If you’re planning on (8)driving home for Christmas(8) this year quick tip don’t do it today!
That’s the advice from travel experts anyway, with the RAC and transportation analytics specialists INRIX suggesting Thursday 19 December is set to be the worst day for road traffic. AA predicts both Thursday and Friday will be terrible for drivers, as leisure and everyday commuter traffic combines.
There may be a silver lining, though: Highways England said around 98% of motorways and major A roads will be roadworks-free in time for Christmas. But with train chaos sweeping the nation – including ongoing cancellations, the South Western Railway strike and planned engineering work – there are also going to be more travellers diverted onto the roads.
So when are the worst times to travel this Christmas?
On Friday 20 December, roads are likely to be busy for a greater period of time, between 12pm and 7pm. AA suggests traffic is expected to peak from 4pm on Friday, with delays to journey times on some stretches of motorway including the M25, the M5 between Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare and the M6 around Birmingham. Again, people are advised to travel after 8pm.
Saturday 21 December is predicted to be busy earlier in the day, as people who work during the week set off. Traffic is predicted to worsen from 10am up until around 3pm. To avoid congestion, travel after 4pm, RAC advises. On Sunday 22 December, the picture is pretty much the same, with people advised to travel after 5pm.
Monday 23 December is set to be busy between 10am and 3pm, with drivers advised to set off after 4pm – although at the risk of hitting commuter traffic from 5pm onwards, it might be best to set off later in the evening. On Tuesday 24 December, people are urged to avoid travelling between 2pm and 6pm. If you can, set off well before 10am.
Mandrel bending is a method where a steel rod is inserted into the tubing as it is bent. This technique perfects the tube bend without wrinkling or breaking it at the bending point. Mandrel bending is performed by a machine such as a CNC tube bender. This bender is the ideal choice for bending thin tubing without any deformities on a tight radius and why we can offer you top of the range products.
We already had the biggest range of T piece hoses in the world but that won’t stop us making it bigger!
I know no one wants to hear the word Brexit ever again! But if you love driving then you really do need to pay attention to just one little part… driving in the EU.
Although a few road vehicles and race cars existed with four wheel drive before it, the Audi Coupe Quattro was the first with an all-wheel drive system. The Quattro was built to dominate the World Rally Championship. Engineers bet the extra traction of all-wheel drive would be advantageous on the many unpaved, and sometimes snow-covered rally stages. The Quattro proved them right, winning the championship in 1983 and 1984.
Gearboxes used to be a simple choice between manual or automatic, that was before racing teams found a performance advantage in transmissions drivers which can shift themselves without a clutch pedal. Eliminating the clutch allows transmissions to shift faster, so it was only a matter of time before the technology became commonplace in both race cars and road-going sports cars.
Anti-lock braking systems (ABS) were used more commonly in aircraft before cars. In 1961, a variation of the system was fitted to the Ferguson P99 Formula One car but this wasn’t very successful in F1. It only won a single race, and driver Stirling Moss didn’t even use the ABS, preferring to modulate the brakes the old-fashioned way.
We get lots of messages from our users asking about custom hoses. As much as we appreciate all of the love, we thought we would take a moment to clear the process up.