I find the lightness / twitchiness of most cars at that sort of speed far too unnerving to make it remotely enjoyable!
Your bad driving
- Thread starter bazzabear
- Start date
I find the lightness / twitchiness of most cars at that sort of speed far too unnerving to make it remotely enjoyable!
Soldato
in fairness though i think that happens with even the best drivers, if you see someone being a plank it's easy to get distracted from your own driving as you're busy watching for danger from the other person. i know that i have on occasion had to stand on the anchors to stop from going into the back of someone because i've been too busy trying to keep an eye on the knobber i've spotted coming up behind me over taking everyone like a halfwit!!
it's easy to say, 'don't get distracted when driving' but actually managing that can be quite difficult, especially with some of the utter window lickers that are on the roads these days.
Man of Honour
I did one that to this day I shudder about.
It's about 2am in the morning on the M6 around 1990 with my wife and two babies in my Mondeo.
I decided to follow my Brother in Law on an empty motorway and I reached 104mph before my wife screamed at me.
Still a foolish thing to do because of my family and still the fastest I've ever gone.
Soldato
- Joined
- 6 Jan 2012
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- 5,504
some cars hunker down nicely at that speed. My old E92 M3 springs to mind ....
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I had an Alfa 156 GTA at 120 (on the sat nav - over 130 according to the speedo) and it felt solid as a rock. I know everyone says this, but that was genuinely on the autobahn. Was still pulling strongly too - but my wife shouted at me at that point.
I keep leaving it as late as possible to use the inner lane before turning off a motorway or dual carriageway.
What I should do is go left much earlier and sit there with the silver tops in their <insert incredibly boring car only bought by slow drivers here> doing 45mph for a minute or so, but it just doesn’t happen.
What I should do is go left much earlier and sit there with the silver tops in their <insert incredibly boring car only bought by slow drivers here> doing 45mph for a minute or so, but it just doesn’t happen.
Soldato
Quite a while back now. I got stuck in stop start traffic for hours. Really hard to keep focused in such a boring situation. I found myself rolling into the back of someone at 1mph. No damage done, just a bit derpy.
Pulled out on people on roundabouts a few times. Usually where there are 4/5 exits and people arrive at the same time then hesitate.
Crashed my first car when I was 21 driving a little too fast for the conditions. It was one of the those where there’s snow at the sides of the road but a clear line in the middle. To add insult to injury I’d just passed some coppers who were waiting to join the road. They were ok with me. An ambulance also stopped to ask if I was ok.
Nobody else involved (just!), only me and the barrier.
Crashed my first car when I was 21 driving a little too fast for the conditions. It was one of the those where there’s snow at the sides of the road but a clear line in the middle. To add insult to injury I’d just passed some coppers who were waiting to join the road. They were ok with me. An ambulance also stopped to ask if I was ok.
Nobody else involved (just!), only me and the barrier.
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They aren't all like that, it's really car dependent, for example i've done off the top of my head 122MPH in a Ford Capri 2.8i, 140 in a Mondeo ST220 on GPS.
The Capri felt like I was going way faster than 140 did in the Mondeo, in fact it felt down right terrifying, I remember after I backed off that my hands ached as I was gripping the wheel so tight, even more surprising being that the Capri was on a private Motorway & the Mondeo on a private A road.
(The Capri incident was only because I lived 16 miles away from my now wife & she called me at 1am and promised nice things if I could get there before she fell asleep)
I've had goes in much more modern stuff & I just can't get my head around how you can have fun in them on a public road, for example i've hinted to the wife that i'd like to get a 5.0 Mustang, however realistically I don't see how I can have fun driving it on a public road without ending up putting lives at risk.
Soldato
Used to own an mk3 mondeo ST TDCi. On a private road, officer, managed to max it out about 139 (speedo). Surprisingly comfortable at that speed too. At 90-100 it felt like 40.
Interestingly one of the worst cars I've had for it was my focus ST estate but a few years newer 640 wasn't much better- tbh it's probably the inevitable closeness to the barrier (of the track ) and conscious feeling of "probably don't want to be a pancake should anything go wrong" that does it.
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Soldato
Someone did that to me about 30 years ago, though we'd only been sat at a traffic light for about 30 seconds. Being young and immediately outraged, when the lights went green I stuck the car in reverse and did it back to him!
A few relatively recent ones...
