Just returned from a very enjoyable day out at Simms on the Exeter Trial. Nice to see such a range of machinery being driven in anger!

I had been determined to give the Colander its first outing of the year and had planned accordingly. The weather has not exactly been good, and most of you are probably aware that weather protection is not exactly a strong point of the Colander! However off I set this morning heading straight across Dartmoor in rather bleak conditions. The most noticable effect of the bad weather high up on the moors was the incredible effect that the wind had on the top speed! I was at one point struggling to achieve 30 mph in top on the flat, and needed to change to third to make some headway !
So as an experiment on the way back I donned the goggles and scarve and folded the screen flat. Passing motorists probably thought I should be certified, BUT the difference was quite suprising! I havnt really driven much with the screen down as the other half is not quite as keen as me, but today I motored alone and I can now see why various sporty Austins and the like had the fold down screen.
I would be interested to know if there are any figures for top speed with screen up and down for say an Ulster or something similar?

Regards

frostbitten Steve

If you had the wind against you on the forward journey, wouldn't it be behind you on return? Having said that,I seem to recall Bert Hadley saying that screen down can save about 10mph in strong headwinds and even two full-across bonnet straps made a difference of about 5mph. So imagine what your wings and headlamps are doing. I hope this doesn't start a craze for nude Austin Sevens. Cheers, Bill in Oz

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I broke the screen in my Box, back in the sixties, and drove without it for about three weeks(goggles were required!)whilst I saved for a new glass.

I had to devise a piece of rope with two loops, to go across behind the seats and attached to the door handles. Without this the doors blew open at anything over thirty. Exciting times.

Mike

Steve

Wind direction certainly makes a difference, down here in west Cornwall on the A30, as you approach Hayle, there is a cutting that narrows down from nearly 4 lanes wide to 2 lanes, and the road is on a gentle slope down.

Wind behind me, going west, gentle downhill with the wind being 'funneled' I have had 63 out of the RP (maintaining that out of gear, but don't tell the Cornish lads, they disapprove), in fact I was having to brake at certain points for the 'slow' moderns.

Going the other way up the slight rise, normally I'm in top at about 40mph, with a headwind I'm down to 30 or even less, I think once I managed to keep going at 25mph.

Some of the Cornwall lads will tell you my RP (Pandora) goes quicker down hill out of gear, it rolls along very nicely then..................

Why do I knock it out of gear, my excuss is it saves the engine being 'driven' from the back wheels, I let it relax for a while until the speed drops to something it can handle.

Sandy

I took the Top Hat to the East Coast on Hogmanay, when I arrived at my destination the little peak above the windscreen had blown away! The wind continued until Wednesday, luckily I didn't loose any more bits, anyone have a spare peak they want to sell??

Happy New Year to you all!

Ruairidh

So that seems to prove the point then!
I presume a modern which has an excess of power and a windtunnel design just doesnt give you such a noticable effect?
Ref the wind behind on the way home, I found that the twists and turns and severe ups and downs of the road meant that the wind wasnt always constant with respect to my orientation, therefore the experiment could have worked reasonably well in either direction.

Just one point ref Sandys freewheeling.....
Going down the hill into Widdecombe which is steep I was also out of gear, and such was the wind that I reckon I would have eventually stopped had I not resumed powered progress!!

Steve.

Sandy,

Using 'silent top' is also a trick used on a traction engine on a good hill, mind they usually have no brakes and is frowned upon by most. Exciting stuff.

As a mild man I was interested in your wild adventures. I notice that if you scroll down the Chit Chat page there are some world Records to be broken. Regards .

Come on Sandy, be honest - wouldn't your driving in "Angel's gear" have something to do with your ethnic background? Only jesting, but don't blame you if the price of petrol is skyrocketing in UK like it is in OZ. Cheers, Bill

Bill, 'Angels Gear', I don't know about that, but when I get home it's a wee dram o' the Angels Breath to steady the nerves, especially if there's been the occasional cross wind.

I saw 'Angels Breath' in a bottle at a pub in Bournemouth a few years ago, I asked what it was. It comes from Scotland, but all the names like 'Glen xxxxx' had been reserved, so this new company called it's product 'Angels Breath' - that's the vapour that evaporates from the still.....

Sandy

Sandy - Perhaps only of trivial interest (if any) there's a long steep hill, part of the Great Dividing Range on the Hume Highway about 35 miles north of Melbourne on the way to Sydney. Fortunately most of the Hume has been bypassed for some years by a minimum 4-lane freeway (sorry, motorway) all the way to the N.S.W. border. Before the freeway, trucks (sorry, lorries) used to throw the drive into neutral to really pick up time on the way back to Melbourne. Result - huge amount of deaths and in nearly all cases the cause was Angel gear. Thought the expression would be known by lorry drivers in UK? Cheers, Bill

Bill,

Our regular contributor Ian Moorcraft may know the expression, although he is a coach driver, and I'm sure very careful. I've only hitched lifts in trucks/lorries, never driven anything over 7.5 tons - hitching back in the 60's, not nowdays.

Sandy

Our Zetor tractor at work has drum brakes that are very bad. My mate forgot to connect the seperate hydraulic trailer brakes one day........
After negotiating a very steep hill with a full trailer of top soil I had to go home for some clean trousers .

Steve