"Can you drive a car with a snapped clutch cable?"
One day, me and my friend were faced with a dilemma. Either we could drive a knackered car from Glasgow to Manchester, or call the AA. Except that neither of us had AA membership.

So began the experiment.

There is a trick to it. Shifting gears whilst on the move is easy. The hardest part is stopping, and setting off.

Because you are effectively confined to setting off in gear, every time you stop, so does the engine.

We came to the conclusion that this can quickly lead to a flat battery, as in order to get going again you have to use the starter to drive the car fowards until the engine catches. And of course, a rolling jump-start is out of the question.

Luckily, when we finally did run out of juice, we were facing downhill. Thus began the second part of our experiment: "Can you force an Astravan gearbox into second gear, without the clutch, with a stopped engine, at 30mph".

Yes, you can, but it makes a horrible noise.

Surprisingly, we made it. So the conclusion of this experiment is that yes, it is indeed possible to drive a car 250 miles without using the clutch once.

That car went to the scrapyard the next day.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Sun 27 Jul 2008, 10:08, 1 reply)

How about no brakes.
My mates car, we were off on a 200 mile trip half way through no brakes. Rear brake pipe had sprung a leek so no fluid. We made it using the hand brake Just.
(nee22 NL ExPat, Wed 30 Jul 2008, 15:47, closed)