10 Myths About Driving That Most People Believe
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- There are many common myths out there about driving, or just common beliefs that we as a driving society tend to hold on to that simply don't check out against actual reality. Some are antiques that only applied to cars and roads of the past, others are simply misinformation spread by unaware drivers who may be genuinely trying to help. Regardless of their origins or why they've lasted this long, let's shine the light on ten of these myths in an effort to refine the quality of information out there in the driving community.
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Myth: moving the comment section on mobile was a good idea
What are you talking about? It's normal for me.
@@takumifujiwara9072 Used to be directly below the video, now the apple version is far lower.
Initially it was 100% of videos I was on the comments were moved below the description, now most of the time it's moved back below the recommended videos at the bottom.
Wait you can watch youtube on your phone? That's a thing now? When did that happen?
@@sixoh_diesel5662 yeah, what do you think all those cops on the side of the road are doing all day?
In Australia, we have a common problem of kangaroos jumping in front of cars and those cars end up massively damaged. We try to avoid them if we can.
why many trucks in australia have front extra bumper guards
Damn you reminded me of the bathurst 1000 kangaroo incidents. Poor things probably just tried to run away. Apparently lots of deers jump off bridges to death because they get scared of cars, too. Maybe it's a similar situation
In the Northern United States we have moose and elk. If you hit them you are probably going to die. For sure we avoid them.
@@burger1113 Central New York west of syracuse, the winter of 2018 winter I hit 3 deer. 1st one, no snow at all perfect conditions 8 O'clock at night, ran down the side of a hill head first into the drivers door of the suburban. I stopped to check it out, I got a few feet from it and it stood up shook its head, looked around to see where it was and walked off like nothing happened. The Second one, also no snow 12:30 am, Nissan Versa, was standing in the road (50mph in a 55 zone) in between the beginning and end of an S turn, I pulled off on to the shoulder as far as I could with out going over the enbankment to be clear of it (25), the deer turned back and leaped (15) hit its rear end on my passenger side headlight, wrecked my light, hood, and bumper cover, the deer got up and ran away. The third wasn't so lucky but did the least damage... (55) at night, cleared roads, 5 ft or higher snow banks, didn't have time to slow down, the deer leaped over the snow bank just as I was passing and her head connected with the bumper of the suburban. That was the only year I've hit anything, knock on wood.
@@raycar1165 wtf? Lol hope u had insurance for that kinda stuff
TRD stickers makes your Tacoma have more horsepower
TRD just needs U.😏
That’s not a misconception, that’s science
@I Am Sekou Don't get me wrong, I love toyotas, but the trd decal always looks like turd in my peripheral vision. Just a joke, ya know. 🤗
Myth: TRD stickers don't make your Tacoma faster.
Truth: each sticker adds 10 hp.
Only a Toyota would have to be *upgraded* to a turd.
To paraphrase Chip Ganassi, "If a meteor falls out of the sky and hits your car, that's an accident."
I've noticed many people feel that an unusable "high milage" car is at like 100-200k miles. As long as you take care of it modern and even older engines will last 300k+ easily..
The chassis on most 90s and 00s Ford or GM cars will not last that long, most junkyard engines run or could run.
Yup, I have some 80s Fords that I don't know or care what the mileage on them is. It doesn't matter, all that matters is condition. In regards to condition and mileage an overlooked factor is also what kind of mileage. Long highway miles are quite good for a car, short stop and go miles are bad. Some newer cars have engine hour meters, if you can access that it'll give a very good indicator of what kind of miles it had.
New England cars can have terminal rust by 150k, depending on how it was taken care of. Here it's usually the chassis crumbling that kills cars, rather than any sort of drivetrain failure
My mom and one friend have this mentality too.
My 2016 Toyota Tundra is currently at 230k. Oil change every 5k miles. Tranny flush every 50k. shes still purring strong
I coat my tires with wd-40 every morning to preserve my tire tread.
you are kidding, right? Or you have a death wish.
@@DavidCritchley401982 both
@@lordozi3113 lol
Well you certainly aren't preserving your life 😂
Oh my goodness! A car channel for adults who can actually drive !
Good video, but as a suspension engineer I must say some points. ABS is superior in braking distance, BUT only on surface that it is setup to. You just can not setup for everything and snow and gravel reqire quite a different setup than tarmac. And there is no point to setting the abs to gravel and snow, when most people most of the time are braking on tarmac.
On tarmac, most grip is at about 5%slip of tires and even if you came close to this with treshold braking, you are still letting a big amount of grip "on the table" at the one axle, because in treshold braking you are on the limit only of one axle/wheel, if you do not have perfectly setup F/R brake controller. ABS can use 100% of the grip on all 4 wheels. That is the reason why race cars that have ABS have more ABS setups. Even WRC cars had ABS in old days, now it is banned I think.
Second and it is not correction, only thing you did not mention. Electronic diffs are faster, IF they are designed with performace in mind (not VW haldex, not BMW xdrive) and also same thing as ABS, they need to be set up to the road surface and only car I can think of that can change diff setup for surface is Evo 7-X (which have 2 active diffs in GSR versions and only active center diff for RS GroupN rally version). But there are aftermarket controllers you can tinker yourself with and set it up to your driving style, which is very important in setup. For example Ken Block in his early gymkhanas used DCCD controller from Pavel Skácel. Old WRC cars used to have three active diffs, before it was banned, because it was expensive and hell to setup, nowdays only center diff is active I think. Of course pure mechanical is more predictable, much more reliable and cheaper to replace, but if electronic diff is correctly set up to surface and person, than there is no match for it.
Accidents happen mentality is hilarious here. JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL
I've had people recount accidents to me and proudly tell me they just let go of the wheel and trusted it would avoid the telephone pole.
It's even more prevalent in the motorcycle world somehow where you hear so many motorcyclists say they had to "lay it down". Great, now you have neither braking nor directional control.
People saying that missed the "don't put the Lord to the test" part. Lol.
Camarada Caramel My drivers ed teacher said accidents are not accidents. There are no accidents just collisions.
