Should this happen ? I was ascending the Winroes Pass here in the Lakes and decided to stop to let a load of bikesr come down past. To get going again needed a full throttle response or else the engine cut out. I've had a few problems with fuel levels etc. and was certain I was going to get stuck on a mountain side for a while ! LOL no smoke or flashing lights and the engi ne started OK each time though !
Simon
Did you mean the Wrynose Pass? If so, and you tried to get going on one of the many steep sections, pretty much *any* car is going to need full throttle to pull away - the slopes are steep!
The adjoining Hardnott Pass is the steepest road in England.
They are good fun to drive; I would have loved to have driven them in my rally car when I used to compete.
Chris
Cars should be banned from these passes. They can't negotiate the left hand hairpins without the oncoming vehicle giving way to them. Often requiring everyone else to stop while they do a 3 point turn.
While a 125cc motorcycle can take on the 1:1 at the apex of the bend. Only "lost" 1/4" of clutch.
Did you perhaps pause to consider how that might affect the people who actually LIVE around there?
Blimey, they can't afford motorbikes!?
I remember when I were driving lorries in the year dot coming down Shap summit in winter and keeping the door open ready to jump.
Who would that be? The only house up there is owned by the NT.
Any hill farmers wanting to get to the sheep would be covered by the usual restricted access get out of "access only".
It only exists for tourists.
Of course, there's always the old Suicide Hill when they built the Alcan, the Alaska Highway:
I'd have thought the average fairly powerful FWD diesel would spin its wheels on a steep hill if being brutal with a take off?
If most of your driving is in the flat lands in the SE of the country then a driver may over compensate when confronted with a steep hill start for the first time.
My aged 1.6 petrol focus had no problems hill starting on the road up to the Shropshire Long Mynd (1:5). I was more concerned meeting a car coming back down at the other side where the road surface wasn't too good, turn a corner and there were sheep in the road and with a long steep un-protected drop metres away from the single track road.
I remember taking an 850 minivan up Sutton Bank (1:4) in about 1971. Main problem was it's shot gearbox - it would only stay in first if the lever was held there by brute force, but once moving at a walking pace I changed up to 2nd and it would pull OK then.
Later I rebuilt the gearbox - and interesting exercise but not financially justified - better value to buy a recon gearbox and fit it.
Rubbish.
Agreed.
As others have said, it's a tourist thing. No-one sensible goes over Hardnott pass in a rush; enjoy the interesting car/bike control requirements, enjoy the views.
We did Hardnott three weeks ago in a S-max. It requires looking ahead and thinking about passing places, but it was perfectly do-able. We did see two BMW faux-off road thingies stop, drivers get out and have a quiet exchange of views about each others parentage, and then get back in and one have to reverse back down a hairpin.
No-one had to do a 3 point turn though.
Spent a couple of holidays in the Lakes when I too had a MiniVan. And it never had a problem with any of the roads. However, although a bit scruffy, it did have excellent mechanics.
Mine had been owned by a garage to shift scrap metal about - hence the buggered first gear.
Bloody good it was, too.
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