Bahnstorming Speeds

[Jimjimhim]

cerb4.5lee said:

dcb said:

herebebeasties said:

It's even in The Highway Code - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f...

It's worth mentioning that stopping distances in the Highway Code
haven't changed in 55 or more years, so are *very* out of date.

While reaction times haven't changed much across the decades,
cars have a lot. Radial tyres, disc brakes & ABS systems to name just three.

Shame the distances don't get updated every ten years or so
with a current average car.

That would be far more useful, but this is the UK Gov Department
of Transport we are dealing here. Not folks to let reality get in the way ;-

This always niggles me as well. Brakes and tyres have improved and moved on so much over the years, yet the ancient stopping distances are still being used though.

They would never do that because reduced stopping distances would go against the "cars kill" thing.

[dcb]

Jimjimhim said:

They would never do that because reduced stopping distances would go against the "cars kill" thing.

Indeed.

Fortunately, UK Gov do get ignored by the good sense of the population
when they spout obvious nonsense.

One of the big car magazines would be performing a public service if they
tested the half dozen or so most popular cars for stopping distances
and published the results. Easy article, useful and relevant. Repeat
every five years or so.

Where the UK Gov won't, the private sector can.

[MikeM6]

Except they can't rest the drivers whose reaction times have not reduced, but may in fact have increased due to distraction.

[M11rph]

MikeM6 said:

Except they can't rest the drivers whose reaction times have not reduced, but may in fact have increased due to distraction.

Which is why speed is good. At high speeds the driver will be fully focussed on the job in hand.

I don't think it's been mentionned in this thread, but on the Autobahn the driver of a car travelling over 130kph assumes responsibility for any incident, the liability has changed.

[Byker28i]

M11rph said:

MikeM6 said:

Except they can't rest the drivers whose reaction times have not reduced, but may in fact have increased due to distraction.

Which is why speed is good. At high speeds the driver will be fully focussed on the job in hand.

I don't think it's been mentionned in this thread, but on the Autobahn the driver of a car travelling over 130kph assumes responsibility for any incident, the liability has changed.

Reaction timeoin the highways code was always 3/4 sec, which seemed quite slow also. Worse case average?

[Blown2CV]

reaction times vary so hugely between individuals that it's almost not worth giving an average

[cerb4.5lee]

M11rph said:

MikeM6 said:

Except they can't rest the drivers whose reaction times have not reduced, but may in fact have increased due to distraction.

Which is why speed is good. At high speeds the driver will be fully focussed on the job in hand.

I've always been similar to this as well. If I'm driving fast I'm fully concentrated/aware, whereas when I go slow...I'm thinking about what I might be having for tea, or what might be on the telly later for example.

Driving slow is boring, whereas driving fast is exciting. It is quite basic really when you think about it I reckon.

[J4CKO]

Its largely academic top speed for anything, most cars will do over 100 mph these days, 2 litre diesel stuff is at 130 to 140, loads of cars are limited to 155.

Would like to know what mine would do flat out, standard Fiesta ST is 139, with 300 bhp, reckon it must be between 150 ad 160 now. And my sons Monaro with 615 bhp, standard is 165, so suspect that might be knocking on 180/185 with another 200 plus bhp.

Not about to try it though.

[cerb4.5lee]

J4CKO said:

Its largely academic top speed for anything, most cars will do over 100 mph these days, 2 litre diesel stuff is at 130 to 140, loads of cars are limited to 155.

Would like to know what mine would do flat out, standard Fiesta ST is 139, with 300 bhp, reckon it must be between 150 ad 160 now. And my sons Monaro with 615 bhp, standard is 165, so suspect that might be knocking on 180/185 with another 200 plus bhp.

Not about to try it though.

I definitely think that it would do that speed for sure. I remember seeing 160 on the clock in the S14 200SX, and that was only tuned to around 250bhp.