The only type of crash i'd classify as an "accident" is if a part of the car fails resulting in an immediate loss of control and you hit something. Even that though can be attributed to negligence on somebodys part wether thats you for not doing any maintnence or the engineer group that made that part shitty in the first place.
Alright, so I live in Minnesota, and in the winter time, a lot of people really struggle. Most people have the wrong tires, open diff's, and are impatient; it's the perfect combination! (Don't trust anyone who brags about their snow driving prowess due to being from Minnesota...) So when the light turns green, they stomp on the throttle, lighting up one tire. They go nowhere, or sometimes slide backwards....these people are the reason we say "Don't spin your tires, you *******!" People getting stuck on a perfectly flat parking lot is totally a thing...becaue they spin their tires on packed snow/ice. Anyway, yeah, the "don't spin the tires" is a snow specific advice for the naive and foolish drivers of on-road passenger vehicles, and I stand by it! (But if they promise to take a winter driving course at O'Neil, I will stop telling them!)
fredy gump to be fair the being from Minnesota thing does have a bit of truth to it because after the first snowfall we normally collect ourselves and remember how to drive. You see southern cities getting half an inch of snow and they’re all on the side of the road or can’t make it up a hill. Learning to drive here during the winter for my behind the wheel classes and pushing countless cars or even metro buses that get suck outside of my house gives me what I feel might be a slightly better understanding of winter driving.
@@Mac-tw3zu To be fair, snow in Minnesota is not the same as snow farther south. Snow is far more manageable when everythings stays frozen. Winter conditions are way more dangerous in places that average around freezing...roads freeze and thaw on a daily basis, leaving ice patches everywhere. Sometimes I work in Iowa or Missouri in winter, and the freezing rain is brutal! And they get a lot of it. The glare on the wet/ icy roads is especially bad because the sun is low... And it gets darker sooner, because there is no snow to reflect light.
Colorado is the same. Colorado "natives" love to blame non-natives. Natives suck at driving in snow, also.
True. His "myth" about ABS is also not true. Cause you know abs makes breaking distance shorter and provides the ability to control your car during breaking.
@@svyatoslavboykiv398 You can stop quick without ABS, just be sure you know when your wheels are locked up. (might be hard.)
People who have never driven a modern car, or who are 13 seem really triggered by this video haha
when the 13yo who never sat behind a wheel hears that the new GTR isnt offered in a manual transmission
He speak heresy, manuals are always better than automatics. . . and stickers add 20+ hp per square inch not 10. ;p
Nah just typical trolls
Some cars don't need a manual option, others I really wish were more available with one.
It would be nice if you could get a modern full-size pickup with a modern 6-speed transmission more easily. 3-series BMWs are super fun to fling around and are really tamed by an automatic. Most low-end commuter cars do still have a manual option in North America but it is being replaced by the CVT which is outright bad.
On the other hand high-horsepower cars with robust and precise automatics make it much easier to use that power. And larger numbers of gears available in cars like Audis give better acceleration for a lower amount of available power. It also wouldn't make any sense to have work vans manual here anymore , as they are usually driven by tired busy people in traffic for a full workday (I was given a manual van as a service truck years back and when it was retired for an automatic van I was pretty thankful).
@@SorryMcMorrow all cars need a manual option. Better mpg, a significantly higher articulation of power and control, and it's more reliable (the number of times i wish i could have push started a damn auto -_-). The only problem is that modern manuals suck. At least my accord does, clutch is so damn stiff no wonder nobody wants a new manual.
"Throw it in neutral to save gas..."
Depends on transmission.
@@snek9353 Would it matter in modern cars? The reason it's false is because the car needs to use fuel to keep the engine idling whereas leaving it in gear the car will stop fuel flowing completely. I don't know the inner workings of an auto in this situation but I'd say that they will either do the same as a manual, where the wheels turning will turn the engine over without the need for fuel to be injected so will save fuel compared to being in neutral, or letting off the throttle will effectively put it into neutral (very roughly speaking) which will neither save or use more fuel than being in neutral, so the myth is still a myth regardless of what transmission the car has, as putting it into neutral will either actually use more fuel or not make a difference, opposed to saving fuel which is what the statement claims.
@@markwright3161 Comes from the time of carburetors, where the idle jet would be open regardless. If you throw it in neutral you remove the engine braking, thus rolling faster/longer while still consuming the same ammount of fuel. The myths from the 60s tend to stick because people usually know jack shit about the cars they drive🙃
@@markwright3161 Yes, no, kinda....
First DO NOT ever do it in a car with an automatic transmission. The transmission has a pump that is turned by the engine and oil passages that only flow oil in gear. Putting an auto in neutral while moving on a regular bases will damage it. This is why my answer is "depends on transmission"
However with a manual putting it in neutral will save fuel. Modern engines actually idle a lot more efficiently then older engines. They use thinner oil, run at higher temps, have more efficient accessories, burn fuel more efficiently, etc. Secondly you're conserving energy not just fuel, a very large chunk of that energy is your momentum. If you're engine braking you're using up your momentum to turn the engine faster then it needs to go. Even if you have an engine that will use zero fuel while engine braking(very rare) you may then need to expend more fuel to get back that momentum.
Unlike #10, that one actually is illegal when going downhill (in CA at least).
I got 1, "used cars are a waste of money" my mom always says that because many of my relatives have bad experience with buying a used car(spending too much money on repairs).
& it kinda saddens me a bit because I'm definitely not going to be able to afford a performance car as my first car so the only way is to look at the used car market.
Yes, that's a terrible myth I've heard from many! Buying a brand new car is the true waste of money. Buying a lightly to moderately used car allows some other chump to take the losses via depreciation and thus you maintain more of the money you've invested into it as equity. Case in point, a brand new fully loaded 500 Abarth runs nearly $30,000. I bought mine used with 19,000 miles on it and paid 1/3 the price! Now, there is such a thing as nuance, and often times the people who say used cars are a waste of money are those who expect to buy a high mileage used car for a couple thousand dollars and have little to no repair and maintenance costs. This is just unrealistic.
