There didn't seem to be an apposite area to post personal stuff, so I thought'd I start one!
This comment is simply to say that I have recently changed my User Name from "Michael C Felth" to "SidewaysFeltham".
The reason was simply because when I first registered, I put what I thought was my full name into the little box; onbly to find, afterwards that the software had truncated it! Maximum of 15 chracters.
So. 'cos it was wrong and sounded silly, I thought I would change.
The sobriquet "Sideways" was given to me by close mates, due to my propensity to "hang the arse out" in corners!
This was probably because when I started driving and later going quickly (or trying to!) the ashall we say, agricultural nature of cars in those far off days meant exciting happenings! Tyres were in the main, cross-ply. Suspension was pretty basic in the majority; independant up front, but pretty basic stuff, and invariably a cartsprung rear axle sitting non half-eliptical springs, held in pretty vague rubber bushes. Even exotic cars like Jag saloons only enjoyed a Panhard rod to aid rear axle location!
Shockers front and rear tended to be Armstrong lever types, which were only one small step up from the only slightly earlier friction dampers of the 1930's.
Brakes were, in the main drums all round: and boy did they fade if used over-enthusiastically! Thus any attempt at cornering quickly, normally meant chucking the thing sideways and steering through on the loud pedal!
The controlled four wheel drift was the target of all aspiring enthusiasts and whilst Moss and Fangio, etc, made it look easy; in a cooking saloon, even with the limited range of tuning tweaks then available, it was marginally more difficult!
My first real car was a 1952/3 Triumph TR2; on Michelin Xs which were the first radial ply tyres. Not only did I then have some real grunt under my foot, with care, it would go quite fast!
The problem with the Xs then, was that they would cling on for ever; and then suddenly, and very dramatically just "Let Go"! Which was, to say the least, exciting................
So I found that the safest way, rain or shine, was to approach most tighter bends with the objective of a bit of arse twitching anyway, since the TR was very much an oversteerer at the best of times!
Above all else, we did learn control skills: case of having to if you wanted to go quickly and also wanted to live a wee bit longer!
