Driving downhill
Aim: To understand the effects that downhill gradients have on the car when pulling away and general driving and how we change our control inputs.
Even a slight downhill gradient on a road can alter the control inputs required to move the car. A gradient can be a slight, barely noticeable slope or even a very steep decline.
We’ll find a quiet road with a downhill slope and practise pulling away changing gear and stopping.
When pulling away downhill, we’ll need little to no gas to pull away, if the slope is steep enough, we'll even try pulling away in 2nd gear.
When driving downhill, the car will build speed faster and allow us to move up through the gears quicker than driving on level road.
In addition to pulling away downhill and general driving, we’ll also look at driving very slowly and clutch control on the same slope. We’ll also try revering when facing downhill.
Tip: If we look ahead when driving and see that the road is becoming a downhill slope, the speed of the car will increase. We can anticipate this and prepare to brake to ensure we keep within any speed limits.