@@Tamarocker88 I know some people that say the same thing as Armour Shooters mom, but I totally agree with you. I've been driving cars for decades, and I don't think I'll ever buy another new car again. Buying used (and learning to wrench) has allowed me to do a lot of things I never could have done if I got trapped into the new car mentality. Racing, owning dozens of sports cars of all types, and meeting a lot of great people are just some off the top of my head. I'm on my third Porsche now (a 911TT) and I am far from a wealthy man. And, as you said, as long as you don't buy something like a 130,000 mile A4 at the outside of your budget just because you want to be seen in an Audi, then you should be in good shape. PS- Hope you are enjoying the Abarth, I was considering one as the base of a rally build last year, and it was fun to test drive.
@@gregh3607 Nice, glad to hear you've been able to have fun driving a lot of cars. It's so satisfying to handle maintenance and modifications on a vehicle. That 911TT must be a blast! I'm absolutely enjoying my Abarth, even with the variety of issues I previously had with it (every bit of it including a brand new turbo was covered under the extended warranty I bought for $1,000 :D ). The sound of the exhaust and its afterfires always bring a shit-eating grin to my face.
Wyatt (team o'neil) did a video a while back about finding a good "performance" used car, it was great, excellent advice and on point! Check it out before you commit to a car!
Actually, new cars are definitively a waste of money. Some people are okay with paying for something that they are the first owners of or for a warranty, but it doesn't change the fact that they're overpaying. Coming from a person who has bought both used and new many, many times.
Any chance of an electric car for your next "Will it Rally?" series?
Do a Tesla model 3
This needs to happen after the claim in this vid! I want to see how an insta-torque 2 tonne car does.
I want to see a Nissan Leaf rallying
@@ianholmquist8492 Would love to see this, but its too fragile. Tesla's are known for their control arms to snap in normal driving, its almost guaranteed to happen on a rally course.
@@jordanbell4420 Lol i did not know that. It might hold together for a lap or two. It would definitely make it interesting
Another great video my drivers ed teacher in school was the first person I heard say car "accidents" aren't a real thing he would say car crashes are always a result of ignorance and I'm a firm believer in that
I'd say ignorance, carelessness, and/or reckless driving.
You won't know your in another persons car crash until their ignorance makes it unavoidable for you to join in their event.
Thankyou..well done as always..nobody learns to drive anymore but everyone thinks they know how
I usually don't like electric cars, but if someone rallys a tesla I want to see it.
Dude, a rally model X would be sick
Volksgagen I.D.R pikes peak hillclimb (eletric car)
czcams.com/video/5c2m5hhh5Kw/video.html
Not rally but a guy did some laps with a model 3 at nürnburgring.
2022 wrc will become hybrid powered
#4 probably started from muding because some people have a hard time judging wheel speed and dig themselves into a hole. Yes, you want to spin the wheels, but you also need to know how to judge traction, and when to stop and re-evaluate things.
My dad use to do the whole slow down with the clutch thing. My guess is his dad taught him to drive an old truck with drum brakes. He would go thru a clutch every year.
So your dad that has no idea what rev matching is.
@@AWDfreak what a pleb right????
@@AWDfreak but heel toeing speeds you up.
I'm imagining him pumping the clutch 50 times haha
@@janeblogs324 Heel-toe downshifting is rev matching while braking, it does not speed up the vehicle. Rev matching, as the name implies, is the act of matching the RPM speed with the next intended lower gear to be selected. Since it minimizes or eliminates that difference between the engine RPM with the vehicle speed, it actually reduces wear on the clutch.
@@AWDfreak think about what you and i wrote.
My argument is if you dump the clutch and force the engine to increase rpm you get more friction (you can even lock the tyres up)
Very clearly this slows you down quicker.
Team o'Neil! Thank you guys for all your vids!
Thanks Wyatt! You're the best!
I've only ever heard the "just run into it" about a deer on the interstate, where hitting a deer is not as catastrophic as swerving at 70-80mph, or coming to a stop while someone is going 70-80mph right behind you.
I've braked for every deer I've seen on the interstate, and knock-on-wood, I haven't hit one or gotten rear ended.
In an ideal world where people didn't tailgate and maintained highway speeds per posted speed limits, we'd all be able to brake for animals and stay in control. Sadly, there's a lot of idiots out there and they're allowed to drive.
@@Tamarocker88 It's not the speed limit that matters. It's about driving the appropriate speed for the given situation.
@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 It is, in part, about the speed limit. Speed limits are an indication of appropriate speed for the given situation. When people are tailgating at speeds above the speed limit (as is often the case), they are not driving the appropriate speed for the given situation. Whether they're speeding or not, most people don't leave sufficient space to brake in emergency scenarios. It is only exacerbated by driving at excess speeds. Thanks for supporting my point!
@@Tamarocker88 Wait was the last sentence you calling me a speeding tailgater or did you acknowledge that it's situational and your comment was just saying that speed limits are (mostly) the appropriate speed for the situation?
it blows my mind that this channel only has 121k subs..........
Thanks for another great compliation on car misconceptions! Enjoyed the vid till it ends
Thanks for the great videos, especially this one! This may not be something that aligns with your mission, but I (and I imagine many others) would be interested in more tips for everyday (regular roads) driving. Thanks!
I agree with your point on manual transmissions. I prefer manual in my daily driver because it's more engaging, more fun, and most automatics frustrate me. Modern automatics are usually on par with manuals for durability, but have better gear ratio spreads for fuel efficiency and shift gears in just a few hundred milliseconds.
Great naration and well explained without any biases.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks for taken the 10 Myths out ,Good Job .From Catalonia ,Spain Keep safe
« If you crash a car into something, you crash a car into something. » Love it!
The only time it's usefull to engine braking in racing, is when you really have to save your brakes, like when Takumi Fujiwara goes downhill against an RX-7 FD on mount akina.
Or endurance racing
Or when driving a FWD and wanting to keep the diff locked up
Akuna*
What is engine braking is it when you rev match or down shift?
Also is it bad for your car? I have AWD Subaru
I love this video! So real and love team o'niel!
Myth: Sequential gearboxes are automatic.
No clutch pedal, not a manual
@@Shakshuka69 nobody said they are manuals. Just not automatics. You can call em semi automatics. Or automatic manuals.
