dumb question regarding rhd vehicles

Is it still Clutch/Brake/Accelerator or is it Accelerator/Brake/Clutch?

Obviously my experience with RHD is nill

I don't know for sure, but I always assumed the brake stayed in the middle and the clutch and accelerator swapped.

Pedal layout is the same as on a LHD car, same goes for the gear change on a manual box.

Pedals are all the same, as is/are the shift pattern. Now, the turn signals and wipers are usually backwards, which is why I signal most of my turns in the Mini with the wiper blades...

BoxheadTim wrote: Pedal layout is the same as on a LHD car, same goes for the gear change on a manual box.

Yep

Shifting with the right hand took a while to get used to when I first came to the states.

I once rallycrossed an RHD mini. If you don't get used to shifting with your left hand in the first two minutes, you probably never will.

ddavidv wrote: Pedals are all the same, as is/are the shift pattern. Now, the turn signals and wipers are usually backwards, which is why I signal most of my turns in the Mini with the wiper blades...

That's more a feature of British cars, some of the German cars I've had have the turn signals and wipers in the same place as on the LHD versions.

But yes, I've done the "furiously indicating by wiping" the windscreen in the UK often enough...

The shifting with the left hand seems right to me. I somehow remember that the turn signal stalk is activated by my non-shifting hand in the Mini. I seem to forget that when I go back to a different car...I did the wipers for turn signals twice yesterday in the BMW. The only downside to being on the wrong side is it makes it tough to pass another car since it is hard to see around them.

Shifting with my left hand feels way more natural to me as a right-handed person.

GameboyRMH wrote: Shifting with my left hand feels way more natural to me as a right-handed person.

Seems to make more sense to steer with your dominant hand and shift with your off-hand. Since most people are righthanded, that would mean cars SHOULD be RHD.

Or as some say MaD TYtE JDM yO!

So, in a rhd then is 1st gear far way from the driver and 5th is close?

yep

When I got my mini I never had an issue driving on the RIGHT side of the car as far as shifting (just a little joke after hearing all those dorks at the Woodward Dream Cruise say "Hey, aren't you on the wrong side of the car?" and I'd say, "nope, I'm on the right side" and fake a smile). There were two things that messed with me. The above-mentioned whiper/turn signal snafu still messes with me 8 years later. The other thing is when you are in a car the size of an Altoids tin, in the left-turn lane and there is a truck or SUV in the opposing left turn lane you can't see traffic AT ALL!! Oh, and when I picked it up I thought it has a serious pull to the left. Then I realized that I was used to physically being on the left side of the lane and I was drifting over.

On a side note: when I took it to show my mom she freaked out. She said "Oh my god, what happens if you get into an accident in this thing"? I said "oh, I'll never know it". She didn't think it was funny.

I get that all the time at shows. "How can you feel safe in that thing?" I just answer it's still got more protection than a motorcycle, and people ride those every day. That usually seems to work for them.

BoxheadTim wrote:

ddavidv wrote: Pedals are all the same, as is/are the shift pattern. Now, the turn signals and wipers are usually backwards, which is why I signal most of my turns in the Mini with the wiper blades...

That's more a feature of British cars, some of the German cars I've had have the turn signals and wipers in the same place as on the LHD versions. But yes, I've done the "furiously indicating by wiping" the windscreen in the UK often enough...

My Lotus has them the same way as most LHD cars I've driven. Which makes it even harder for me to jump into, say, a RHD Toyota or something and cruise around... I don't have the "different" driving position to remind me that the signals are reversed!

Honestly, I like RHD but the 3-2 downshift is really awkward. You have to push the shifter back and away from you which means making a really strange hand movement. I'm used to it now though. Don't get anything like that with LHD.

What REALLY throws you off, is when you are driving a RHD vehicle, with a "4 on the tree" (column mounted manual shifter). i drove a Mazda pickup in the early '80s while stationed in Japan. Aside from occasionally pulling away from a parking space and going to the "wrong" side of the road, I also tried to signal with the shift lever a few times.

I was teaching a student with an RHD second generation MR2 at Shannonville Motorsports Park on Friday. He really wanted me to drive his car -- I did, but struggled with car placement on the track. Plus, I kept looking for the rear-view mirror in the wrong spot -- I was looking right and up, not left and up.

Zoo, was the guy from Eastern Ontario, or Quebec? I saw a RHD MR2 (black ,I think) in Grenville, Quebec on the last weekend in May.

DeadSkunk wrote: Zoo, was the guy from Eastern Ontario, or Quebec? I saw a RHD MR2 (black ,I think) in Grenville, Quebec on the last weekend in May.

From Quebec -- our club helps host a large MR2 meet every year, and we get participants from all over the Eastern Seaboard, Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes.

Nice guy -- I signed him off, warning that at some point during a track day he'd likely spin the MR2 (turbo, lots of power, not a lot of tire and traction). He promptly took a friend out, and, you guessed it, spun.

In retrospect, I should have made a rule that newbies couldn't take passengers. Fortunately there was no damage to anything other than egos.

I had a lot more issues on the track for the first time with a RHD than I ever did on the street... car placement just didn't seem "natural".

ZOO wrote: Plus, I kept looking for the rear-view mirror in the wrong spot -- I was looking right and up, not left and up.

And my brain can't interpret the image instantly- I have to search out the mirror, then interpret what the image means. I don't drive a lot of rhd, but thats the toughest thing for me.