Postby Okibi » Sat Dec 14, 2013 2:57 am
Here's a few tips (not necessarily for the MX-5)
Treat your car like it's invisible to other motorists - don't sit in their blind spot; once the front of your car is level with the rear of theirs, give it a little throttle until your cars is level with them so they can see you're in the lane next to them. Don't assume they'll stay in their lane.
When turning left a car can pull up next to you (to turn right) and block your vision, it can pay to look out for this and sometimes stop a little back from the line so you can see past the rear of the car turning right.
When at traffic lights, pay attention, don't look at your mobile phone, pick your nose or perv at joggers. When the light goes green it's courteous to be ready to move.
On the road don't cut corners, there's nothing "cool" about apexing a corner in a suburban street and driving into oncoming traffic / kids playing in the street.
Keep your vision up, don't just look at the car right in front of you, look a few cars ahead, then you'll have time to react to an unexpected situation.
Keep left (if you don't understand what this means then sell your MX-5 and buy a ute/SUV/bus)
When merging into traffic, make sure you accelerate fast enough to match the traffic speed by the time you have to merge.
Indicators, use them, use them earlier when you have an L plater, P plater or old person driving behind you. Also get on your brakes softer and earlier when these motorists are behind you, gives them more time to react.
Don't angle your seat back like a Honda owner (hard to do in an MX-5 unless you're a midget) if you can't press your wrist on the top of the steering wheel without lifting your shoulders off the seat back then your seat is too far back.
Mirrors are for checking if there's cars in the lanes next to you, not for looking at your own car. If you can see the sides of your car in the mirrors then they're not adjusted correctly. If you need to see the sides of your car while parking then move your head a fraction and your rear view mirror will magically show the side of your MX-5.
When you drive up behind cyclists; slow down, relax, breath in, breath out and wait for a safe time to indicate and pass them. You're the lazy one sitting in a motorised chair while they're doing their best to keep fit and save the environment. If you get stressed out by cyclists on the road then you need to get laid more.
Dags; some MX-5 owners (mostly those new to cruising with other cars) seem to feel they should stick to your back bumper like stinky balls of sh*t. Don't do it, you cause the car ahead to slow right down and do slower more deliberate braking, this slows everyone down and you're gonna have a bad time. You force them to pay more attention to your bad driving behind them than the road ahead. Make sure there's plenty of space between you and other cars.
Pelicans and sprinklers; a handy tip for convertible drivers is to be cautious when driving under light poles with pelicans sitting on top and beware of driving past sprinklers.
If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away? Neither would I.
