Right hand drive in the USA
- Thread starter Wolfer
- Start date
I've driven a couple RH Drive cars in the US. While it may be something you get used to over time, I never got "comfortable". GT40's are hard for people to see and don't have a lot of good side / rear visibility for the driver. Pull up along side someone in a Miata and you are looking UP quite a ways to see them sitting in their car. Mix that into a heavy traffic situation and you may find that you're not very comfortable either...
I don't think RHD in a 40 is problematic in the USA. I have driven one on the street and as long as you are situationally aware (think: motorcycle) you are OK. As you are almost in the center of the car placement on the road is not hard. And for the "how do you pass?" trope, you hold back until you have a good look forward and go....you aren't gonna be out there very long in a 40!
Right hand drive in the US of A is the same as RHD in the rest of the world except for the few where it "seems" to be normal.
Its crap. You need d.mn good side mirrors cause overtaking can be a nightmare. Sitting a few inches below ground doesn't make it easyer. Basicly you are not sitting left or right in a 40 but just off centre to one side.
All you see around you in a 40 is sills from SUVs cause all other traffic sits higher then you. All you see from trucks are spinning wheelnuts. Even if its Left Hand Drive, so imagine sitting on the other side seeing only blind spots.
If you don't have absurt powerlevels and your mind (brains) and right foot are in total control working together perfectly it is very doable. Its very easy to do something very stupid cause you didn't see it comming, and sitting on the other side to correct it.
I have a RHD driving it like you on the right hand side.
I drive a 40 as it should be RHD but I drive it with way more sense a I do with my LHD supercharged V8 Ford Capri.
I wouldn't change a thing.
Its crap. You need d.mn good side mirrors cause overtaking can be a nightmare. Sitting a few inches below ground doesn't make it easyer. Basicly you are not sitting left or right in a 40 but just off centre to one side.
All you see around you in a 40 is sills from SUVs cause all other traffic sits higher then you. All you see from trucks are spinning wheelnuts. Even if its Left Hand Drive, so imagine sitting on the other side seeing only blind spots.
If you don't have absurt powerlevels and your mind (brains) and right foot are in total control working together perfectly it is very doable. Its very easy to do something very stupid cause you didn't see it comming, and sitting on the other side to correct it.
I have a RHD driving it like you on the right hand side.
I drive a 40 as it should be RHD but I drive it with way more sense a I do with my LHD supercharged V8 Ford Capri.
I wouldn't change a thing.
Mine was RHD and I never got used to it ! That's why I sold it. You can't pass anyone you can't see anything parking it sucks and it's just not right on the road in the US unless your going to track it go LHD
Ian Anderson
Lifetime Supporter
I had a right hand drive one and drove it to France a good few times, they drive on the opposite side to the U.K.
Never found it much of a problem driving on either U.K. or French roads, the only problem I had was in the French motorway toll booths where driving solo means stopping and getting out the car to get the ticket or pay the charge. Later I used a fast pass transponder to get around the toll booth problem.
Reversing is a pig as visibility is poor but practice helps. People try to assist and stand behind signalling……they too are invisible
some are now fitting rear view and reversing cameras.to their car- some Bluetooth to their phone.
Ian
Never found it much of a problem driving on either U.K. or French roads, the only problem I had was in the French motorway toll booths where driving solo means stopping and getting out the car to get the ticket or pay the charge. Later I used a fast pass transponder to get around the toll booth problem.
Reversing is a pig as visibility is poor but practice helps. People try to assist and stand behind signalling……they too are invisible
some are now fitting rear view and reversing cameras.to their car- some Bluetooth to their phone.
Ian
My GT40 is right hand drive and I have had no issues. The car is so small and you are seated a little closer to the middle than you might think because of the door sill over the gas tank. You just have to avoid embarrassing yourself by walking to the wrong side of the car to get in - and in these cars, someone is always watching!
I have a Honda Acty Haji truck and it's RHD. I was able to get used to shifting with the LH, and the turn signals on the RH, but for some reason looking to the left for the rear view mirror is so counter everything I'm comfortable with, I can't make it OK.
I guess the GT40 would be like a motor bike where you're going enough faster than traffic, nothing in the rear view matters.
I guess the GT40 would be like a motor bike where you're going enough faster than traffic, nothing in the rear view matters.
Julian
Lifetime Supporter
I have RHD and its a non issue as far as I'm concerned, the rockers are wide so it's more of a central seating position than something like a Brit import saloon. There's more room for your left foot centrally with a dead pedal when off the clutch. RH shift makes it like shifting any regular US car. My first GT40 was LHD, it just never felt quite like a true GT40..... Full disclosure, I'm a Brit expat that grew up with RHD!
My first experience with RHD was in Jamaica. Actually, I hadn't yet noticed it was a right had drive, wrong side of the road country.
The wife and I were in the back seat of some arbitrary Toyota minivan type shitbox. The chap in the left seat asks us if we want a 6pack for the trip to the hotel (Mobay to Negril). Well, of course. We're just about to leave the airport, and the chap hops out of the van as the car starts to roll to the left onto a busy road, and I see a constant string of cars approaching from the left. My instinct was the driver just got out and left the car in gear and we were about to head on a string of cars. I leaped around the seat to avoid spending a vacation in the hospital or maybe the morgue only to find no steering wheel. I looked to the right where the driver was laughing at me as he was pulling into the open lane.
The wife and I were in the back seat of some arbitrary Toyota minivan type shitbox. The chap in the left seat asks us if we want a 6pack for the trip to the hotel (Mobay to Negril). Well, of course. We're just about to leave the airport, and the chap hops out of the van as the car starts to roll to the left onto a busy road, and I see a constant string of cars approaching from the left. My instinct was the driver just got out and left the car in gear and we were about to head on a string of cars. I leaped around the seat to avoid spending a vacation in the hospital or maybe the morgue only to find no steering wheel. I looked to the right where the driver was laughing at me as he was pulling into the open lane.
I haven't noticed any differences with the pedal arrangement between LHD and RHD cars.
I've had four RHD cars in the US. Driving the GT40 (RHD) with the shifter on the right is much easier than driving a RHD car with the shifter in the center because shifting with your right hand is what you'd do with a typical LHD car and a center shifter, so the reflexes are the same (except that 1st gear is towards you, not away).
Another one of my former RHD cars was a saloon car with the engine in the front and shifter on the right. I remember being told that the LHD version built for the continent had a center shifter, but they then ran the the linkages under the floor to the right side of the car to join the existing linkages where the RHD shifter would have been. The LHD shifter with three right angle turns was a bit sloppier than the RHD shifter.
Once, I when I was a teen, I was a passenger in an RHD car, we got pulled over for speeding. The police man came over to the window on the left side of the car and spent a minute yelling at me for speeding in a residential neighborhood. When he stopped yelling and asked for the license and registration, all I could do was point to the driver on the other side of the car. At that point, he ran out of steam and was a bit more subdued when he spoke to the actual driver, who got a warning. So that might count as an advantage for driving an RHD car.
OTOH, if you might drive an RHD car on a toll road, I strongly recommend get an EZ Pass transponder so you don't have to deal with paying the tolls when you're sitting on the "wrong" side of the car.
RHD allows a "dead pedal" as on the original FAV cars. The right- rath hand sill mount shifter has rod actuation where most center mount shifters are cable.
Having the steering wheel on the left side screams fake.
Which one's?
Terry Oxandale
Skinny Man
I've not noticed any comments regarding the "merge left" that us typical in the US. With the visibility issues, I was quite concerned about these two put together in a RH drive car with challenging visibility in and out.