@@Shakshuka69 Sequentials can have a clutch pedal.
@@yeruschmift8422 I know. Those are manual. Not all manuals are H pattern. But if it doesn't have a clutch pedal, it's not a manual.
@@Shakshuka69 How is it not a manual? You're still manually changing the gears, Autos do the shifting for you, Sequentials still require the drivers input to change gears. Maybe this could be a video idea?
great video. thanks for saying These things. they needed saying
Left-foot braking on the road is great. I learned driving and for a long time I drove with manual transmission and right foot braking. Then I started driving automatics (moved to the US), and one day I decided to try left-foot braking. It took me much longer than 10 minutes to get the feel right, my left foot was used to pressing the clutch which in most cases is far too abrupt compared to what brakes need. But I trained when I had no passengers and quite quickly I was able to brake nicely including gently. (I should also say that I have been doing some karting which exposed me to left-foot braking too)
And I love it. Not having to move the leg between the pedals in stop and go traffic is great. I feel much more connected to the car. I feel much more confident about reaction times - because I do brake and/or swerve even for squirrels. I am now driving a DCT with paddle shifters and it feels great - with left-foot braking.
I was concerned that switching between left-foot braking and right-foot braking may be an issue, but it is not: when I go to Europe and rent a manual car I have no problems switching to right-foot braking, same when back to left-foot-braked automatics.
I read some people claiming that left-foot braking is more likely lead to these incidents when people mistake gas and brake. I disagree. Not only because two such incidents I witnessed happened to right-foot braking drivers. But what is more likely to lead to such mistake: choosing between the same movement made in slightly different spot with the same limb? Or having a different limb, controlled by a different part of the brain, perform each action?
Sears Driving School taught me barefoot driving was illegal ~20 years ago.
Look at them now
I can't wait to come to your rally school, just for fun, can't wait until this COVID stuff is over to take some classes, and more importantly have fun!!
I don't think that telling people to "just do nothing and run into animals when driving" is an actual myth, at least not without context. We have seen people causes horrific accidents killing multiple people trying to avoid some small animal that darts out into the road. So the actual advice is, if you can safely avoid hitting anything that suddenly appears in your path, then by all means do so. However, if it is a choice between swerving into traffic or going off road into a tree, or off a cliff, then it is safer to hit the animal.
That is actually very good advice, even if it is a large animal, it is still better than a tree, or going off a cliff, or hitting another car.
There is the hearsay effect to consider. You might be one of those who have the experience and know how to react according to context. But there are young, inexperienced people that just believe everything they see or hear on the internet that will actually plow trough living things instead of inanimate objects.
@@Dislob the "hit the deer" in our training means more often than not you don't swerve to miss most animals in the road. These are two lane highways with a foot or two of shoulder. At 55 mph a deer jumps in the road and you get to it and it's in middle of the road you don't have a lot of room to maneuver around a deer and I've seen more people get hurt going in the ditch then hitting the deer. Just my observation of 47 years on Earth with driving in all types of weather and in every state.
@Eric Michel you just commented my thoughts. I'm sure this is in the permit book and is talked about in driver education. It's definitely in the CDL permit book. "Hit the animal" is not a myth, and doesn't make those preaching it heartless. I've hit A LOT of animals as a truck driver over the years and it tugs my heart every time. I always hope it was clean and quick without suffering. I won't put an animal over human life. This guy needs context
When started to drive I would always left foot break but then saw that others used their right foot so I started to that and got used to it but I started to watch your videos again and you mentioned how it’s better to left foot break because of response time and what not and and now I do it all the time
I've been binge watching your videos for like an hour now.
This channel is the holy grail of driving channels. I love this shit. Great tips for my daily driving since I drive like a maniac. 🙂
Like a lot of people, I started to drive left foot breaking. Now as a skill development I use it on very empty road and just as safe elegant breaking before corners. But with any traffic I still prefer to use full attention to slow, right foot break (more control) and leave the left foot to clutch and change gear to avoid dangerous, unpredictable drivers or sudden stops. I miss my first car no abs breaks, but again got used to it and would not pull some fuses and get surprises ( only at Team O`Neals camp some day XD) . Cheers from Brazil
I like driving my STI barefoot. It gives me great pedal feel for left foot braking and heel toe. Taking my shoes off when I get into the car also keeps my interior clean:)
The "just hit the animal" is a good rule of thumb for commercial vehicles as hard braking and fast maneuvers can shift freight and even roll a truck over. But as soon as I switch to the car that goes out the window lol.
@Shabbir Khambatti I drive everything from a 400,000lb heavy haul to 2000lb racecars and also bikes lol. But I have hit many of a deer, and a large bear once. $4000 of damage that insurance covers is better than out of pocket costs of the load damage. Also if you were to swerve, good chance of rolling over and that goes from a claim to a license ending accident, I've seen it alot.
I speak completely from experience! Mainly the deer is just going to take out the grille and lights, then go right under
I absolutely love this video this has made my day.
As I climb up a twisty Mountain in my automatic car (modified high pressure valve body. I do not miss my manual) no shoes on while using left-foot braking to I appreciate everything said here.
And abs in my 1977 5 Series BMW with no abs I was thankfully able to out stop the Toyota Camry that jumped in front of me down an icy Hill sure I had to pump the brakes and treat it like I was a hummingbird but I came to a complete stop. ( I did end up twisting about 20° sideways)
Abs does help your car stop faster on asphalt if you don't have the training to threshold break. It's really a crude automation of threshold breaking.
#10, that's good to know. I have a manual, and my flip-flops can get caught on the edge of the floor mat near the pedals, so I take them off when driving (and don't want to put shoes on). I have worried about what would happen if I got pulled over and had bare feet. And all for nothing it turns out.
This is me as well.
I'm impressed with the new automatic transmissions versus the old slush bucket automatic transmissions decades ago. That is why I went with my 7 speed DSG even though I like manuals. I'm getting my teenagers involved with autocross starting next month to have family fun and hopefully help their driving skills. Plus hopefully get anything like driving hard out of their system so they drive responsibly on public roads.
