Thoughts on Excessive Speed

excessive is a woolly term but no i do not agree with excessive speeding. Since having a child of my own it has definitely changed how i drive (mind you going from a nissan 350z to a 1.5 diesel nissan QQ will tend to do that as well ;) )

I wont lie i used to have moments when i drove like a bit of a berk, but age, change of car and like i said a child does make you rethink life choices. I still speed a little on motorways and quiet duel carrageways - as in 80mph, maybe 85, but really try to keep it sensible on slower residential roads, having seen what my lad is like, he is 90% conscientious around roads and then 10% blind and stupid.

i am feeling the urge for a nicer car now as it happens (but that is for another thread) however one of the reasons holding me back is the temptation to speed if you have a car which is built for it.
i would stuggle if i had Gibbos motor that is for certain! (my 350z only really got "fun" around triple figures...... )
 
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bigmike20vt said:
i am feeling the urge for a nicer car now as it happens (but that is for another thread) however one of the reasons holding me back is the temptation to speed if you have a car which is built for it.
i would stuggle if i had Gibbos motor that is for certain! (my 350z only really got "fun" around triple figures...... )
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FYI - my accidental switch from a powerful, tuned BMW into an old supercharged mini enhanced my love for twisties and pulled me away from boring top speed runs. Plenty of fun drivers cars out there which will give you the same kicks without the speed :)

I thought I'd always have a BMW in my life, but I think it's been nearly 2 years now with this mini and it's still my preferred choice when going on a solo drive somewhere.
 
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Uther said:
You can be supremely confident in your own abilities at speed but that means nothing when some other idiot on the road does something stupid like pull in front of you.
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also mechanical failure.. .you could be Nigel Mansell (showing my age ;) ) but if you are going 120mph and have a blow out you are in trouble.
 
Do energy drinks actually work in keeping you alert? Last time I had one I just had palpitations and became irritable
 
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NVP said:
FYI - my accidental switch from a powerful, tuned BMW into an old supercharged mini enhanced my love for twisties and pulled me away from boring top speed runs. Plenty of fun drivers cars out there which will give you the same kicks without the speed :)

I thought I'd always have a BMW in my life, but I think it's been nearly 2 years now with this mini and it's still my preferred choice when going on a solo drive somewhere.
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(technically you still do have a BMW in your life - unless its a REALLY old mini ;) )

excessive speed isnt just 140mph on a motorway..... Not accusing you of this at all, but 60mph on a twisty country road can also be excessive even if its a national speed limit road.

I have had a few brown trouser moments finding horses or cyclists on bendy roads despite not speeding legally.
 
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panthro said:
Do energy drinks actually work in keeping you alert? Last time I had one I just had palpitations and became irritable
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Yes, although only to a point. If you're absolutely dead or you're used to chugging coffee like it's going out of fashion then they probably aren't going to help.
 
bigmike20vt said:
(technically you still do have a BMW in your life - unless its a REALLY old mini ;) )

excessive speed isnt just 140mph on a motorway..... Not accusing you of this at all, but 60mph on a twisty country road can also be excessive even if its a national speed limit road.

I have had a few brown trouser moments finding horses or cyclists on bendy roads despite not speeding legally.
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Well then it doesn't matter what car you have, which negates your "if I had a fast car" post...
 
tom_e said:
Yes, although only to a point. If you're absolutely dead or you're used to chugging coffee like it's going out of fashion then they probably aren't going to help.
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Ah yes, potentially its because I don't drink coffee as to why these energy drinks wake me up hard-core.
 
Gibbo said:
Accidents many are caused by tired drivers and a 6hr journey is far more tiring than 3hrs that is a fact.

Also 50 years ago an accident at 100mph in a car would be fatal or very high chance whereas today in a modern car an accident at 100mph is far less likely to be fatal.

I’d say tired drivers are far more at risk of having an accident than tired drivers.

When traffic allows on longer trips I would always tend to do 90-100mph on the motorway because it could easily reduce my journey time by hour plus. I tend to do just 80mph now due to higher traffic and cameras.

I’ve just always personally felt that been tired behind the wheel is far more dangerous than speeding especially on a motorway.
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The level of concentration required when driving at 100mph vs 50mph is going to be more fatiguing though. Not double of course, but you certainly need to be more "on the ball".

The competent driver would plan their journey to allow plenty of time for breaks, letting them complete the drive both within the legal speed limit and without driving tired. ;)


Yes this is of course a "perfect" scenario and is rarely reflected in reality.
 
Gibbo said:
I think in the U.K. that is one of the biggest issues we have is common sense
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Gibbo said:
also did most of that trip at 100mph to try and reduce the travel time as we were all very tired.
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so you drove at 100mph, while tired, to reduce driving time cause you were all tired rather than do the sensible thing which would have been to stop, take a rest break and continue your journey and you don't see any issue with that?? i'll refer you to your top post.
 
Thekwango said:
nah, apparently you can just coast to a stop. so i've been told in this thread.
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I gave a real world example of it happening on a rear in my classic 5 series, no issue. Potentially the front going on some high riding SUV may be more cause for alarm but I have no experience of that to share.
 
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NVP said:
I gave a real world example of it happening on a rear in my classic 5 series, no issue. Potentially the front going on some high riding SUV may be more cause for alarm but I have no experience of that to share.
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luck of the draw i guess, though i've also been told on here that luck doesn't really play a part in driving.
 
NVP said:
Well then it doesn't matter what car you have, which negates your "if I had a fast car" post...
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for you perhaps..... for me i am a lot less tempted to drive a 1.5 diesel car enthuisasically than i am a low slung sports car..... but anyway, not arguing with you just different perspective i guess
 
Thekwango said:
nah, apparently you can just coast to a stop. so i've been told in this thread.
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(touches wood etc etc etc) i have only ever had a blowout which was more of an "enthusiastic puncture" and i was able to safely pull over and stop.

my mate had a full on one however, one of his rear tyres in his mx5 (an older one, the 1st one that didnt have pop up lights, modern ones may handle better). he swears he was driving fairly sensiblly at under 80 but he ended up going backwards into the centre barrier on the dual carriageway. had that not been there and had he been on a single carrageway, he would have been on the wrong side of the road going backwards into oncoming traffic.
 
NVP said:
I gave a real world example of it happening on a rear in my classic 5 series, no issue. Potentially the front going on some high riding SUV may be more cause for alarm but I have no experience of that to share.
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there are blowouts and blowouts... like i said like you i was fine. i would not like to say with confidence that it would always be the case however....... (i actually lost a wheel once, that was fun.... the wheel had not been tighened up properly, its a strange thing seeing your front passenger side wheel rolling down the road ahead of you whilst you are driving along... luckily i was only doing ... i dunno, but it was under 60mph.
 
Its getting pretty tense in here.
Lets all play a game....

What's the fastest you have gotten to on UK motorways? :D

Lots of interesting points being made in here though.
 
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