Speeding

[television]

The white squares is an idea taken from Sweden, its really for the choppers up above, and they radio down.

Malcolm

 

[Blobcat]

Er, have you something you'd like to share with us Malcolm? i.e. precisely what type of location was this taken in...the M1, or just outside a school in a 20 mph zone

I assume the Log: 063 is the speed recorded????

Do enlighten us!!!! lol





Jon

The 063 is just the photo log, here is one with the speed on

Malcolm posted the details of this awhile ago http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=20370

 

[Blobcat]

The white squares is an idea taken from Sweden, its really for the choppers up above, and they radio down.

Malcolm

Honestly Malcolm they were put there for traffic police, they used to have paint dropped in certain places where there was no road furniture or landmark that could be used for distance measurements on the Vascar. The Police helicopters do use them as well.

 

[bigasotonuk]

Hi,
In the earlier posts it was mentioned about telling the police that someone else was "test driving" the car. If you were caught you are required by law to supply the drivers details or be liable for the offence yourself anyway.
If it makes you feel any better similar situation happened to me on the A31 between M27 and Ringwood whilst out on my motor bike, similar speed he was pulled in to a gateway leading out on the forest obstructed by trees could,nt see him till you were on top of him. Now i must have been very, very lucky as they did,nt even move thought they may have radar so was dreading brown envelope for months but nothing (thank god). When i do get caught it was for doing 37mph in a 30 limit on empty straight road in an unbuilt up area at 4.15 in the morning!!!
Thats the way it goes!!! i suppose
Though i don,t condone your speed hope things work out for the best for you
I must admit i,m a bit surprised at the amount of large engined MB owners on this site that have never (or won,t admit too, possibly they think they may lose their moral high ground) reached these sort of speeds in their cars
lets face it why have a E55 AMG if your only gonna do 70mph a E200 would do, would,nt it?
Likewise i could of bought C180 no instead i bought a C23OK both cars could do 70 in equal comfort!

 

[television]

Very true what you say above, so many rules are so stupid. I will always have the odd burst of speed in the roads that we know are quiet.


Malcolm

I see that you have Illuminated door sills, thats it,they go on order next week
cant have that .

 

[Flying Scot]

Hi,
In the earlier posts it was mentioned about telling the police that someone else was "test driving" the car. If you were caught you are required by law to supply the drivers details or be liable for the offence yourself anyway.
If it makes you feel any better similar situation happened to me on the A31 between M27 and Ringwood whilst out on my motor bike, similar speed he was pulled in to a gateway leading out on the forest obstructed by trees could,nt see him till you were on top of him. Now i must have been very, very lucky as they did,nt even move thought they may have radar so was dreading brown envelope for months but nothing (thank god). When i do get caught it was for doing 37mph in a 30 limit on empty straight road in an unbuilt up area at 4.15 in the morning!!!
Thats the way it goes!!! i suppose
Though i don,t condone your speed hope things work out for the best for you
I must admit i,m a bit surprised at the amount of large engined MB owners on this site that have never (or won,t admit too, possibly they think they may lose their moral high ground) reached these sort of speeds in their cars
lets face it why have a E55 AMG if your only gonna do 70mph a E200 would do, would,nt it?
Likewise i could of bought C180 no instead i bought a C23OK both cars could do 70 in equal comfort!

he he i agree totally all these people who live in glass houses BUT what to me seemed wrong here was the whole 'situation' - and then being honest(stupid) enough to post it here - i have 'discovered' that my SL 500 is NOT limited to 155 MPH of course that was not on a public road I am one of the group of people that believe that speed does not kill. For many many years i held some sort of record in my peer group a 220 mile trip in two hours and 155MPH in an E type with cross ply tyres and totally useless Dunlop disc brakes and this was in pre 70 limit times and this road where i gave the E type the welly now has a 40 limit on it. Now i know which car i would be 'safer' in at 150MPH and for sure it is not the E type.