1.On dry asphalt ABS stops quicker .
2. Manual transmission is better for getting unstuck ( you can rock yourself out of a hole you are stuck in better than automatic(N to D vs engage/ disengage clutch to rock your car)
In Germany we are taught not to swerve for animals (of course you should brake hard) because it is less liability and dummy proof.
If they taught people to swerve, you'd have people going into oncoming traffic and saying " but my instructor told me to" (should they survive)
We don't have many animals big enough to do serious damage though.
Some accidents are unavoidable and not attributed to driver error. Equipment failure (tyre blowouts, power failures > power steering disablement etc.) is a key one as are sudden external events.
I will argue that if you are stuck in light to medium snow spinning the tires will make it much worse as you will create an ice sheet below the tire making it even more difficult to become unstuck
Hi There just a question relating to left foot braking, i have a car i am building and learning track driving in and have tried to use left foot braking when out on track but the issue i have is with my left foot and therefore left leg moves further from the seat bolster i cannot hold my self in place when trail baking (Currently only have a 3 point seatbelt), but am waiting to move to harness until i have a roll cage in my car as ive heard a harness without roll cage is more dangerous in a roll over as you cant move your head out of the way of the caving in roof. Do you have any tips for keeping yourself from moving in the seat whilst left foot braking and what is your opinion on a harness in a roll over without a cage?
Driving in flip flops is illegal in my country, The Netherlands. They can become stuck under the pedal. I think having shoes near pedals aka barefoot is illegal too but I'm fuzzy on that.
Also, excellent video, as usual
I can definitely understand flip flops not being allowed. But outlawing driving barefoot is a bit silly.
Same in Australia
@@ianholmquist8492 Barefoot driving is the best.
I love your videos! The only problem is, i watch them instead of working lol.
I've always heard the ABS braking bit being more about not being mentally prepared such as comparing stopping in an emergency situation with your "average" driver. That and in the motorcycle world where the vast majority of my reading time has been spent, the systems tend to be more performance oriented. On a motorcycle, so long as it's a decent system and you allow some time for weight transfer (i.e. still use good braking techniques), ABS is very difficult to beat on pavement. Of course there's a reason most motorcycles these days have an off-road or disabled ABS setting for that style of bike, because regular ABS pretty much universally sucks in low grip situations. That's a trait shared with cars too and can be infuriating on snow, just like basic traction control systems can be.
Yes, ABS exists for the average driver so that if they panic and lay on the brakes while simultanously giving heavy steering input, the car can try to help them stay in control and stop rather than losing control and rolling the car or spinning out etc... Even in a straight line on dry pavement with a skilled driver, ABS is likely to lead to a longer stopping distance.
Accidents usually don't happen to the average driver. They happen when you are tired, sick, stressed or unfamilliar.
And in that situation, on a normal street surface, and surprised by the accident I would bet in the ABS every time.
@@kilianortmann9979 Yes, I think context is key, but that often gets lost in internet discussions.
The myth of hitting an animal came from older cars with more suspension travel, where braking would tilt the car downwards and send a deer through your windshield, whereas accelerating would point the nose up to flip the deer over the car. It really doesn't apply to anything modern.
I thought it came from regions where the animal is often much smaller and specifically swerving will result in a loss of control and potentially more significant damage than hitting the animal, and hitting the animal is evidence to the insurer that it was an animal that caused a crash instead of 'avoiding' an animal caused a crash. If you swerve a rabbit and hit a wall or a tree, not only will the damage be much worse but your insurer will fully blame you for it, because from their perspective you lost control and crashed, so are no different to them than a driver exceeding their ability via other means and crashing, whereas if you hit the animal, like a badger or small deer, instead, then the insurer cannot say you're at fault, at least not fully, if you braked on first sight and so on. Obviously if it's a moose the don't hit it, and if you're driving in an area where they're common have a dashcam, so if you swerve to avoid hitting one and wreck your car in the process by going off the road, then you at least have the evidence to show the insurer that you did it to not be killed but it crushing the roof in on top of you.
This is the way I'd tell it for where I live, where there are no moose' or other large animals that will kill you if you hit them in a car. Do all you can to avoid hitting them by only braking in a straight line (or as straight a path as can be managed if you're on a corner) to not unsettle the car and reduce your ability to scrub off speed before impact (where inevitable). If you have the skill to swerve, having been through a course on emergency avoidance driving techniques or similar, then you can avoid hitting it at all, but I'd give this advice to anyone who hasn't went through, what is here in the UK, advanced training, for avoiding sudden hazards. I'd say the same for (a very specific situation in this case) when a car pulls out of a junction on your side of the road in front of you (left here in the UK). Brake hard but don't swerve unless you're sure you can do so without hitting on coming traffic or damaging your car in any other way. If you're going to hit anything, hit the car that caused the problem. I've seen it too often on dashcam compilations where this has happened and the dashcammer has swerved and hit someone else and the person who caused the reaction drives off damage and charge free, while the dashcammer is then fully to blame for the resultant collision (from swerving) as they hit someone else who was doing nothing wrong. Hit a car that failed to giveway at a junction vs hitting a car head on with you being on the wrong side of the road to do so, pretty clear whic one your insurer will jump to defend you in (or rather jump to defend their need to pay out for damages).
Here in the PNW we only have bears, cariboo , Canada geese and moose.
I live in sweden. Don't try that around here. It'll only be the difference of the moose crushing your face from the front or from above as it falls over your car.
@@markwright3161 For the most part that's exactly why it's still said today. Proof of insurance. Now if you don't have comprehensive insurance, then avoid the animal as safely as possible. If you do though, I still say try to avoid it, but if you can't safely do so without crashing your car, then hit the animal and insurance will cover it.
Wyatt can you do a video showing the stopping distances with and without ABS on snow,gravel,dry and wet pavement ?I would be curious how much difference there is between ABS and non ABS on the different surfaces.
