> I didn't actually check the rev count, but in 5th gear, the car seems very 
> reluctant to go much faster than roughly 65.

OK road test results at 65 mph.

Rather conveniently the speed of traffic on the autobahn on my commute home 
is about 65 mph so it was quite easy to test out.

3rd gear : Almost hitting the start of the dotted red line on the rev 
counter, any useful acceleration in this gear will be outweighed by having 
to change up in 0.2 seconds so a bit pointless at this speed.
4th gear : Most acceleration available here, I would guess this gear is good 
for up to 80 or 90 mph if you really wanted to speed up quickly.  Engine 
noticeably "revving", wouldn't like to cruise in this gear.
5th gear : Not as much acceleration as 4th but still speeds up fairly 
quickly, would be good up to about 110 mph.  Sounds pretty relaxed, at 65mph 
I often leave it in 5th if it's busy and I need to speed up/slow down 
frequently.
6th gear : Not much acceleration here, but I assume uses least fuel, good up 
to 140 mph :-)

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scott wrote:

> Those questions are all really stupid.  My favourite:
> 
> You come up behind a slow driver, you should:
> 
> A. Drive as close as possible to him to make him speed up.
> B. Leave a safe distance and overtake only when you are sure it is safe 
> to do so.
> C. Press your horn repeatedly to let him know you want to go past.
> D. Ram him off the road.
> 
> I dunno, but when I did it, it was with pencil and paper, and you had 35 
> questions like the above to do in 45 minutes.  After 10-15 minutes I 
> (and a few others) had finished, checked and double-checked and left.  I 
> wonder if anyone actually stayed until the end?

I was the first person to leave also. My sister wasn't far behind.

I wonder if anybody actually chose options C or D? And if they did, this 
ought to be an instant failure - but I suspect what actually happens is 
that if you get X questions correct, you pass, regardless of which 
questions you got right or how dangerous your wrong answers were.

One of the other questions was something like

When driving on a motorway, which lane should you use?

A. The outside lane.
B. The insane lane.
C. The lane with the least traffic.
D. The outermost lane that's going fast enough.

I'm thinking that people might geniunely believe that C is the correct 
answer. I mean, if you weren't very clear on the rules of the road, 
option C seems logically reasonable. (The correct answer is obviously D.)

I guess some of the people taking the test might not know enough English 
to know what a ****-off big sign saying "STOP" means. (But then, how are 
you reading the test questions?)

But some of the questions - like the one you gave above - are so 
mind-bendingly stupid that it's unsurprising that I got a 98% score.

(The question I got wrong was related to stopping distances. Face it, do 
*you* know whether the quoted stopping distance at 70 MPH is 310 yards 
or 320 yards? Because I have absolutely no clue. I also have no clue how 
far 320 yards *is* in the first place, so it seems kind of moot to me...)

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Dre wrote:
> <snip>
>> It's got a CD-changer in the front, which is nice. It's slot-loading 
>> though, so any CDs you put in it are likely to get ruined.
> <snip>
> 
> O_o
> 
> This logic astounds me!

In what way?

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Invisible wrote:

> Overall I'm happy with my car. Just gotta iron out the kinks. (Starting 
> with that back window...) Oh, and it would be kind of nice if I could 
> look up the spec list for it, but first I'd have to figure out WTF it *is*!

The car is undeniably a Renault Megane Dynamique 5-door with a 2.0 L 
petrol engine. (Actually 1998cc.)

However... is it a 2.0 T 16V or a 2.0 VVT?

The documentation from the shop says it's the VVT. The stickers on the 
car itself just say "2.0 16V". The registration document merely says 
"Renault Megane" and no further details beyond the engine size. The DVLA 
website won't tell me anything further.

I guess it only makes 20 BHP difference either way...

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> (The question I got wrong was related to stopping distances. Face it, do 
> *you* know whether the quoted stopping distance at 70 MPH is 310 yards or 
> 320 yards?