There is of course a real problem here why do we buy performance cars when we know we cant drive at 100/120/140/150 MPH in the UK? As you may have read with Malcolm it is for sure not needed for any sexual conquest reasons . IF you saw the 'cheap' SL with the modern body conversion that Malcolm posted - now that might make more sense a slow AMG 55 BUT then really it all comes down to WHY do we drive a MB? Is it the badge the snob value the performance or the engineering. And that brings me back to this conversion i am sure it would fool lots of people BUT to the people in the know you would just be a wannabe AMG 55 owner seen as not quite able to afford the real thing so seriously failing the snobbery test as well as for me the performance test with it being the SL 320.

I am old enough to remember being caught up by the boys in blue ONLY when i had stopped in those days they too were 'drivers' and were only interested in what you were driving and how fast you had been going when the were trying to catch you they were fellow enthusiasts not like the Mr Nasties we have now. A true story - i drove my best friend and his pal (a Very Senior Mr Plod) up to the police social club once a week so 'they' could drink - one night MrP said to me when i was driving them there "do you know what the speed limit is in this country" You might appreciate that this was the end of his weekly free taxi rides by me up to his police social club.

I can assure you that the SL 500 with the hood down is a lovely car on twisty Scottish roads at 40/50 MPH on a summers evening and that too is probably 'speeding' but not technically so - and it is not me driving like a lunatic - just enjoying the car its performance the road the weather and especially living and life - for sure every time i drive this car i have a big big smile both inside and outside.

 

[daveenty]

I must admit i,m a bit surprised at the amount of large engined MB owners on this site that have never (or won,t admit too, possibly they think they may lose their moral high ground) reached these sort of speeds in their cars
lets face it why have a E55 AMG if your only gonna do 70mph a E200 would do, would,nt it?

As a *large engined* owner, I can't condone 130MPH (unless *test driving* Done a bit of that but not in England, won't mention where though)...though will admit to going slightly over 70.....it goes out of 1st occasionally

Nice to have that little bit extra from slip roads just to make sure you can match the speed of the flow of traffic you're heading for.

Especially if they're doing slightly over the limit

The car is built for it,,,,,the roads were. Not no more.

Incidentally, my last points were got in a Scorpio 24V cossy thing. Now gone (sadly missed) as are the points

 

[bigasotonuk]

As a *large engined* owner, I can't condone 130MPH (unless *test driving* Done a bit of that but not in England, won't mention where though)...though will admit to going slightly over 70.....it goes out of 1st occasionally

Nice to have that little bit extra from slip roads just to make sure you can match the speed of the flow of traffic you're heading for.

Especially if they're doing slightly over the limit

The car is built for it,,,,,the roads were. Not no more.

Incidentally, my last points were got in a Scorpio 24V cossy thing. Now gone (sadly missed) as are the points

Hi,
Yes why have the grunt if you can,t you use it, slip road acceleration you would be hard pushed to find a car nowadays that could,nt hit 70 in the length of a motorway slip road.
As far as the roads go i would say "in general" our roads are very good and can handle the "faster speeds" what are roads are not built for is the amount of vehicles that use them. In my driving since 1986 i reckon the amount of cars on the road has doubled, i,ve travel the length of M27 twice a day for the last 11 years and the traffic increase in this time has been astronomical
With this heavy use the fast lane is still travelling 95-100mph+ and the traffic flow in this lane is constant so on a quite road 30 mph more is that so bad when the traffic is light with good visability.
I think you were very brave, bit reckless maybe doing those speeds in an e-type regardless of speed limit having driven a fully restored one very recently
and the handling especially at speed truly awful and won,t even talk about the brakes and tyres.
Drive one again and i think you would even scare yourself to think you had done those sort of speeds in it!!! and it was the fatal accidents of cars like this and the AC Cobra that were directly responsible for the 70mph limit being imposed in the first place.
I mean no disrespect in any of my comments and is "my" own personnal point of view.
As far as the comment about when the police pulled you over for speeding only to be more interested in the car you are driving than the offence i can remember this and i,ve only been driving since 86.
Where are all the traffic cops gone? they changed into yellow money boxes!!!!