[paulo_f1]

We usually do at least one European road trip each year that involves going down to Italy across Europe in the car. I've gone via Belgium, France etc, but getting on the Autobahn out of rush hour is my preferred route, as you can make up a lot of time, and no tolls.

My Jaguar XFR-S is pretty quick, has decent power and stops well. Other than wind noise, the car is pretty much rock solid at 150mph. I tend to cruise at around 110-120mph, as it keeps my attention on long boring sections, and at that speed you don't spend too much time braking or accelerating, cover lots of ground and it still does 30 mpg in 8th.

I did try a couple of top speed runs, but bottled it at an indicated 175+ (just nudging 170mph on the GPS) as even though the road was pretty much deserted, when someone did pull out it was pretty much anchors full on to scrub of speed safely, the missus who normally sleeps on the Autobahn woke up rather suddenly!

[AmyRichardson]

Byker28i said:

Reaction timeoin the highways code was always 3/4 sec, which seemed quite slow also. Worse case average?

0.75s is a good case, keep in mind it's the full "see, perceive, analyse, act" cycle. International standards very up to 2s-2.5s, which accounts for geriatric and intoxicated drivers.

Car and Driver did some 70mph vs 100mph brake tests (no thinking time included) a couple of years ago, and the test subjects fell on both sides of the "constant energy dissipation" model.

Regular cars that produce lift at speed and which cook their brakes on a hard 100-0 do worse, hardcore (a GT4 Cayman, I think) stuff - big brakes and a material amount of downforce - better the model by a bit.

There also seemed to be a lot of variation with brake load, presumably to do with the ABS (?), and I don't imagine a driver trying to threshold brake would be better.

[DonkeyApple]

cerb4.5lee said:

dcb said:

herebebeasties said:

It's even in The Highway Code - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f...

It's worth mentioning that stopping distances in the Highway Code
haven't changed in 55 or more years, so are *very* out of date.

While reaction times haven't changed much across the decades,
cars have a lot. Radial tyres, disc brakes & ABS systems to name just three.

Shame the distances don't get updated every ten years or so
with a current average car.

That would be far more useful, but this is the UK Gov Department
of Transport we are dealing here. Not folks to let reality get in the way ;-

This always niggles me as well. Brakes and tyres have improved and moved on so much over the years, yet the ancient stopping distances are still being used though.

Stopping distance includes reaction time. That's probably quadrupled with our aging population and all of them driving these days.

[Register1]

We recently hired a new mercedes E class.
Hired in Berlin, dropped off in Hamburg.
Wife wad driving, mostly between 160km/h up to 200km/h

For most of the way 180km/h.
We did get thrown out of their fast lane by a VW. Touareg, he really wasnt hanging around.

Ironic, the wife has the same Touareg in UK.

Edited by Register1 on Thursday 4th July 21:10

[Blown2CV]

Register1 said:

We recently hired a new mercedes E class.
Hired in Berlin, dropped off in Hamburg.
Wife wad driving, mostly between 160km/h up to 200km/h

For most of the way 180km/h.
We did get thrown out of their fast lane by a VW. Touareg, he really wasnt hanging around.

Ironic, the wife has the same Touareg in UK.

Edited by Register1 on Thursday 4th July 21:10

at 111mph i'm not surprised you had people encouraging you to get out of the way. Not that everyone goes faster, but you will regularly see faster cars.

[8IKERDAVE]

Register1 said:

We recently hired a new mercedes E class.
Hired in Berlin, dropped off in Hamburg.
Wife wad driving, mostly between 160km/h up to 200km/h

For most of the way 180km/h.
We did get thrown out of their fast lane by a VW. Touareg, he really wasnt hanging around.

Ironic, the wife has the same Touareg in UK.

Edited by Register1 on Thursday 4th July 21:10

They are quite encouraging when it comes to moving dawdlers out of the way. I remember cruising at around 110 in the pouring rain with a 5 series glued to my bumper. It really keeps you alert though, there's no switching off like people seem to in the UK.