Interesting video and good points Wyatt! Many of these myths are based on the type of environment the vehicle is on. Spinning your wheels will bury you in many situations (bottomless mud, snow, or sand), ABS is terrible for dirt and gravel to the point that some manufacturers now allow for wheel lockup on dirt and gravel when the vehicle is put into certain drive modes, I've never overheated a manual when towing but I have more than once with an auto, typically you get much better slow speed control with a manual as well for off-roading, but autos shift faster which makes off-roading easier in many cases, I agree 100% with modern AWD systems being unpredictable even when not at the limit. Great video!
I think more people have overheated both manual transmissions and axles then realize. An auto transmission is more likely to have a temp sensor and show immediate symptoms of being overheated. But manuals and axles do overheat rather often, they just don't show it until they fail. I've personally burnt up one manual and two axles pushing them too hard. Nothing really a driver can do for a axle at the moment, but a transmission if towing heavy should ideally be run in the direct gear as much as possible, usually 4th.
Personally I find my modern AWD system quite predictable, but to be fair it's rather unique as it's rear bias and never pulls power from the rear.
If you're needing a vehicle for towing duty you can add trans coolers for autos.
@@snek9353 That's true that auto's at least have a temp sensor. Axles would be the same either way except they probably don't overheat until after the trans does. My main issue with autos is the torque converter not locking up especially in 1st gear. The brand new ones claim they will lock in first but I overheated an Aliison in a 2017 GMC 3500 Duramax because I was pulling 18k pounds up a 15%-20% (depending on the section) grade with tight turns so I couldn't get out of first gear. A manual wouldn't have overheated there. The direct gear is typically the easiest on the manual trans.
Autos also greatly reduce shock on the drivetrain because of the torque converter, which can be a big bonus.
On my channel I test a lot of AWD systems and most are predictable, but sometimes even the ones that I think I understand will catch me off guard.
@@bn880 and you can add torque converter lock switches to help as well. You can add trans oil coolers to manuals also and temp sensors if you'd like. The new automatics are great and better in most situations. There are still a few things than manuals do better though.
@@EngineAdventures Can't really say much on the Allison, I don't know them, but yes it should have locked. In my automatic tow rig I have an aftermarket computer controlling my transmission where I can command lockup in first, on decel, etc. I'm a big fan.
Axles are more prone to overheating then manual transmissions. Really the heat generated is due to the oil sheer, and the higher the load and ratio(numerically) the more the oil sheer. Axles are always at their fixed low ratio, typically have less oil volume, and are almost always in iron cases with less cooling then an aluminum housed transmission.
Winter driving checklist in VT
New Hakkapeliitta's ✓
Washer full of Rainx ✓
Pull the ABS fuse ✓
Is it a seiko skx on your hand?
The first one stems from the 60s and 70s where cars had very soft suspension and braking would cause the nose of the vehicle to dive, and if colliding with a deer in that position, it would send the carcass directly into the windsheild, increasing the chance of injury and death to driver and passenger. Drivers were instructed to accelerate so that the car would squat, bringing the nose up, reducing the large vulnerability that diving would impose. Factual? Eh. But its what they believed. Regardless, amazing videos.
Drivers were never told to accellerate into a large animal. Are you insane?
It also comes from some classes and providers of insurance in the USA. If you hit a deer in the roadway, claims generally fall under comprehensive coverage (act of god type stuff). Whereas if you swerve to miss an animal and hit some other object, then you are seen to have caused the crash, and claims are under collision coverage. The latter will usually come with higher deductibles, surcharges, and premium increases. Ultimately it's still no reason to mash the gas, or for that matter not a reason to pay attention to your surroundings, and practice safe accident avoidance.
If an animal runs onto the road, I personally just slam the brakes. I live in an rural part of germany with many forests and fields. You only have a split second of reaction time if a deer runs across the road and trying to avoid the collision by steering seems dangerous to me
I'm pretty sure it's about skid and rollover risk, combined with the fact that pretty much no "normal" driver can catch the second oscillation/fishtail of the rear of the car, when swinging back into our own lane - unless practiced before.
@@ianholmquist8492 If a deer or elk is in or near the road I often accelerate. it tends to make them move out of the road instead of in or stand still. At times I think they're playing chicken to screw with us and show off for their buddies. But in reality the noise and change of speed is making them move.
Mechanical errors occur too, cv axles break at high speed, bad wheel bearing flips your car at 30mph, brakes fail, tyres blow out etc. although these do fall back on the lack of maintenance due to the driver.
It's amazing how he just said all this excellent factual info and the first comments are people perpetuating the same idiotic myths as if it all just went right in one ear and out the other.
Can't exactly expect stupid people to admit their stupidity and change their ways...
@@Tamarocker88 very true
also, the animal thing: it's about not slamming the brakes, or worse, swerving, for little zippy things like squirrels or rabbits. It doesn't mean you should try and use your radiator & fan for meat processing.
Why, I don't mind hitting the brakes for a small animal, as long as the cars behind aren't anywhere near to make it a hazard.
Re: spinning tires when stuck - the main place where this is bad is when/if you get stuck on packed snow. MAybe you're already stuck & need help, but if you spin the tires, you just make very slick icy divots there, and the car get lower, and can high center (really, it's low wheels, not high center) on the snow, then you're REALLY in a bad spot. A, uhh, FOAF experienced that once or twice. If you're stuck & need to get traction on firm snow, best to stop before you get stucker, pop your trunk, get a shovel (If you live in a place this could happen, you have a shovel for this circumstance, right?) and see what you need to do to get the car out of wherever it's stuck. FWIW.
We've got over a century of practical motoring experience that shows spinning the tires is in most cases the best way to make things worse. The idea that you can "dig down to where the traction is" might be ok when there's two inches of fresh snow, and no ice under it, or it rained 20 minutes ago and there's a millimeter of mud on the surface of a dirty road. If you're driving on sand, or on old snow, or it's been raining all day and you need to pass over a dirt road, spinning the wheels is literally the stupidest possible thing you could do.
agree on the last one. drove through a gnarly snow storm on shitty all terrains and slid off the road. state trooper was right there and helped me out even told me he saw everything happen and i just hit a patch of ice and shot straight off the road into a ditch. he told me no hard feelings and that i couldn’t do anything, but it was still on me for even deciding to leave in a massive snow storm. and i agreed. also, i got a set of studded snow tires right after fixing the car. it didn’t teach me much about skill, because i’ve already had snow experience, but it definitely taught me how to gauge how unpredictable weather can be, and when or when not to go out
Interesting points.