 

[Flying Scot]

Hi,
Yes why have the grunt if you can,t you use it, slip road acceleration you would be hard pushed to find a car nowadays that could,nt hit 70 in the length of a motorway slip road.
As far as the roads go i would say "in general" our roads are very good and can handle the "faster speeds" what are roads are not built for is the amount of vehicles that use them. In my driving since 1986 i reckon the amount of cars on the road has doubled, i,ve travel the length of M27 twice a day for the last 11 years and the traffic increase in this time has been astronomical
With this heavy use the fast lane is still travelling 95-100mph+ and the traffic flow in this lane is constant so on a quite road 30 mph more is that so bad when the traffic is light with good visability.
I think you were very brave, bit reckless maybe doing those speeds in an e-type regardless of speed limit having driven a fully restored one very recently
and the handling especially at speed truly awful and won,t even talk about the brakes and tyres.
Drive one again and i think you would even scare yourself to think you had done those sort of speeds in it!!! and it was the fatal accidents of cars like this and the AC Cobra that were directly responsible for the 70mph limit being imposed in the first place.
I mean no disrespect in any of my comments and is "my" own personnal point of view.
As far as the comment about when the police pulled you over for speeding only to be more interested in the car you are driving than the offence i can remember this and i,ve only been driving since 86.
Where are all the traffic cops gone? they changed into yellow money boxes!!!!

Well it was one of the very first E-Types and a FHC one and i was only 20 so well indestructible as we all believe we are at that age - probably yes it was somewhat reckless too but the road was dead straight and totally empty 3 miles long and only had one junction about half way down - and it was a T junction only - It was part of our 'test route' I was a MV apprentice with Rolls Royce & Bentley and in those days we regularly went down that road at 100/120 MPH day in day out so 155 'on the clock' was no massive big deal to the speed that was achieved on the normal road test. I have no doubt that today i would not want to drive an E-Type at anything like these speeds i suspect 70 would seem quite fast. BUT do remember the E-Type was one of the performance cars of its day so it was miles above what your normal car drove like and handled like - in the last 40 years progress in car design has moved forwards in leaps and bounds so that your average hot hatch can run rings around the E-Type. Looking back you can see some cars that were streets ahead of the herd and still give amazing performance and handling even in the 21st century cars like the BMW M6 for instance sadly i cant think of a decent performance MB from way back then except i did love the Pagoda roofed 190/230 SL's which were a nice almost sporting car but with some dangerous handling habits if you were careless with it - as well as costing more than two E-Types. As to being pulled over 'for speeding' and breaking the law - well it wasn't that really - as there was no open road speed limit it was 'quite fun' to out run the boys in blue in their MK2 Jags and then let them catch up for a chat and a peek under the bonnet. I was driving a MK2 Ford Zephyr with a Raymond Mays conversion and a shorocks supercharger at the time.

You are quite right time we had more highly visible patrol cars out there and not camera systems i did a round trip of 600 miles the other week into the middle of England never saw one traffic car on the whole journey but saw one white van parked on a bridge at the end of a very fast stretch - downhill sweeping bend of Motorway - guess what before we were all nicely maintaining a safe distance from the car in front and yes it was a high speed convoy about four Range Rovers three Jags two Porche's and three or four MB's UNTIL the lead car spotted the camera van ahead - now some of us were awake but others were not paying 100% attention to the job in hand. NOW if we had had a major accident i am sure WE WERE ALL TO BLAME - driving too fast SPEEDING!!!! But really the problem was caused by the road safety camera partnership now i am sure lots of people wont support that view but it is just the same with fixed cameras they create a zone where the speed limit is observed but actually do little to change the behaviour of speeding drivers. The other week i was taken out in a Jag XKR - and before we hit the motorway at the end of the slip road it was doing 140 MPH - i was just in the LH seat NOT driving we blew 155 into dust about the time we got into the middle lane of the Motorway. A very fast car it did bring back some memories and it did seem like a modern E-Type so much easily available performance. BUT strangely it being a Ford he he it costs almost the same as a 55 AMG no two for one pricing these days.

 

[Flying Scot]

Hi,

and it was the fatal accidents of cars like this and the AC Cobra that were directly responsible for the 70mph limit being imposed in the first place.

i 'THINK' you will find it was the M1 being used as a test track for LeMans - i think it was a special alloy bodied AC Cobra Coupe - and the uproar in 'certain' newspapers that 'encouraged' Barbra Castle the then Minister of Transport to introduce the 70 Limit NOTHING changed there New Labour is still led by what appears in the newpapers OWELL

about 10 years old but worth reading.