Driving down the A3 and wanting to catch up to a straight piped GT3 before the Hindhead tunnel. In lane 1 and came behind a car doing 60mph or so just as the empty c400yd entry slip joined, with a car blocking my route to the outside lane I indicated left into it to pass the dawdler and gunned the M135i to the redline. Obviously said dawdler In then wanted to make me aware of their presence with the headlights...
Others mainly due to the pointless borough-wide 20mph zones. Must overtake multiple cars (mainly Uber drivers doing anything from 12-22mph) most days as I carry on driving at the 30mph +10% (GPS) that the road was/is better suited for.
Driving down the A3 and wanting to catch up to a straight piped GT3 before the Hindhead tunnel. In lane 1 and came behind a car doing 60mph or so just as the empty c400yd entry slip joined, with a car blocking my route to the outside lane I indicated left into it to pass the dawdler and gunned the M135i to the redline. Obviously said dawdler In then wanted to make me aware of their presence with the headlights...
Others mainly due to the pointless borough-wide 20mph zones. Must overtake multiple cars (mainly Uber drivers doing anything from 12-22mph) most days as I carry on driving at the 30mph +10% (GPS) that the road was/is better suited for.
Soldato
I will always let people in at a merge in turn or allow them to get in front of me if they find themselves in the wrong lane etc. The “bad” part is that I expect the same of other drivers and will just force my way in if someone accelerates to block me from changing lanes or merging. 99% of people give up pretty quickly but years ago I encountered someone who was as determined not to let me in as I was to get in. We ended up driving a few cm apart alongside each other for about a mile until he finally smacked it into a curb - I didn’t hang around but he looked most unhappy.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 30,821
White van driver here, say no more
2nd year of driving when I thought I knew it all, I took my Golf for a spin. Hit a back country road a bit quicker than usual and didn't account for the slight ramp in the road. Car was raised slightly, though as all 4 wheels hit the road again, the steering wheel wasn't straight. Took a hell of a swerve and hedged the car. Was quite lucky to not have rolled it! Hedge absolutely battered the front bumped and panels, nicked the licence plate and left plenty of scratches across the paintwork.
Soldato
When I was stationed in Japan for a year, I was worried I would try to drive on the wrong side of the road and never did, but it was one of the *first* things I did when I returned to the US.
Had me confused for a second until I saw the returned to the US bit.
Man of Honour
180d on a circular junction under an A road in the snow back in my Focus (first car). Luckily no one else was about.
Also gunning it way too hard in same car on wet cornish dark unfamiliar road, ended up riding a grassy verge for a bit but managed to keep it out the hedge.
Also testing lift off oversteer in my DC2, turns out an absolutely stupid idea because yeah ended up accidentally (well, sort of, on purpose but much more than I expected) sideways on a busy multi-lane roundabout (also Cornwall wet roads etc).
Also (not bad driving but just car stupidity) I ignored some dodgy suspension groaning for much longer than I should have on a nearly 20 year old Accord and the lower front drivers side ball joint sheared, sending the wheel off at 90 degrees. Nothing stops you like your own wheel it turns out. Luckily it was only 15mph on a private site and not 60moh country lanes which I was about to commute home on. I don't think I'd be typing this post if it was. Yes I'm an idiot. Yes I've learned my lesson.
Also gunning it way too hard in same car on wet cornish dark unfamiliar road, ended up riding a grassy verge for a bit but managed to keep it out the hedge.
Also testing lift off oversteer in my DC2, turns out an absolutely stupid idea because yeah ended up accidentally (well, sort of, on purpose but much more than I expected) sideways on a busy multi-lane roundabout (also Cornwall wet roads etc).
Also (not bad driving but just car stupidity) I ignored some dodgy suspension groaning for much longer than I should have on a nearly 20 year old Accord and the lower front drivers side ball joint sheared, sending the wheel off at 90 degrees. Nothing stops you like your own wheel it turns out. Luckily it was only 15mph on a private site and not 60moh country lanes which I was about to commute home on. I don't think I'd be typing this post if it was. Yes I'm an idiot. Yes I've learned my lesson.
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Reminds me of many years back when I was thinking of buying a Golf a friend had bought to do up and sell on, he took me for a spin in it, got onto a single track back road and he starts driving full on rally style - absolutely shudder now to think what would have happened if something was coming the other way. Superb car control but I think he was far to blasé to the possibilities of anything unexpected.