"NY" wrote in message
...
"Tim+" wrote in message
...
my father had a Rootes car (Sceptre?). It had a bench front seat, so
the
handbrake had to fit between the driver's seat and the door.


No €œhad to€� about it. Youre forgetting under dash €œumbrella€� style
handbrakes that you pulled (and foot operated parking brakes although Im
not sure these were ever popular in the UK).

Foot operated parking brakes are a pain because you need an extra leg to
release the brake at a time which is precisely coordinated with the clutch
and accelerator when doing a hill start. They also latch on and have to be
pressed down to release them. So you can't release them or apply them as
quickly or with as much control. The same is true of electric handbrakes,
controlled by a switch which uses an electric motor to apply/release. A
good hill start is one where at the moment of setting off the handbrake
bites only just enough to hold the car back, and not so much that it
prevents the car going forwards - that needs a non-binary control of the
brake.

OK, so automatic cars don't strictly speaking need a handbrake to be
coordinated during a hill start, because the transmission with idling
engine will (hopefully) hold the car from rolling back unless the hill is
very steep - but as with handbrake assist on a manual car, I haven't the
guts to rely on it. I'll have to try it on a hill when there's nothing
behind me and see if our car's handbrake assist actually *does* hold the
car if it is released *before* the clutch is engaged and the power is
applied. With my hand on the handbrake lever , just in case ;-)

Anyway, I will not, as a service to the car behind me, use my footbrake to
stay stopped at a junction etc. That would dazzle him with my brake
lights.

I have never been dazzled by any brake lights. There is some problem with
your eyes.

I want to shoot other drivers who do it to me, so I won't do it to them.
"Footbrake to stop the car. Handbrake to *stay* stopped." Wise Saw number
387 from my driving instructor all those years ago.

Just because someone got that wrong doesnt mean you have to keep doing it
wrong.