General Great Review
- Thread starter Fayray
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General Great Review
hansblix2001
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excellent review and great looking car. She's really enthusiastic!
the hobbler
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I agree that the Lady is extremely enthusiastic regarding her 500, but the person who sold her the car and advised her that you should only change gear very slowly is taking a load of rot! You do not have to change gear any slower in a 500 than any other car. One of the beauties of the 500s pedal layout is that you can "heel-and-toe" very rapidly, and in fact, if you get it right, you can change gear, both up AND down without the use of the clutch, and silently---(a) I had to drive across part of London (in my 'yoof') without using the clutch except in an emergency and at lights/junctions--the prize was a pint of beer, which tasted very good! and, (b) the clutch cable snapped as I was about to pull away from my girlfriends house to drive home (and yes, she still married me). With no synchro to hold the gears in engagement, it is easier to drive the 500 without clutch operation than it is the 126. However, I have always advocated that 1st gear is ONLY selected when the vehicle is stationary, be it a 500 gearbox or a 126 gearbox.
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Fayray
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To be fair she borrowed the car for the review but I agree that nothing was mentioned regarding heel and toe etc. However, I noticed that during her drive she seemed to be making crunch free down-changes so figured she was managing just fine, especially for a first time 500 driver
the hobbler
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Before I get taken out at dawn and shot, may I assure you that I was not criticising the lady, who I mistakenly thought had just bought the car. My comments were regarding the advice she received from the lender/owner of the vehicle. I will agree, most of her gear changes were good, I only heard a couple of light crunches.
AndrewRL
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Only a few crunches? Darn sight better than me then!! [emoji15][emoji35][emoji1787]
I've tried heeling & toeing but struggle with my size 11s, long legs and creaky ankles!
Luigi doesn't complain too much (so far).
I've tried heeling & toeing but struggle with my size 11s, long legs and creaky ankles!
Luigi doesn't complain too much (so far).
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Fayray
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Oh, I totally agree regarding the advice and was wondering how she was able to make relatively smooth down-changes using the advice she was given. However, she has a youtube channel called idriveclassics and apparently posts videos twice a week so maybe she's an expert with crash boxes and just didn't explain the gear change process very clearly.
What was refreshing was her contention that the standard 500 was easy to drive and anyone else would find it easy. Nobody in my household has been brave enough to drive my car and that may be because I have painted a picture of tricky gear changes requiring a level of expertise that they don't possess. I'm quite happy with this
the hobbler
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With size 11 feet Andrew, you should have absolutely NO problem with 'heel and toeing'. The name is a bit of a misnomer because you use neither your heel or your toe! If wanting to change down whilst braking, the trick is to do the braking with the bulk of your foot, and then roll the outer edge of your shoe on to the throttle. All you are doing with the throttle is to just 'blip' it to match engine and gearbox speeds.
Another review; very well filmed, some enthusiasm, many statements I disagree with.
[ame]https://youtu.be/9-o--PnL7dg[/ame]
[ame]https://youtu.be/9-o--PnL7dg[/ame]
