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 An important thing to have in mind ahead of the winter season is that during the previous months the road surface has accumulated a great amount of dirt and when rain occurs the road surface becomes very slippery.
We don’t even have to mention the importance and necessity of always having to put on our seat belt, even on the back seat.
When driving on slippery conditions our concentration must be very high and our moves on the steering wheel and the brake, gas and clutch pedals must be very gentle. Thus, we avoid wheelspin, and brake block.
Also, we must avoid entering corners with high speed. We should brake before the corner entry with our front wheels straight, and because of that our vehicle’s grip is at it’s maximum possible level, decrease speed progressively with the brakes and our wheels straight and then make the corner smoothly with progressive inputs on the steering wheel.
We should avoid, thus, to brake with our front wheels turned, or inside the corner, because that way we increase the possibility of destabilizing our vehicle.
At the corner exit we accelerate smoothly, avoiding wheelspin, and unlock the steering wheel progressively, as far as the corner allows it.
 This way we succeed in maintaining our tyres and brakes in maximum efficiency, we burn less fuel and, most important, we drive safely.
When the vehicle is steel and we start, we must do it with a gentle input on the gas pedal and a progressive release of the clutch pedal. That way we accelerate better, burn less fuel and keep the clutch disk in better shape.
Very important in driving, especially on a slippery road surface, is the braking phase. We brake, as formentioned, with our front wheels straight and by asserting gentle pressure on the brake pedal. Thus, we avoid brake block and we maintain the friction materials of our brakes in better shape.
In case of brake block, which at most times becomes obvious by tyre noise and, at critical conditions, by the loss of direction of the vehicle (on most cases, loss of direction of the front axle when the front brakes have blocked, more rarely of the rear axle when the rear brakes have blocked) then we step on and off the brake pedal with a certain frequency, substituting, thus, the ABS system.
We avoid pulling the handbrake, because this way the vehicle starts sliding on its rear wheels and gets out of our control.
It is of extreme importance to maintain safety distance from the preceeding vehicles and motorcycles on every kind of road and especially on the motorway.
Very important for the grip and safety that our vehicle provides is its maintenance.
We service the vehicle regularly.
It is important that our tyres and dampers are in good shape.
We change tyres after 40.000 kms or 3 years of use and dampers after aproximately 60.000-100.000 kms and after consulting our mechanic.
We shouldn’t alter factory standards as far tyres’ dimentions and dampers’ characteristics are concerned.
Wider tyres, for example, don’t offer anything, on the contrary they increase movement friction and fuel consumption, they make the steering wheel heavier and increase braking distanses, making, thus, braking less effective… |
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