Thoughts on Excessive Speed

sidimmu said:
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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many years ago i had a theory i would get every car i owned up to its top speed once. this was fine with a 1.4 306.

i did this on the at the time new M6 toll road. it was very strange... for a time i would be doing 100mph+ and would be in the slow lane over taken by cars in both other lanes. its settled down now (probably has cameras on it now i guess - i am too tight to pay to use it so not sure )

i got up to (according to satnav) 140mph in my fiat coupe and 145 my nissan 350z both times i realised it was stupid and gave up before the car did. i hope i would not do that now.

edit (to clarify as it reads a little unclear, i hope i would not even try to get to the max top speed of the car...... not i hope i would not realise it was stupid and give up before the car did :D )
 
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I think some people might be grasping a bit with claiming that its more tiresome and therefore less safe to drive 6 hours @ 50mph than 3 hours @ 100mph. Yes, you're on the road for half the time, but tiredness doesn't just increase in a linear fashion - I find driving at higher speeds much more mentally exhausting that cruising. And this claim that somehow the 100MPH driver is immune from the slower traffic, trucks, slip roads that the 50MPH driver is dealing with....yeah, come off it. If the road is that busy for "dealing with sliproads" to be a tiresome activity while cruising on the inside lane, then in reality you're unlikely to be passing it all in the outside lane maintaining 100MPH, if you have any sense.

Comparing doing a journey at 50 or 100 is a bit of a silly hypothetical anyway, chosen only to simplify the arithmetic and exaggerate the advantages of exceeding the limit. Any UK road where 100mph for long periods is even possible is going to be a motorway or DC with a 70MPH limit, so I doubt anyone is going to be deciding on only those two speeds; more realistically, most people would just cruise at the limit, where 300 miles would take 4.2 hours. I'm pretty confident that I'd find 3 hours of driving at 100MPH physically more draining than just cruising for an extra hour and a bit at 70MPH, so I'd be going with that.
 
Indicated 160mph on a turbocharged Suzuki GS1000 on the M1. It was fun/terrifying holding onto the handlebars crouching low over the tank as it didn’t have a fairing. This was way back when before your average sports bike could do that speed straight from the factory.

One piece of debris, a mechanical failure or a sudden sidewind and I wouldn’t be typing this…
 
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sidimmu said:
What's the fastest you have gotten to on UK motorways? :D
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203, but not just on motorways - the A5 used to be my favourite road during my stupid years, and I was constantly under the influence to make it even stupider (not alcohol, btw).

Thank god I never hurt anybody.

Man, I'm kind of glad I did back then as I got it all out of my system and started spending my money on investments and property rather than wasting it on fast cars.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
One piece of debris, a mechanical failure or a sudden sidewind and I wouldn’t be typing this…
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indeed...... what can feel almost controlled (well, ok not that speed) but say 100mph in a modern vehicle seems pretty civilised. but as soon as something goes wrong or something unexpected happens in front of you that disatance ahead suddenly gets gobbled up v quickly and you realise that stopping distances are larger than it seems normally.
 
bigmike20vt said:
many years ago i had a theory i would get every car i owned up to its top speed once. this was fine with a 1.4 306.

i did this on the at the time new M6 toll road. it was very strange... for a time i would be doing 100mph+ and would be in the slow lane over taken by cars in both other lanes. its settled down now (probably has cameras on it now i guess - i am too tight to pay to use it so not sure )

i got up to 140mph in my fiat coupe and 145 my nissan 350z both times i realised it was stupid and gave up before the car did. i hope i would not do that now.
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Good to hear sense took over and the sense of keeping your life.
A very true sentiment in here is people growing up and realising its not worth the risk.

As someone at age 18 took his 1 ltr micra to its top speed, think I hit 97 in it and everything was shaking and rattling, just stupid looking back now.
Same for blasting my old 1.2 corsa and focus up the A1M.
I agree with Gibbo about speeding to reduce travel time as it does help, there is clearly limits to this though.
105 in the corsa is too much, 115 in the focus was too much. 80-90 in both were the fastest and most comfortable without pushing the limit in to danger territory.
 
Thekwango said:
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.
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More a case of I know when I am setting off, I know when it goes dark and I know if I can reach my destination whilst daylight the risk of fatigue is far less to myself, what works for me might be different for you, but I will carry on doing what works for me. :)
 
Conscript said:
I'm pretty confident that I'd find 3 hours of driving at 100MPH physically more draining than just cruising for an extra hour and a bit at 70MPH, so I'd be going with that.
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This is where the type of vehicle makes a huge difference.

100 is easy these days and doesn't require much more concentration, it's when speeds get significantly higher that your concentration increases fatigue. As long as you know your stopping rate at the speeds you're going then you can mitigate it slightly, but the risk ratio is still heavily weighted towards dangerous.
 
i imagine having auto braking will be a big help as well..... the car may react quicker than a driver.
incidentally (i have not read whole thread) has tail gating been covered yet? i am not condoning speedig at all however tailgating seems to be completely ignored when it comes to legal issues.......... imo driving 3 feet from the car in front of you at 50mph is far more dangerous than doing 80mph but keeping a good amount of daylight between you and the car in front.
 
bigmike20vt said:
i imagine having auto braking will be a big help as well..... the car may react quicker than a driver.
incidentally (i have not read whole thread) has tail gating been covered yet? i am not condoning speedig at all however tailgating seems to be completely ignored when it comes to legal issues.......... imo driving 3 feet from the car in front of you at 50mph is far more dangerous than doing 80mph but keeping a good amount of daylight between you and the car in front.
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How else you meant to get your point across that the person in front should move over as they are going too slow?
 
Gibbo said:
More a case of I know when I am setting off, I know when it goes dark and I know if I can reach my destination whilst daylight the risk of fatigue is far less to myself, what works for me might be different for you, but I will carry on doing what works for me. :)
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that's got nothing to do with my post. you admitted to driving faster, while tired, to shorten your journey while previously stating a lack of comon sense was one of the biggest issues with UK motorists. just re read what you posted and have a think about it - i'm tired and i have a car journey to make, so the comon sense thing is to hoof it on to shorten the time spent driving, while tired. that's basically what you've said and that shows zero comon sense, imo.

comon sense seems to be quite lacking in most of what you've posted thus far.
 
Gibbo said:
More a case of I know when I am setting off, I know when it goes dark and I know if I can reach my destination whilst daylight the risk of fatigue is far less to myself, what works for me might be different for you, but I will carry on doing what works for me. :)
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Perhaps leaving early enough to give yourself enough time to complete the journey whilst travelling within the speed limits of whatever country you are in would be better.
 
Chris Wilson said:
Tailgating HGV's and coaches is good for the environment and should be mandated to save fuel.

I hadn't realised how contentious this forum was so just doing my bit to fit in ;)
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i dunno about contentious... perhaps i am totally missreading the room (I often do ) but i think it is pretty passionate discussion but would not say its unfriendly (for the most part).

if anyone wants to call me an idiot for the speeds i admit to doing once...... I am not going to argue, but at the same time its not so simple as to say doing 70 is fine (on a motorway) but doing 80 is disgraceful......... sometimes doing the speed limit is too fast for the conditions...... other times i think its not so bad to go over them a little (to a point)
 
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We can go round in circles but the reality is you are at far less risk at 50mph than 100mph. The forces involved are wildly different - regardless of the car you are in. I suspect we're all aware of that and it's a risk we are prepared to accept at times.

Of course roads and conditions play a part, but that's all speculative on the public highway... the roads are largely in a poor state and littered with terrible drivers.
 
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