It had to happen. I had to travel to a client yesterday - they have moved, and because of other journeys, I knew roughly how long it would take to get there. What I hadn’t bargained on was an unpredicted snarl up on the M11 junction. It took me a good 30 minutes to travel about a mile and a half. This made me rather late.

The way back was worse. I stopped over at my parents for a while to say "hello" - and set off back home. There was a horrific accident on the M25, and the tailback went back a long way, and I just found myself sitting in a queue doing nothing for a while. I bailed at the next unction, as I know a few alternative routes, and that was slow going too. To add to all this one of the headlight bulbs packed in when I switched them on...

In all, not a great day for driving. It took me over two hours to do the drive home - it normally takes under an hour.

I've just read bulb chanbging instructions - I have been really lucky with cars and lights. I think this will be the first bulb change for a very long time.

 

I feel your pain, Paul. Living in Southern California we know all too well about traffic issues, road closures due to bad accidents, etc. I've had a regular 1 hour drive turn into 3+ hours due to heavy rain and a 2 hour drive turn into a 5 hour slog two days before Christmas. On that day I called my wife and said I might make it home in time for New Years!

For those who know the San Diego area: it took me 3 hours to get from the 15/94 interchange up to Escondido. This was several years ago and there was a lot of construction on the 15 just south of the 8 at the time, which only made matters worse. Fun day.

 

I hear that. When I lived in San Diego I worked in Chula Vista and my Condo was in RB. That took FOREVER, and I thought NY traffic was bad. Thankfully those were in my younger stupid days and carried stuff to toke on- haha

 

If nothing else, this may help:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=28907

It makes the task a bit less troublsome.

 

I've been hitting so much traffic, and the car is very awkward to drive at speeds under 10 mph without riding the clutch. I really feel like I'm going to mess up the clutch.. does anyone else drive in traffic alot, and consequently have problems with the clutch. What do you do when you have to go say between 5 and 7 miles an hour? I keep it in gear until it hits 1500 rpm then hit it into neutral, then when everything moves i rev match and go to about 10 and repeat the process.

 

I slog along ...just keeping it in 2nd...keeps revs down & less herky jerky...

On the bright side.....ya get to spend more time in the XFIRE!

Paul, I wonder if what you call Crystal Slate.....is the same as what's called Machine Grey (Crystal Pearl) over here?

Also, look at the bright side ....we're in a big deflationary spiral.....you have fewer dollars/pounds/whatever.....but you can buy about the same amount of gold/oil/whatever as you could with the number coins you had 6 months ago, i.e., you can buy a lot more shares of stock with the same number of coins.

(Glass half full......other half consumed!).

 

When I went to get some pint mixed up, the guy in the paint shop has swatch books of colours - and the one in the Chrysler book which matched mine was called “Crystal Slate”. They didn’t have a “Machine Grey” - even though that’s the colour name for our car. The colour may have been renamed for use on other cars. Maybe the name “Machine Grey” puts the wrong image across for a different demographic? I’ve also heard it called “Graphite” so there are three potential names for that colour. In bright light, it seems more “crystal” than “machine” to me.

Whatever the name, it’s a colour I really like. It suits the car well, and it looks stunning when the sun is out.

I got the blown bulb changed. After deciding I could probably do it myself with some fiddling and swearing, I went to my local Halfords (UK car/bicycle shop) and bought a bulb. They do a fitting service, so I thought I’d see if they could do that. They did - and they charged me a fiver for the trouble. It was in the infamous right hand side too. So, for those who suffer at the hands of their dealers, a new bulb + fitting set me back around £13.00.

 

I still can't imagine how you guys can shift with your left hand (unless you are left handed).....that would be like trying to wipe with your left hand.....just isn't normal!!

 

I'm sure they cant imagine how we shift with our right hands. When Clarkson reviewed the z06 he said the steering wheel was on the wrong side haha.

 

It’s perfectly natural

What is odd is that for me is that parts of the car are the wrong way round. I assume that your indicator stalk is on the left of the steering wheel. This makes sense, as you can hold the wheel, change gear and indicate at the same time, or at the very least have hands ready to go at a minutes’ notice. To me, this makes a lot of sense.

