 | | | | | | | | ||||||||||
 |  | | |||||||||||||||
 |  |  |  | | |||||||||||||
 | | ||||||||||||||||
 | | ||||||||||||||||
 | | ||||||||||||||||
| | ||||||||||||||||
Please click on the links below for videos on how the Manouvres should be done! Further down you will find step by step guides to all the Manouvres:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOORS: Firstly check that all doors are securely closed. SEAT: Adjust the seat so that you are seated comfortably and are able to fully depress the clutch pedal with your left foot leaving a slight bend at the knee. To do this you may need to move the seat base forwards or backwards or even adjust the height of your it. The seat back can also be moved forwards or backwards by turning the seat ‘rake’, usually located on the lower sides of the seat back. Don’t forget to adjust the head ‘restraint’ so that it’s furthest point forward is in line with the furthest point back of your head. That way should the car be hit from behind it will restrict your head being thrown backwards too much. STEERING: Make sure you can reach all parts of the steering wheel with both hands freely, and whilst holding it in either the ’ten to two’ or ‘quarter to three’ position you should have a slight bend at each elbow. Some steering columns can be raised or lowered by first releasing a catch. Once adjusted ensure it is securely locked back in position. SEATBELT: Put your seatbelt on making sure there are no kinks or twists in it and it lies flat across your chest. This should help prevent the belt injuring you in the event of an accident. MIRRORS: Adjust your mirrors to cut down ‘blind spots’ surrounding the car. Whilst being seated the way you are intending to drive adjust the rear view mirror with your left hand so that you can see the whole of the back window, with it being slightly offset to the right to see more to your ‘offside’. Be careful not to get fingerprints on the glass as it will obscure your view once it gets dark and following vehicles headlight illuminate the prints! The glass in the rear view mirror is flat and gives a true picture of what is behind you without size or distance being distorted. Adjust the door mirrors with the horizon running horizontally across the centre of the mirror and the sides of your own car should be visible too. This is important so that you know where everything you see is in relation to you. Door mirror glass is often convex to give a wide angled view but in turn distorts the image making everything seem further away than it really is. Therefore never use your door mirrors to accurately judge another vehicles speed or distance. To help you with the cockpit drill, remember D.S.S.S.M. One final thing, before starting the engine, check the handbrake is on firmly and the gear lever is in neutral. (Some drivers leave the car in gear to prevent the car rolling away in the event of a handbrake failure). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When stopping the car in an emergency you need to brake firmly and progressively to slow the wheels as quickly as possible, almost to the point where the wheels may lock but not enough for it to actually happen. If you do lock the wheels and you skid it will take longer to stop. If you are skidding it may be necessary to release the footbrake for a split second and re-apply them. Hopefully the second time round you won’t skid! If the road is wet or you are on gravel the wheels may lock up sooner as the tyre loses grip, so the braking pressure may not be as hard as on a good firm dry surface. If you are driving on mud, snow or ice where it is virtually impossible to brake firmly, you may have to pump the brakes, quickly braking-releasing-braking-releasing and braking again, each time the car slows a little. Some cars are equipped with ABS, which is an Anti-locking Braking System. Basically if you brake extremely hard a sensor triggers the system into applying and releasing the brakes very, very fast. The point of which, means, that the wheels should not ‘lock-up’ as described above. The ABS being triggered has a distinctive noise, if you hear it don’t release the pressure on the brake as the system is just doing it’s job. It doesn’t mean you can stop any quicker than a car without ABS but will enable you to steer whilst braking heavily. It is possible for a car even with ABS to lose grip if the surface driven on is very slippery or loose. You should be guided by your vehicle’s handbook, or manual as to what kind of braking system you have and what type of braking style should be applied.
You have your handbrake, which basically pulls the back brakes on to stop the car rolling away when your stationary. You have your footbrake as described above. There is another kind of braking called ‘engine braking’. Have you noticed that when you take your foot off the gas pedal, the car starts to slow? Well when you do this, the fuel supply is reduced to the engine so it slows down, and slows the car along with it. This is why if your on a downhill slope and you engage a ‘low gear’, the engine helps hold the car back from rolling faster and faster. If you put the clutch down which disconnects the engine from the ‘drivetrain’, the engine braking is lost, and the car will freewheel and roll faster (don’t do it!). This known as coasting, your brakes need to work harder to stop the car too. When we slow or stop a car whether it being gradual or in an emergency, the engine braking contributes a great deal in stabilising the car and helping it to slow in a controlled way.
