Dodgy handbrake

Since I nearly catapulted myself plus Exige into Weymouth harbour, I have stopped parking in gear. Until now…After a heard drive being tailed by a hot Elise, we parked up on a slight incline. I was parked about 3-4 feet behind the Elise. When we returned to the cars after about an hour, we found that the Exige had run into the back of the Elise, bending the Elise’s exhaust and cracking the badge on the Exige plus two big scratch marks on the bonnet (from the exhaust).The handbrake could only be tighten by one more notch. At first this was a bit of a puzzler, but after a bit of thought things fell into place. It appears that after extensive use of the brakes, the discs end up rather hot. If the handbrake is applied, the discs will start to cool and eventually shrink back, allowing the car to roll if parked on an incline. Lesson - do not rely on your handbrake

Its good practice not to bother with the handbrake if you have been using the brakes a lot. Do you really want all the heat that has built up travelling around/between pads/discs/calipers and especially your brake fluid. Been know for brake fluid to boil after you have parked up.

Had this happen 20 years ago …
Had a Cossie parket outside my parents house (hill)

Woke up next morning … Car gone !.. only to find it 100 metres down the road an hour later
Disks on rears were not common then…
They contract when they cool .

Always leave cars in gear now and use the wheel into the kerb method of praventing rolling…

Yes, this is a well known problem and a good reason to park in gear.

As an aside there was very nearly similar damage while queueing for the ferry to Le Mans at Portsmouth a few years ago. Nothing to do with handbrakes, just incompetence from a racing god who was pushing his car forward in the queue. Contact not quite made… oh how we laughed and took the p**s

Slight memory disfunction there old man!

If I recall correctly, three of the older members of this board pushed one of the said members Exige into the back of mine, or was it the other way around? Either way I ended up with some terminal badge damage!!!

Slight memory disfunction there old man!

If I recall correctly, three of the older members of this board pushed one of the said members Exige into the back of mine, or was it the other way around? Either way I ended up with some terminal badge damage!!!

Slight correction!!! I ended up with a damaged front badge, & you suffered a cockeyed exhaust tailpipe. Anyway, it was ALL young Edwards’s fault (driving his dad’s Z3 Breadvan) - but there was a god after all, as the boy ended up with sea sickness 2 hours later

Happy days!

Slight memory disfunction there old man!

If I recall correctly, three of the older members of this board pushed one of the said members Exige into the back of mine, or was it the other way around? Either way I ended up with some terminal badge damage!!!

OK Russ, I have been under the knife again - bloody anaesthetic does weird stuff to your brain!

BTW check out this month’s Octane for some lovely piccies of a car you want to buy but can’t have (83boy said so!)

Happy Days indeed!

Mike, one day, it will be mine…propbably when he has his first sprog! Do you think he might swap for my Vantage?

Do you think he might swap for my Vantage?

Probably!

OK I will be round next week.

Did I mention it is �1100 per month?

OI You!!! It wasnt my fault…it was the dodgy clutch in that german breadvan thet ment you had to spin the rears everytime you pulled off

What’s this about some dodgy German’s rear spinning and then pulling off into Russ’ bent tailpipe?!?!



ooh err indeed…

I never pull off in public but in the back of a breadvan - possibly!

So who still owes me a Lotus badge - or was it a tailpipe?