Man, solid video
I agree.. I wish drivers ed included driving on a pad so kids can learn how to brake in slick conditions, and how to control under/oversteer in a turn
Do you have a video about how to get good at braking with out abs? The abs system on my tacoma is down right dangerous offroad but I have been hesitant to remove/disable it. I know nothing replaces actual behind the seat time but would be cool if you had a video with some tips.
Find a big open flat empty area, get to a speed your comfortable with, then slam the brakes and lock up intentionally, and let off when you lock up. you'll learn the feeling and will be able to predict when the tires will lock
Great video. You could also create a video about four wheel drive systems. What kind of systems are acceptable for rallying and why. Also why modern four wheel drive are not so good for rallying.
I think that you categorize transmissions wrongly. Sequential gearbox is type of manual transmission and with modern technology it can shift gears by itself but it's still a manual like on motorcycle. Dual clutch transmissions is also type of manual transmission.
I'm not sure but I think that system in gearbox housing determines what's manual of automatic and not how passenger perceives it or what kind of mode does it have.
I think there he's mostly trying to say that a good auto can function a lot like an auto, not that it is. Listen to what he says at 5:43.
I sooo soo soo wanna take a class with you guys when I get my liscence
Saw a post on /r/cars about left-foot braking just the other day, haha!
That last one had me thinking if I should try driving barefoot (it's legal here but insurance doesn't love it) but then I remembered I got good shoes for that lol
I keep a set of sandals that I can throw on quick in case a cop doesn't know the law. It's better to not have them question me.
The first one - its depends on situation, many factors. A saw quite a lot of videos when small animals caused an accident, like the pigeon ran on the road in front of the car which applied an emergency braking to a full stop and two cars behind it couldnt react fast enough to avoid a crash.
"AWD systems drive themselves"
This is a sentence many people have said during winter and rainy times..... and then have spun out
Right up there with "I have AWD so I don't need snow tires"
@@Teamoneilrally just show them this video czcams.com/video/STaximkaQxo/video.html
@@Teamoneilrally Or "my new car/truck is so much more efficient" (when the old one had grippy tires, but the new one has highway biased tires).
If a huge bolder fall on the road rush into it! You'll make everybody a favor by being taken off the roads for good. XD damn people are stupid
Or just run over it ;)
Pffft, you think that boulder's any match for my bro dozer?
I have an Infiniti G37x, in the winter here in KC this thing is a beast
I've been saying for years that ABS is worse for effective braking. The fact that I havent had a functional ABS until now is beside the point lol.
Myth: Blinker fluid must be changed once a week.
Yep, it's actually once every drive
Well I usually just buy the synthetic M-Performance blinker fluid which lasts half a week. It does make my car quicker since it's lighter tho...😏
A front-wheel drive car with road tires is not going to "dig in to deeper ground and find grip", especially if you spin them so fast that you slip. On snow, it's going to create ice, in mud, it will compact the ground and create a slippery crevice in which the tire sits. The offroading trucks mentioned have offroading tires with aggressive grip, AWD, and extra low gears for exaclty these situations.
The advice to "not spin the tires" is to discourage people to just floor it without looking for grip, because inexperienced people will do just that since they push gas but get no speed out.
If an animal is 1) lower than the hood of the car, 2)while you're traveling at high speeds, 3) if unable to brake in time to stop safely, you're gonna go ahead and ram it. Those are the conditions taught in my driving school. If any of these is not applicable, you're gonna brake as much as possible and brace for collision. For swerving, one has to learn escape maneuvers, those are not taught in standard driving schools!
I never understood “left foot braking” until several years into my driving career... because I learned to drive on a manual transmission! Both my parents vehicles at the time were sticks!🤣
Why? It's not any harder to left foot brake with a manual than it is with an auto.
Ian Holmquist unless you are trying to brake and downshift at the same time, for example if you want to come to a stop it slow down, then left foot braking would be impossible
@@gabetaylor7922 You just have to switch techniques when you go to downshift. When you go for your clutch just use the heel-toe method with your right foot. Maintain braking with your right toe and blip the throttle with your heel. Driving is a collection of many skills that you can use in different situations, one skill that you have in your arsenal such as left foot braking or heel-and-toe cannot necessarily be used 100 percent of the time.
@@gabetaylor7922 why would you left foot brake when you can heel toe?
@@Shakshuka69 this video explains why you can use both. Go to 4 minutes and 15 seconds and he says that very thing czcams.com/video/P4ejB7TpBF0/video.html
10:11 nah bro, we dont even wear shoes on the street most of the time in the summer😂 it's perfectly normal to see people wandering around with no shoes. Its definitely not illegal to drive barefoot
@ Team O'Neil
i agree that ABS is not designed to stop the car faster however on dry asphalt it does a pretty good job. It really needs practice to beat it. More likely if you have a modern car and disable ABS via fuse you loose also the brake balance front-rear which is handled by the "ABS module" (EBD). In this case the situations gets worse and practically not possible to beat ABS (again on dry asphalt). The second thing is if your novice trainee already can outperform ABS just throw a ball in front of the car. i know this is not about the physical limits but unfortunately i know people who wont even brake hard enough in this(frightened) situations. And heard people saying when ABS vibrates the pedal you should not push it more.
So as these advices in the video are mostly useful for beginners i would add that if you are a beginner never ever disable ABS and if you need to avoid an obstacle push as hard the brakes as you can AND when you are close steer and evade the obstacle (do NOT stop braking).
The whole idea about not spinning the tyres when stuck is sort of true. If you have momentum then yeah, spin them because it clears the tread ready for a fresh bite but then let off so the tyres grip then accelerate again. If you arent moving at all it's no good spinning the tyres because you'll just dig holes and make it even harder to get out.
love the part about braking its so true...
I have 4 cars, one of which is a proper stage rally car. The only car I have that has ABS is my 04 Impreza, the others are all too old for it to be standard equipment. Its a nice luxury but learning to drive without it was honestly probably better for me than learning to rely on ABS.
