Falling in love again
Discussion
Just occasionally you get to stretch your (987) Boxster S' legs and realise afresh what a great car it is. Mine spends most of its time these days in the garage, being queen of a dusty throne room.
I had a meeting in Aachen in Germany on Friday and that meant an autobahn opportunity. I drove there on Thursday from my south London home, taking the Channel tunnel and then driving through Belgium via Brussels and Liege to get to Aachen. The road from Liege to Aachen had light traffic in it and the Boxster found cruising in the low three figures was really comforable.
Friday was meeting day and Saturday was return home day, but not straight away, as the A4 autobahn to Cologne was on the doorstep. And it has derestricted sections. So, just after dawn I drove onto the autobahn and the pedal hit the metal. The higher than UK speeds took me by surprise as I was totally unused to driving at 100mph-plus. Getting my eye in, so to speak, took a while, as did getting used to catching up with much slower traffic, judging braking distances and looking far enough ahead to read other driver's moves. But each gap in the traffic enabled a litle bit more enthusiasm with the accelerator and 150mph was reached before Cologne came near and I had to turn round for the return sprint to Aachen and then the journey home.
It was wonderful. The traffic was still light and I was more comfortable with the high speeds and teading the traffic. My Boxster has done 99,960 miles and yet it was still capable of reaching 167mph - and felt steady at that speed. Amazing car! The German drivers were disciplined and no undertaking was necessary as they moved over from the outside lane when they could. And the autobahn road surfaces were excellent as well. The trip back to the channel tunnel, via Mons, Namur, Tournai and Charleroi was on dratted Belgian autoroutes with many average speed camera sections - thank you Waze - buit the road surfaces were generally okay. Not as good as the A4 though.
So I had a return of sheer driving pleasure and realised afresh how restricted UK roads have become. I also realised afresh how if you were 1 inch one side of an international border the magistrates and police would throw the verbal book at you for driving over 100mph whereas go one inch over the other side and 150mph-plus is perfectly okay. The UK's mumsnet road driving and anti-speeding mindset is a profound pain in the ass.
I had a meeting in Aachen in Germany on Friday and that meant an autobahn opportunity. I drove there on Thursday from my south London home, taking the Channel tunnel and then driving through Belgium via Brussels and Liege to get to Aachen. The road from Liege to Aachen had light traffic in it and the Boxster found cruising in the low three figures was really comforable.
Friday was meeting day and Saturday was return home day, but not straight away, as the A4 autobahn to Cologne was on the doorstep. And it has derestricted sections. So, just after dawn I drove onto the autobahn and the pedal hit the metal. The higher than UK speeds took me by surprise as I was totally unused to driving at 100mph-plus. Getting my eye in, so to speak, took a while, as did getting used to catching up with much slower traffic, judging braking distances and looking far enough ahead to read other driver's moves. But each gap in the traffic enabled a litle bit more enthusiasm with the accelerator and 150mph was reached before Cologne came near and I had to turn round for the return sprint to Aachen and then the journey home.
It was wonderful. The traffic was still light and I was more comfortable with the high speeds and teading the traffic. My Boxster has done 99,960 miles and yet it was still capable of reaching 167mph - and felt steady at that speed. Amazing car! The German drivers were disciplined and no undertaking was necessary as they moved over from the outside lane when they could. And the autobahn road surfaces were excellent as well. The trip back to the channel tunnel, via Mons, Namur, Tournai and Charleroi was on dratted Belgian autoroutes with many average speed camera sections - thank you Waze - buit the road surfaces were generally okay. Not as good as the A4 though.
So I had a return of sheer driving pleasure and realised afresh how restricted UK roads have become. I also realised afresh how if you were 1 inch one side of an international border the magistrates and police would throw the verbal book at you for driving over 100mph whereas go one inch over the other side and 150mph-plus is perfectly okay. The UK's mumsnet road driving and anti-speeding mindset is a profound pain in the ass.
Smollet said:
Sounds like a great drive. Sadly the driving standards in this country are so bad I’m surprised the limit is still as high. Tbh every driver should have a mandatory refresher course every 5 years
Yes I agree - standards are worse here than any other European country I’ve driven in.Some should never have been given a “pass” in the first place.
Luckily up North we still have some great driving roads that have little traffic on.
Nice one 
Interesting you mention the need to get used to the high speeds. I guess for us UK people, doing a consistent 150mph and approaching cars doing about 80mph is a similar feeling to approaching cars stuck on the hard shoulder on UK motorways. That would definitely need some adjustment time. And a firm brake pedal every now and then I suspect
Interesting you mention the need to get used to the high speeds. I guess for us UK people, doing a consistent 150mph and approaching cars doing about 80mph is a similar feeling to approaching cars stuck on the hard shoulder on UK motorways. That would definitely need some adjustment time. And a firm brake pedal every now and then I suspect
Boxster5 said:
Yes I agree - standards are worse here than any other European country I’ve driven in.
Some should never have been given a “pass” in the first place.
Luckily up North we still have some great driving roads that have little traffic on.
I suspect the Driving standards are so poor because much of the Country has never sat a UK Driving Test . Some should never have been given a “pass” in the first place.
Luckily up North we still have some great driving roads that have little traffic on.
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