I have owned one car which gave me that kind of control - it had the indicator stalk to the right of the steering wheel. All other cars have had the indicators to the left, which I attribute to "left hand drive thinking". For right hand drive cars, the consoles etc are just mounted to the other side. I’ve even owned cars whose passenger side defrosted more quickly than the driver’s side.

The best, absolutely best, example of this was my dad’s Skoda Octavia. Not the new kind of Octavia, but the one he bought in the 1960’s. It was right hand drive, but can you guess where the hand brake was? The same place as the left hand drive version - between the left hand door and the seat. Skoda had literally repositioned just the wheel and pedals. You had to lean across the passenger seat to get to the hand brake!

When cars go fully electric, and most of the functions are software controlled, the position of the pedals and steering wheel could be set by the driver. There’s be no complex mechanics to reset. Just slide or flip the console over to the other side.

 

My guess on the turn signal position is.....the vast majority of the Crossfires produced were destined for the USA.....& DC just didn't care to go to the trouble to completely redesign everything for the minority of RHDers.

I'm at work right now, Blood Bank-Level 1 Trauma Center.......I've already saved 7 lives & have 2.5 hours to go.

 

Good work at the Trauma Center!

Most cars are built for LHD with RHD as an afterthought. It’s not really a problem, as long as the controls are accessible and useable.

 

Right the OP for this post recounted a story from last week. Based on yesterday, it was walk in the park. I was on my way from Watford to Oxford - a journey which takes about an hour or so. I was supposed to be visiting a client.

I refer you all to this news story on the BBC web site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7696833.stm

Thankfully, I was not caught up in the accident itself, but I got well and truly snared in the fall out. The road reports on the radio are spaced apart at such a time that by the time I had caught on,e I was already in the snarl up. I spent an hour on the M40 doing gas-brake-clutch type things and getting nowhere fast. The M40 was closed at the scene of the accident, and all northbound traffic was being diverted off at High Wycombe. Traffic was then being sent along the A40 to rejoin the M40 further north. US readers may want to consult the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...97818&t=h&z=11

The whole M40 corridor was blocked. My initial thought was to head north and continue along another trunk road, but it was jammed. I ended up bailing off the A40, and headed south and approached Oxford from there. This worked, but the whole journey took 4 hours. Horrible.

The previous night, we had had some really bad snow, so I saw some rather nice scenery along the way. The snow had caused the accident which closed the motorway. In fact, the motorway had been screened off at High Wycombe, so you could not see much further past the roundabout.

It also impacted on one of the other motorways serving the Midlands, so it goes to show how fragile the smooth flowing traffic on our roads is. Close a couple of junctions, and the knock-on effect is massive.

The journey back was better - the M40 was open, and I got back to Watford physically in one piece. The people I was meeting bought me an evening meal, which was jolly decent of them :-)

I should not complain too much - I am still alive, and I’m back home and safe. One of the lorry drivers in the accident lost his life, which is very sad.

 

There's nothing like a good sound system and good comms for traffic.

I just put something soothing on and if I am behind on my action list I start making calls (hands-free of course)

I am the jerk you see who doesn't inch ahead a car length at a time - I just wait until theres room enough to let the clutch out and idle in first or second, then dump the clutch when I catch up.

Back when I didn't have tunes, comms and a/c, I really hated traffic. Spent three years driving out of Tyson's Corner on the Beltway and 270N while they expanded it to 12 lanes... That was hell. The worst day was the day I was miserable and along comes this chrome-yellow Lambo in the HOV lane doing 70mph. The only consolation that day was knowing my house payment was lower than his car payment...

These days, I will go other ways even if the distance is more, just to be able to have open road. You get there when you get there...

And the Lambo's don't get me down. I love this car!

 

I remember renting a manual gearbox Toyota in the Bahamas 20 some years ago and though it was going to be quite the exercise driving on the left side of the road and shifting with my left hand. Turns out that since so much of that was alien to me I just concentrated a bit more than usual and never had an issue of any kind.

Except for the most subtle of things: glancing to the rearview mirror. This is such a small and quick thing to do, but naturally I was used to glancing slightly up and to the right to see it. Doing so in the little rental Toyota I kept looking up at the top of the A-pillar instead!