SHE SAYS ...

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31255, 30 December 1966, Page 7

SHE SAYS ...

Many Canterbury women are very nervous when it comes to driving on hills, mainly because they have had so very little opportunity to do such driving. They often start up a steep slope in too high a gear, let the engine speed drop too much, panic, miss the downwards gearchange, and then stall. Then they are really in trouble, for many have had almost no experience of starting off on a hill indeed, one can often see evidence of this in the city’s parking buildings, where women often have the greatest difficulty starting off after stopping on one of the sloping ramps. As with so many facets of driving, the secret of success in hill driving is practice. Ideally, you should try to find a traffic-free “nursery slope” on which to put in some concentrated practice. It may be best if you can do this on your own, without anyone else about to fluster you with scorn or conflicting advice. Some men can be particularly infuriating at such times: “No, woman, the clutch! Use the clutch! Oh, heavens! Now brake .. .oh . . —you know the sort of thing I mean.

When driving up the hill, the first essential is to change to a lower gear in plenty of time, long before the engine starts to struggle. As soon as you push in the clutch to change down, the car will slow very rapidly, and unless you make a quick change in good time difficulties are almost inevitable, especially if you are driving a car with no synchromesh on first gear.

Every driver should know how to start off on a hill. Hold the car on the handbrake, engage first gear, and let the clutch out slowly until you hear the engine note drop very slightly. This means the clutch is beginning to “bite,” so gradually release the handbrake, letting the clutch out further at the same time. Keep the revs, high, but do not race the engine. If you do everything right—and you will not without practice—the car should move smoothly away as the handbrake is released.

Co-ordinating the clutch-out-handbrake-off movement can be practised first on a flat road, then on the hills. Once you have mastered moving off forwards, try it in reverse.