When cars lose control it’s generally down to driver error. Learn how to recognise factors, which will affect either you or the handling of the car. Driving whilst tired or under the influence of drink or drugs is quite simply going to affect your reactions or ability to assess what the road ahead and is basically illegal. Some medicines carry warnings too that you must not drive if you taking that particular medication. If your reactions are not up to their usual speed, for example maybe you have a cold, recognise it and adjust your speed to give you more time to react. That way you can avoid having to stop in an emergency in the first place. With regards to car handling, think about the road and weather conditions. Look at the roads surface and think about how your grip could be compromised. Think about how rain and ice affect the distances needed to stop. Look at the slope or camber of a road, will the car try and slide in a particular direction if you were to brake hard? Is there a lot of activity by pedestrians either side of the road, or cars trying to pull out of blind junctions? Sometimes other people will force you into taking some action to avoid an accident. If your looking for the clues of what is likely to happen next, and drive at a speed so that you can stop in the distance clear ahead, identify whether the road surface is going to affect your braking ability, you can avoid most ‘emergency stop’ situations in the first place by being ready. If you find it hard to do, then keep your speed down. Hazards and MSPSL: stands for Mirrors, Signal, Position, Speed and Look. As a driver you will be doing this all the time whether you are approaching a junction, roundabout a parked car or even the location of a school. You must have heard of MSM, Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre ? Well it’s a bit like that only we are preparing for an actual or potential change in speed or positioning of our car. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mirrors: Firstly check your mirrors, think about what you see and act on it. Do you know what the following vehicles intentions are? Is the following vehicle considering your own intentions? Signal: Decide on whether giving a signal will benefit another road user in understanding what you are intending to do. If so, give the signal in good time. In some circumstances signal timing is crucial if you want to avoid it being misleading. Position: Having assessed your surroundings decide on the best way to negotiate the hazard. Sometimes you may have to position yourself as to make your intentions obvious or even comply with road markings or signs. Speed: Adjust your speed appropriately by either accelerating, decelerating or braking smoothly. Gear: If necessary change to a suitable gear for greater control. Look: This is the moment where you will make the final decision as to whether to continue your present course of action or change your plan depending on what you see.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepare the car in first gear, observations and move away when safe. As you drive past the junction look into the road to assess the kerb line and any hazards within the road itself. Check your mirrors to see if you need to signal to pull in, if so do it once past the centre of the road in question as so to make it obvious you wish to stop after the junction and not turn into it. Stop the car about one or two car lengths away from the corner. Secure the car and then prepare the car in reverse. All round observations and reverse back when safe. Try and look in the direction of travel and not solely with your door mirror!
When you steer the front offside corner of the car will swing out into the road and is a danger to other road users. You must check your right blind spot especially at this point. You don’t have to stop as such but I would advise it. That way you can assess your surroundings without losing your positioning. If it’s safe then continue reversing and steer. I can’t give you an amount of turns to steer as all cars will differ with steering turns and the amount of lock they have. The best thing to do is to look through the windows on your left and look at where the kerb appears to ‘meet’ the side of the window you see it in. let’s say for example the kerb appears to be right in the corner of the window. Steer enough to keep the kerb in the very same place you first saw it. If you keep it in the same place you are following it fine. If the kerb moves away from it’s original position, you may be going astray. Even if you do this accurately the kerb will at some point disappear from the side window and shortly reappear in the back window. Use this short time to check your progress in the nearside door mirror and make any necessary adjustments.
