Can van drivers be pistonheads too?
Discussion
Almost 300Nm of torque to the back wheels with no driving aids and skinny wheels means you will see white-van man smiling like a Cheshire cat when the we are blessed with a few drops of rain.
The local roundabouts have some greasy surfaces and are wide open, add that to a raised driving position with a great view ahead means the rear end is coming out!
Longwheel base seems to make slides feel more linear and just power off to ease back into line.
I have spent hours watching mad Japs and Kiwis drift their Hiace's and other front engined with rear drive no weight over the back wheels rejects, while car drivers spend fortunes trying overcome the grip of big tyres and complicated suspensions with massive power hikes with tuning and turbos etc.
Front wheel drive pick-ups will scare you with mega lift-off over steer, get back on the gas pedal and you will laugh your head.
If Beemw made a car with wind up windows and less sound proofing for less money than a standard model I would put it on my wish list. I cannot fit into an elise or anything Italian, even if I went on a Zoolander diet, you would still need to amputate my legs below the knees, shave half a foot of my shoulders and flaten the top of my head before I could fit into an MX-5 (with the roof off you could leave my cone head as it is). A corvette would be driving from fill-up to fill up.
Truth be told I love all these cars and more, but I also love vans and pick-ups.
My work means I have to carry over a ton of gear, I can't get away from that.
Vans are tough too, Punto's bounce off them.
So a big thank you to the manufactures that have put "powerful and responsive" (quote from a piston head) into vehicles I can fit all my stuff and me into.
So any of you that have found the idea of driving a van, pickup or truck a step in the wrong direction but have actually read this far, I dare you to get down to local self-drive hire with your driving shoes, (although larger pedals mean you can do some left foot braking with safety boots on) and get some thing with no rear weight when the weather girl suggests staying indoors.
P.S. I have a ring sticker on the back of mine in memory of a true piston head,R.I.P. Chris
The local roundabouts have some greasy surfaces and are wide open, add that to a raised driving position with a great view ahead means the rear end is coming out!
Longwheel base seems to make slides feel more linear and just power off to ease back into line.
I have spent hours watching mad Japs and Kiwis drift their Hiace's and other front engined with rear drive no weight over the back wheels rejects, while car drivers spend fortunes trying overcome the grip of big tyres and complicated suspensions with massive power hikes with tuning and turbos etc.
Front wheel drive pick-ups will scare you with mega lift-off over steer, get back on the gas pedal and you will laugh your head.
If Beemw made a car with wind up windows and less sound proofing for less money than a standard model I would put it on my wish list. I cannot fit into an elise or anything Italian, even if I went on a Zoolander diet, you would still need to amputate my legs below the knees, shave half a foot of my shoulders and flaten the top of my head before I could fit into an MX-5 (with the roof off you could leave my cone head as it is). A corvette would be driving from fill-up to fill up.
Truth be told I love all these cars and more, but I also love vans and pick-ups.
My work means I have to carry over a ton of gear, I can't get away from that.
Vans are tough too, Punto's bounce off them.
So a big thank you to the manufactures that have put "powerful and responsive" (quote from a piston head) into vehicles I can fit all my stuff and me into.
So any of you that have found the idea of driving a van, pickup or truck a step in the wrong direction but have actually read this far, I dare you to get down to local self-drive hire with your driving shoes, (although larger pedals mean you can do some left foot braking with safety boots on) and get some thing with no rear weight when the weather girl suggests staying indoors.
P.S. I have a ring sticker on the back of mine in memory of a true piston head,R.I.P. Chris
A friend of mine was once out for a spirited drive in a mildly quick car. He was enjoying himself through the twisties, pressing on a little without going mad. He was feeling quite smug with himself until he realised he was being caught by a transit. In his words the most depressing bit was seeing that "it had ladders on the roof".
Could have been Sabine Schmitz out for a practice in Leicestershire I guess
Welcome to PH!
Gary
Could have been Sabine Schmitz out for a practice in Leicestershire I guess
Welcome to PH!
Gary
edo said:
love it, that van is clearly a tripod at one point to!!!YES!
The Sprinters i used to drive were good fun in the wet... Like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PwL17Xsl7U&fea...
The Sprinters i used to drive were good fun in the wet... Like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PwL17Xsl7U&fea...
tbox). 
GadgeS3C said:
A friend of mine was once out for a spirited drive in a mildly quick car. He was enjoying himself through the twisties, pressing on a little without going mad. He was feeling quite smug with himself until he realised he was being caught by a transit. In his words the most depressing bit was seeing that "it had ladders on the roof".
Could have been Sabine Schmitz out for a practice in Leicestershire I guess
Welcome to PH!
Gary
The exact same thing happened to me when I was out in my old neon near bagworth, did your mate mention the colour? Might have been the same one, it was blue with two White stripes. Suffice to say I was impressed (and a bit embarassed)Could have been Sabine Schmitz out for a practice in Leicestershire I guess
Welcome to PH!
Gary
Edited by LimitedSlipDisk on Saturday 29th January 13:39
I used to have access to a 1980ish Toyota Hilux-or-something pickup. Skinny wheels, an engine with bugger all power but a good torque spread, rear wheel drive, and a column mounted gearshift. It wasn't the kind of thing that would have been a great punt down a flowing b-road but at quiet junctions it was easy enough to poke the light back end out and gather it all up by twirling the low geared steering with one hand while hanging on to the doorframe with the other to stop me sliding down the bench seat and becoming an inpromptu passenger. It was good fun and the column mounted shift was, for me, quite a novelty and I enjoyed shuffling it up and down the box. Nice and lazy and mechanical.
Possible to have fun in one but I'd never buy one simply for the pleasure of driving it...
I see no reason why a driving enthusiast would never find themselves in a van in their day job.
Possible to have fun in one but I'd never buy one simply for the pleasure of driving it...
I see no reason why a driving enthusiast would never find themselves in a van in their day job.
I've hardly ever spent time in vans until the last few years when transporting the track bike around the country, but have to say it was a bigger laugh than my S4 in some circumstances. Having sold the S4 and had a 3 month gap before the new car arrived, I used the van (a shagged out 10 year old 110 Vito) whenever I needed to pop out and it was hilarious out dragging people from lights carrying more corner speed, especially at roundabouts and gnerally hooning around in it.
It just felt more satisfying out driving someone in a decent powered prestige car in my clapped out 100bhp van, than doing it in a car that had four times the power.
Having just picked up a LWB Renault Master converted into a horsebox for Mrs Loon, it was great to cheat a bit and get that remapped into the high 160s, so it can carry some speed with all the added weight in the back.
It just felt more satisfying out driving someone in a decent powered prestige car in my clapped out 100bhp van, than doing it in a car that had four times the power.
Having just picked up a LWB Renault Master converted into a horsebox for Mrs Loon, it was great to cheat a bit and get that remapped into the high 160s, so it can carry some speed with all the added weight in the back.
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