🛞Vehicle handling theory test questions

Vehicle handling covers how you keep control of the car when the road, the weather or the gradient is working against you. Expect questions on wet roads, ice and snow, fog, strong wind, hot weather, hills, floods, country lanes and traffic-calming features, plus the techniques that go with them: braking, skids, anti-lock brakes and why coasting is a bad habit.

The numbers come up again and again. In the wet, stopping distances are at least double those on a dry road, and on ice they can be up to ten times greater (Rules 126, 227 and 230). You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres, and you may use fog lights then, but you MUST switch them off once visibility improves because they dazzle others and hide your brake lights (Rules 226 and 236).

Several questions test technique rather than numbers. If the back of the car skids to the right, remove the cause by easing off the brake or accelerator, then steer to the right (Rule 119). With ABS in an emergency, brake firmly and keep the pressure on; ABS helps you keep steering but does not promise a shorter stop (Rule 120). On ice, use as high a gear as you can, accelerate and brake very gently, and do your slowing on the straight before a bend. If the tyres suddenly go quiet and the steering feels light, you are probably on ice (Rule 231). If the steering goes light in heavy rain, water is lifting the tyres off the road, so ease off the accelerator and slow down gradually (Rule 227).

Hills catch people out. Coasting, in neutral or with the clutch held down, removes engine braking and lets your speed build quickly downhill (Rule 122), so select a lower gear before a long descent instead (Rule 160). When parking facing downhill, turn the wheels towards the kerb and leave it in reverse; facing uphill, turn them away from the kerb and leave it in first (Rule 252). On a single-track road, give way to traffic coming uphill whenever you can (Rule 155). After driving through deep water, test your brakes gently at the first safe chance and dry them with light pressure while driving slowly (Rule 121).

Common mistakes: leaving rear fog lights on after the fog lifts, steering the wrong way in a skid, pumping the brake pedal in a car with ABS, and following the rear lights of the car ahead too closely in fog, which gives a false sense of security (Rule 235). Strong crosswinds are most likely on open roads, near bridges and at gaps in hedges (Rule 232), and after a dry spell the first rain can leave the road very slippery (Rule 237).