Better still, look out the rear window and look at where the car is actually heading, as you would using the windscreen when going forward!! Reverse back for three to four car lengths or until told to stop. Try not to block anyone’s driveway if selecting where to stop by yourself. Leaving this amount of room in front of you will allow any cars from behind you to approach the junction and be able to get into the correct position to turn left or right. Once you stop, secure the car and await instructions. When you drive away remember to check all around before you go, a common fault! Whilst doing all this you should be keeping a constant lookout for approaching traffic. When other vehicles get close you need to stop and make eye contact with the driver. They will then know it’s safe to proceed. Remember you are the one giving way. If a car approaches you from behind, stop and stare out of the rear window. Realising your intentions, some drivers will go around you and then you can continue. If the vehicle stays put, you will have to exit the road and pull in to let the vehicle in question pass by and do the whole manoeuvre again. Reversing around a corner using mirrors alone is a dangerous practice as your observations are so limited. The examiner will be looking for you to look in the direction of travel for the majority of the manoeuvre whilst checking all around frequently. There is no harm in checking your nearside mirror as long as you don’t just stare at it the whole time! Some kerbs may curve in such a way that you can’t actually see where you are going and will need to check the mirror more often. You need to compensate for this by looking around you even more frequently. As you can imagine your speed will need to be very slow in order to cram all this in!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now the hard part, if we steer right too much you will be too far from the kerb. Too little and you might end up on it!! Continue to slowly reverse and turn half a turn to the right (The steering wheel should be upside down). The front of the car will swing in towards the kerb. Whilst looking out of the rear window where you are going, keep a check on your left door mirror to see if your back wheel is going to hit the kerb. If it looks as though you are going to be too close then steer further to the right, If you think that you will be too far from the kerb then steer less to the right to allow the car to get a little closer to the kerb.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the car swings round check to your right to ensure no cars are trying to drive past, also keep a look out for pedestrians. Check where the car is heading. After a short while you will see the left side white line appear in the left door mirror followed by the right hand line in your right door mirror. (Adjust your steering accordingly to put the car equally between the lines if neccessary.)
Tips :Door mirrors are convex to give a wild angled view. This can ‘bend’ images and give misleading information on your true position. Check both door mirrors not just one, and get a balance of the two images you see. All round observations throughout are paramount. In terms of a driving test it won’t matter too much if the car is at an angle within the lines. You must be between the lines with none of your wheels touching them. If you can see the car is going to end up on a line, move forward a good distance and reverse back again. You won’t fail for doing this. Remember that even a small amount of steering when reversing will cause the front of the car to swing out possibly over a line. Although the door mirrors are ideal for checking your position, remember that is all you want to do with them, is ‘check’. You should be keeping a look out all around you and actually look at where you are going. Don’t rely solely on the mirrors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are practising with your Parents or relatives please make sure that you display " L " plates. The person accompaning you must be at least 21 and have held their licence for 3 years. The following links may also be useful to you they are some of the test routes used in Southampton from Maybush and Forest Hills Test centres: | Home | Prices & Services | Contact | Links | Show me Tell Me | Resources | FAQ |Tests | | | | |||||||||||||||
 | | ||||||||||||||||
Left reverse is basically reversing around a corner into a road. On a test the examiner will usually ask you to stop at the side of the road just before the road in question. The examiner will point out the road they would like you to reverse into, and ask you to drive past it and stop, then to reverse back into the road, for some distance keeping reasonably close to the kerb.
Identify where the corner starts, look for the kerbstone that starts to curve into the road. This is called the point of turn. Reverse until your rear nearside wheel is level with it.Now it is time to turn, and is called the critical point. 
When the kerb appears in the rear window watch it move across towards the centre of it. When it reaches the centre of the rear window, straighten your wheels and keep the kerb again in the same place and you will be following it keeping parallel to the kerb.
Just as the rear of your car starts to pass the back of the parked car, steer left. Remember as you steer left your front offside will swing out into the road so check your offside blind spot as you steer. Give way to any cars that are intending to drive past. Steer 1 turn but not full lock, as you will swing out wide. 
The best angle to approach the kerb is about 45*, as the wing mirror draws level with the back of the parked car turn 1 turn back to straight. The car will now be heading for the kerb and may start to roll fast if there is a steep camber on the road.
When you are becoming parallel with the kerb straighten your wheels. Remember that when you have the steering on full lock, the wheels stick out quite a lot and will strike the kerb if not ‘tucked in’ in time by straightening them. Once straight secure the car with you handbrake and select neutral. 
Position yourself so that you are 90 degrees to the parking bays. Let’s assume you are reversing to the left. Secure the car, select reverse gear, your white reversing lights will then show your intentions All round observations. Reverse back slowly, when you feel that the line on the passenger door in your vehicle is level with a white line steer left full lock. 
When the lines appear parallel straighten. (Use the lines in front of you to help with this. Check all around for pedestrians as you reverse the car in to the space fully. When finished secure the car. Remember throughout the Manouvre to be fully aware of everything around you as you reverse.
