle it properly it shouldn't be much of an issue. My car having the headlights a good 6 inches/foot lower than everyone else does also mitigates it a lot.

It's a moot point however as EU regs specify that to have xenons you need an operation lens cleaning system and I'm not installing one of those. Probably.

[Jim]

It's a moot point however as EU regs specify that to have xenons you need an operation lens cleaning system and I'm not installing one of those. Probably.

So the EU says that if you're gonna have bright as fuck headlamps you better make sure you can keep them bright as fuck at all times

[skull-wart]

Another lesson in an hour, I'm pretty shitty because there are so many things to concentrate on at once but theory's okay. Can you do hazard perception tests on an app or an iPhone? I'll check properly later, just wondering.

[Alex.]

Another lesson in an hour, I'm pretty shitty because there are so many things to concentrate on at once but theory's okay. Can you do hazard perception tests on an app or an iPhone? I'll check properly later, just wondering.

You can, I wouldn't recommend it. The screen is too small.

[skull-wart]

Ah, I'll look for some on the PC instead.

[Noodle]

Driving back Sunday night on the M1 at about half 10, I was doing 60mph behind a lorry.
Just before J24, a Police car overtakes me and the lorry. He then suddenly veers into the hard shoulder, slows down and then rejoins. He catches back up to me and starts following me for a few minutes. He can obviously see I'm constantly watching him in my mirror, expecting him to pull me up.

He then goes to overtake me and the lorry again, and once again veers into the hard shoulder, this time flashing red lights. At this point, my turn off is approaching, so I pull onto the slip road, lorry continued on the motorway. Police car had got moving again. I noticed that he'd also joined the slip road on the outside lane. I turned left, he turned right.

If there's any way at all for a police car to distract a driver ON THE FUCKING MOTORWAY, that's possibly the most effective way to do it as all my attention was on him and not on the road ahead or the several ton lorry directly in front of me that he also cut up.

Firstly, is this genuinely acceptible behaviour for a traffic cop?

Secondly, I have the registration plate and approximate time, no pictures or video though. Would I have a case if I phoned Nottinghamshire police and complain or would I get laughed at amd told to (politely) fuck off?

[Jim]

"directly" in front of you? What distance did you leave the lorry?