Oh come on, you mean you didn't simply memorise the deacceleration they were 
assuming, then used a constant acceleration formula in the test to work it 
out? :-)

> Because I have absolutely no clue. I also have no clue how far 320 yards 
> *is* in the first place, so it seems kind of moot to me...)

About the distance between the "///" 300 metre exit marker and the actual 
exit itself on the motorway.  BTW most modern cars can stop from 70 mph in 
well under 100 metres, but they seem to have not updated the test answers in 
50 years to account for this.

Post a reply to this message

> However... is it a 2.0 T 16V or a 2.0 VVT?
>
> The documentation from the shop says it's the VVT. The stickers on the car 
> itself just say "2.0 16V".

The VVT probably has 16V too.  If you have the turbo you'd probably be able 
to hear it, speed up to about 3000 rpm in 2nd or 3rd gear, then take your 
foot off the throttle, you should be able to hear it making a faint high 
pitch whining noise.

Post a reply to this message

>> (The question I got wrong was related to stopping distances. Face it, 
>> do *you* know whether the quoted stopping distance at 70 MPH is 310 
>> yards or 320 yards?
> 
> Oh come on, you mean you didn't simply memorise the deacceleration they 
> were assuming, then used a constant acceleration formula in the test to 
> work it out? :-)

I didn't know much mechanics back then.

>> Because I have absolutely no clue. I also have no clue how far 320 
>> yards *is* in the first place, so it seems kind of moot to me...)
> 
> About the distance between the "///" 300 metre exit marker and the 
> actual exit itself on the motorway.

Isn't that 300 yards, not 300 meters?

> BTW most modern cars can stop from 
> 70 mph in well under 100 metres, but they seem to have not updated the 
> test answers in 50 years to account for this.

Presumably because if you pass your driving test, you could be driving a 
50 year old car. Hypothetically.

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scott wrote:
>> However... is it a 2.0 T 16V or a 2.0 VVT?
>>
>> The documentation from the shop says it's the VVT. The stickers on the 
>> car itself just say "2.0 16V".
> 
> The VVT probably has 16V too.

This is the problem.

> If you have the turbo you'd probably be 
> able to hear it, speed up to about 3000 rpm in 2nd or 3rd gear, then 
> take your foot off the throttle, you should be able to hear it making a 
> faint high pitch whining noise.

One of the most striking things about this car is that it's quiet to the 
point that you can barely tell whether the engine is actually running at 
all.

 From what I've seen, if a car has turbo, it constantly makes that 
annoying whistling sound. Also, if you floor it, nothing happens for 4 
seconds, and *then* it takes off like a rocket.

Neither of these things appear to be the case with my car. (Not that 
I've actually tried driving it fast. I'm too busy constantly changing 
gears to concentrate on the road...)

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Invisible wrote:

> It's got a CD-changer in the front, which is nice. It's slot-loading 
> though, so any CDs you put in it are likely to get ruined. But then, I 
> always use custom CDs for the car anyway. If one gets broke, I burn 
> another copy.

Ooo... According to the spec sheet, the CD-changer is optional. And it 
may or may not support MP3. I wonder how I find out?

You'd think there would be a big MP3 sticker splashed colourfully across 
the dashboard, but I don't see one. Still, I guess I can burn a disk and 
see what happens.

6 CDs is one thing, but if this sucker supports MP3, it can fit, like, 2 
years' worth of music on there. And let's face it, a car has got to be 
the ultimate place to use lossy compression. I mean, who's going to hear 
the difference? The speaker systems is crap anyway, and there's so much 
noise around...

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Invisible wrote:
> Also, if you floor it, nothing happens for 4 
> seconds, and *then* it takes off like a rocket.

This happens in many cars, but mostly automatics, where the transmission is 
shifting down thru those six gears to get to the one you want.

Also annoying if you can't start and stop easily while driving slowly (by 
which I mean 10-15mph).

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

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