Ka
Diary: 37,463 - 19/01/2004 – No Brakes!
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I write this, Kermit’s still on the original front brake components - but not
for much longer. His factory-fit discs and
pads are shot and when they are replaced, it’ll represent the end of an
era. I have, until now, never
had to replace any of my previous
cars’ front brake components - and I’ve only had to have rear brake components
replaced through lack of use.
Thus, the lad’s brakes
were feeling weak. They’d stop him,
actually as well as they would normally except you have to use rather more
pressure - during the January 2004
Bluewater Meet, the necessary driver braking effort dramatically increased
and I noticed some scoring on the discs - thus Kermit’s booked in to have new
front anchors.
I’m
not unhappy with the front discs and pads lasting for 37,500 miles from new -
although I’m not especially hard on brakes, I’ve easily used Kermit’s
brakes the hardest of all of my previous cars to date, but they still managed
almost 40,000 miles of use.
During
the drive to (and more so from) Bluewater, I was careful to use Kermit’s engine in
conjunction with the brakes for deceleration purposes. This felt a little bit unusual! Immediately changing down to fourth, then
third, when leaving a motorway does seem wearing on the clutch and transmission. It was, admittedly, only for the short term,
but even so it felt strange.
A
close encounter with a BMW M5 on the M11 driver left both Charlie and I shaken
and stirred. I’m supposing that the
driver doesn’t like Ford Kas, although I do not believe a dislike for one
particular car is adequate reasoning for very aggressive driving. Tailgating
with seventy showing on the speedometer is one thing, swerving into our lane whilst
alongside is another, then after experiencing some main beam, veering
across three lanes of the motorway, pulling onto the hard shoulder and
presumably inviting me to also stop is sheer stupidity. Harassing and chasing me up the motorway is
also going to achieve nothing - do these aggressive idiots really think that
I’m either going to stop or that I’m trying to race them? Unfortunately, Kermit doesn’t have an in-Ka
video Kamera (but I’m working on this one!) so I cannot yet video
these cretins in action.
Finally,
Kermit’s Harrison R & D OBD-II Scanner
hardware will be arriving any day now, and quite possibly the same day he goes
in for his brakes.