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MG MG Y Type - Today's poor driving.

I use my YB quite often, not every day but as it is my only 'four wheels' used regularly. ( Old motor bikes are my other sin.) I drive in and about that awful place Milton Keynes, and about Bedfordshire B roads. It seems, that even though the car looks as if it comes from the 1930s, there are plenty of fools out there with steering wheels in the hands, who think it will accelerate like a modren hatch. Stopping at traffic lights or at round-a-bout entries, they pull up behind, so close I can see the hairs in their noses in my rear-view mirror. When we set off, they accelerate so fast, they almost crash into my boot. I watch their bonnets dip alarmingly as their two brain cells collide inside their empty heads, as it dawns on them that 46bhp powering 21cwt of British steel, does not get off the mark too quickly. They then follow me within a few feet of my rear bumper, trying to push me along faster than the 50mph cruising speed I use.

Why?

My other elderly transport is an AJS 500cc single fitted with a child adult sidecar, the same age as my YB. Here, they keep well clear of me, not quite knowing what it is I am riding. It's performance is on par with the YB, though it accelerates a little faster up to 40mph, but not a lot. It makes a noise like a thundserstorm on the move, and shakes your teeth loose. Perhaps it frightens them?

NC.
Neil Cairns

Neil, why don't you fit a big bore, straight through, unsilenced exhaust to the YB? That way you can bark at cars behind you, the way the AJS does!

I seriously envy your AJS ownership; it is the one thing that lacks in my otherwise perfect life.
Willem van der Veer

Neil. I have the same concerns as you when driving my YB to work etc - I make a point of leaving very early to avoid the traffic - I am going to fit seat belts as soon as I can work out how. I have also fitted a 6 inch warning triangle to the rear bumper! Road manners are non existant these days compared to when I started driving 30 years ago. Good rear brake lights are a must and I may also fit an auxiliary brake light in the rear window too.
All the foreign drivers don't help either - not long ago I was rear ended by an Iranian national driving a piza delivery car - fortunately my other car is a Volvo and he paid up.
David Mullen

The problems I find when driving my Y type around the B roads of Bedfordshire are all these young tearaways in new-fangled YBs. They take no heed of us old codgers who have to drive slowly because we are without anti-roll bars and suchlike modern devices.
I agree with you all (there's a first David!)but I don't think it's just to do with us driving older cars; it's a lack of observation, courtesy and simple good sense that seems to be missing from driving in general.
So many drivers I see on the road everyday (and I do a lot of driving) do not seem to have any idea what's going on around them. They seem to treat what's in front of them like something on a TV or computer screen, rather than a real world that they are sharing with others. What we do about it I don't know; apart from accepting that most of them are idiots and taking even greater care for ourselves.
P S Sharp

Fit a large air horn as fitted to big tractor (lorry for those in the UK) rigs!

P:-)
Paul Barrow

David, re seat belts. I saw an excellent installation a couple of weeks ago. Fitted when the car was a bare shell. I can find out how to contact the owner if you wish.
Michael

Michael, I would very much appreciate any information regarding seat belt fitting.

Michael.
michael ya 7141

So would I - I have sent you my e mail address. Thanks.
David Mullen

Gentlemen, on the question of fitting seat belts to a Y type sedan, can I suggest you have a look at the Technical Centre Link and then take in the Hints and Tips column. There is an article there that I submitted some years ago on this question.

If anyone wants pictures of my installation, which is working perfectly well after ten years, please write to me direct. Alf Luckman
Alf Luckman

Alas, stupidity is a world wide epidemic, that knows no limit in time or space... The spectacle of the follower's dipping bonnet upon setting off is a universal one indeed. This is usually accompanied by the vision of the surprised tail-gaiter uttering mysterious incantations while frantically attempting to change lanes. This is the moment I usually choose to tap the brake pedal in order that a luminous signal of appreciation be flashed by the auxiliary light mounted in my rear window. The follower then dips anew his bonnet in grateful acknowlegment and waves warmly at me.

One must educate these young ignoramuses.

Having to travel narrow country lanes, another scourge we must face are cyclists, behaving like squirrels on wheels or invincible righteous owners of all you can gaze upon. I have installed a old but still quite vigorous ambulance siren under the bonnet. I take pleasure in creeping silently behind a swarm of those rolling cockroaches before actuating this extremely loud and shrill apparatus that sows spontaneous panic and much internal ear discomfort among these nonchalant mongrels. I do not let my finger leave the button until I am satisfied with a neat single file of disciplined cyclists crunching along on the gravel of the road's shoulder.
Gilles Bachand

Neil just pull the rear blind and you will find inner contentment from blissful ignorance, and by the way a towing ball hitch without a cover is a good deterrent.
Bryan

As a more practical approach you could adopt my daughter's style of driving who now lives in LA. She is a careful alert driver but has a tendency to erratically change speed while maintaining a constant conversation with her passengers [I understand women have two independent sections of their brain which permits this]. This has a remarkable effect on other following drivers who attempt to drive too close to Kate on the freeway, and will find that her speed continually changes from 50 to 70 and wanders from side to side of her chosen lane. Don't get me wrong, she does signal correctly, never jumps the lights etc. but she has no idea on how to drive in a straight line. She always has a trouble free journey, but after a 200 mile trip as a passenger it took a whole day for my stomach to settle.
Bryan

My daughter drives in a similar fashion. I foolishly said that if she passed her test the first time I would be amazed, so amazed I would buy her a car and insure it for her. Sound the the knowledge my wallet was safe, I relaxed. Yep, she passed it first time, so she had a little blue automatic Mini from me plus the insurance for a year. It seems they are TAUGHT to drive flat out and brake at the last moment, where as I was taught to use the brakes very little. Being a passenger is not good for ones blood pressure.

NC.
Neil Cairns

It alarms me too when I'm being driven by someone who has been taught this way, including my wife and daughter. I'm always using my passenger brake well before they use their real one. I was told by my cousin, who is a driving examiner, that BSM realised that it was cheaper to replace brakes on their cars than to replace gear boxes, which is why all driving instructors now tell pupils to brake without a gear change.
Mind you, when I double declutch coming up to a roundabout and get there with just the right revs and speed, the Y leaves the 'brakers' behind for a little while. Which is quite satisfying.
Gilles, I love 'behaving like squirrels on wheels', it's a perfect description.
P S Sharp

Michael YA7141 and David Mullen please e'mail me
Michael Nicholson

Interestingly Sir Malcolm Campbell said one of the arts of good driving was to be in the right gear at the right moment. Perhaps he was refering to thundering across Utah in Bluebird.
Bryan

This thread was discussed between 21/08/2007 and 19/09/2007

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