Also as a rally driver I've found myself left foot braking while daily driving more than half the time. Its frightening at first for anyone to try because you're SO USED to the amount of travel you use for your right foot, and for those of us with clutches, our left feet are trained to really push pedals hard and far, and so by accident we find ourselves trying to do the same on the brakes and it starts real jerky. You just gotta break through that initial learning curve and before you know it its second nature.
I believe the one about abs might be true... Locked tire got less grip than rolling tire. Base on how coefficient of friction works. Static friction> rolling friction> friction on slide. So assuming that abs is really good mathematically it should stop you sooner than any person can.
I rely a little too much on engine braking before turn in because my feet are too big to toe-heel properly (in most cars).
As much as I hate beating the shit out of my valve train, not having the power there and my left foot free to balance the car mid to late corner makes me nervous as hell.
Having to make an emergency gear change mid corner at speed is no fun at all.
There's a myth that's been going around since my great grandfather's time: driving on the rumble strip, is certain to pop your tires. I personally love to mess around with people, using that statement.
Thomas Henderson Hahaha I’ve never heard of that but I’m not surprised. But tell that to my tires after I’ve driven down a gravel road.
I wonder if driving down rumble strips for an extended time would cause any form of harm. It would obviously take a far longer distance than anyone would willingly drive on them, but I'm curious nonetheless...
@@Tamarocker88 My guess is that it would beat up your suspension a whole lot more than some rubber tires
Or you could shake a wheel weight off. I've had them fall off pulling out of the tire shop after getting my snow tires taken off. So I guess it depends on who puts them on.
The biggest reason is debris can be trapped in the rumbles. Maybe not them alone but stuff that could be contained in them.
Left foot breaking is kids stuff. heel and toe is where it's at.
Walter Röhrl is probably a good example on foot control :D
Well, you can not heel toe downshift with all the cars, because the pedals might be designed so badly that it is absolutely impossible
number 4 just surprises me that people still believe in. It always seemed like common sense to me. I actually slid into a ditch today due to snow slush on the road but I was able to get out again by digging in and maneuvering a bit, driving an awd subaru sure helped as well.
would love to see some more old homologation models getting used up there... also would love Wyatt trying out a GTiR... (biased owner of one here)
About the AWD systems, what about old school viscous couplings? Are they any better?
Viscous couplings are GREAT when they're fresh and new, but they are considered a "wear item" even under normal street driving conditions.... After 60-80k miles they'll behave a lot more like an open diff (or much quicker under rally/hard driving conditions).
@@Teamoneilrally so I am guessing you recommend a torsen or maybe even a clutch LSD then? Not many cars came OEM with those, but I am sure something can be cobbled together on a budget.
Love the “accidents happen”’ one
After 6:29, #7 on AWD confuses me. An example system you describe sounds like the STI's center diff- is it not? Isn't the STI's center diff one of the best? If not, what are WRC cars using? Or are you ONLY referring to 'active' systems where adjustments are made without user input?
Myth - Resting your hand on gearstick wear synchros..
Most of the cars are FWD nowadays and gearbox is connected with stick via cables.. Only in Front engine RWD car gearbox is dirty below the stick..
The reason they say if you see an animal in the road, just to hit it. Is because the insurance company will pay for the damages caused by hitting an animal. If you swerve to miss the animal and hit a tree, well then you just hit a tree and you aren’t covered.
race sequential gearboxes bear no mechanical resemblance to road going slushbox or dual-clutch automatic transmissions, nearly all of them offer the driver some control over the clutch, and have no mechanism by which the car, rather than the driver, is choosing what gear to put the car in. In short, the kind of transmission used in most race cars, from WEC, to WRC to F1, is not really an automatic at all.
Yeah, sequentials suck.
1. “Don’t avoid animals in the road”
Completely dependent on your speed and the road. Cannot have a blanket statement of “everything is avoidable”. (80mph over a blind hill with a camber and bend... Hit the badger or swerve and crash into the forrest? I chose the badger and bent my shock but did not loose control of the vehicle and wreck.)
2. “ABS was not designed to help you stop faster”
In wet or ice/snow conditions the intermittent action of the ABS system helps the vehicle slow down in a shorter distance by maintaining the perimeter of brake force before slip. It is very useful for the common driver as they have no practical understanding of how grip works. It also helps maintain grip when braking while turning as it maintains directional travel of the wheels. It is easy to learn braking efficiently, I have learnt to brake much faster than the ABS could stop me without activating the ABS.
3.”Left foot braking is for professionals only”
No it is not, I agree. However “people driving around left foot braking” I assume is so common in America because yous all drive automatics.
4. “Don’t spin the tires when you’re stuck”
The situation where spinning the tires is more effective than trying not to is rarer than the adverse. Even in snow if you have snow tires maintaining grip with a gentle foot while driving up an incline will get you up rather than spinning and having to reverse and start again. Stuck in deep snow? Rocking the car out of the hollow the tires are in with the clutch and then maintaining grip will always work better.
I understand he is talking from a rally perspective when chunky rally tires are spinning all the time and the car is never stopped. But in real world applications it does not apply.
5. “Engine braking should be used into corners”
Agreed; never heard this before. Downshifting before the corner is important to maintain balance however.
6. “Manual transmissions are faster than automatics”
Yes, they are. They are more efficient as they do not have slip below certain rpm which equates to less turbo lag, more immediate power delivery etc. Sequential “semi automatics” are faster though yes.
7. “Modern traction control systems are fast in off-road race applications”
Agreed they are not and I have never heard this.
8. “Electric cars suck”
Agreed they are not slow or boring. However the extra weight does make them slower on tight roads.
9. “Accidents happen”
Totally agree it is always driver error. Pay attention.
10. “Driving barefoot is illegal”
‘Merica?
Fun fact, the "just run into it" saying was originally conceived during the early 1950's when brakeing systems, tire compounds and Abs were still new and relatively inefficient and ineffective. The idea was you were safer taking the hit head on than trying to avoid it and end up in the ditch or on your side.
How do I enroll in this school?