The History of the 70 mph limit

Until 1965 there was no overall speed limit on Britain's roads. The 70 mph limit was introduced by Barbara Castle, then Minister of Transport, who incidentally, did not even hold a driving license herself ! It was expressed to be an "experiment" (isn't every unpopular new measure?), and for the most part those exceeding the limit were given no more than a rebuke. Little did anyone realise that one day this "experiment" would be enforced using space age technology and sophisticated electronics, and that large sections of the community would be "criminalised" simply by the act of driving a little over an arbitrary limit regardless of whether any danger was actually caused. Just to paint a brief picture of the era, Britain had just begun to put in place a motorway network a quarter of a century after Germany, The United States and Italy. Part of the M1 was open, as was a short length of the M6 and a stretch of the M5 just south of Birmingham to a point just south of Worcester. The M4 elevated section had just been opened and that motorway extended to just beyond Slough. Elsewhere traffic crawled along roads whose routes would, for the most part, have been quite familiar to Roman soldiers two thousand years earlier. Congestion might be a problem today, but it is certainly not a new one. Many main roads were notorious for their traffic jams as cars fought their way through town centres and villages in the 1960's. The early motorways were all two lane only and crash barriers, already common on the continent, were almost non-existent here. As a consequence there were horrific head on collisions where vehicles had crossed the central reservation. The 70 mph limit may have seemed reasonable at the time. A few makers produced fast luxury cars and sports cars, most of them hand built, but any car capable of reaching the magic 100 mph was quite something. The recently launched E-Type Jaguar was one of them.
However most drivers were content to drive a Hillman Minx, an Austin Cambridge or a Vauxhall Victor. These cars were capable of 70 - 80 mph, but it was unwise to drive them at that speed for long periods if the driver wanted the engine to survive!
All these cars had narrow, cross ply tyres, with little grip and in the absence of strict laws governing tread depth, many drivers went on driving them until the tyres went bald. Drum brakes were the order of the day and were prone to chronic fading. Our neighbour had just taken delivery of a brand new Vauxhall Viva, proudly sporting a sticker advising the following driver that this car had "disks". Steering wheels were rigid and had thin metal rims in most cars were enormous by modern standards. Seat belts were just being fitted to the newest cars but few bothered to wear them. TV commercials attempted to persuade drivers to "belt up" by showing drivers colliding with their steering wheels, as their heads crashed unrestrained through a windscreen which was progressively disintegrating into a million pieces - all in slow motion and graphic detail. The seats themselves were usually low backed, offering no protection to the head and shoulders and were invariably covered in shiny plastic. The driver and passengers slid around on these glossy benches on the slightest bend. Safety cages to protect the occupants in the event of an accident were pioneered by a few eccentric and safety conscious manufacturers like Mercedes and Volvo. The widely praised new Rover 2000 had one too.
Since then, the luxury and sports cars makers like Aston Martin, Ferrari and Jaguar have got better of course, and Mercedes and Volvo continue to try to keep ahead of the field in safety terms. But by far the biggest change since then in safety terms has been seen in the sort of family car which most people drive. All cars now have radial tyres, wider wheels, disc brakes, safety cages and proper seats which hold and protect the occupant. Steering wheels collapse on impact and seat belts are not only provided front and rear, but have to be worn by law. All cars have properly sized brake and tail lights which other drivers can see clearly. Air bags are being adopted fast as a standard feature on Fords and Vauxhalls amongst others; and ABS brakes, just recently an optional extra on a few expensive sports saloons are now finding their way into mass market cars as standard equipment. Levels of comfort (essential for safety on long journeys), safety and engineering have changed beyond all recognition and today's Vauxhall Cavalier or Rover 200 will happily cruise at 100 mph all day without strain.
The limit of 70 mph on our motorways has become outdated and, from the point of view of reducing road casualties, of very questionable value. Seventy percent of accidents occur in areas where there is a limit of 30 - 40 mph and most of the rest on other non motorway roads. In fact according to the Government's own statistics accident rates on motorways are only 11% of those on other roads. Unfortunately even these statistics do not show how many of the accidents occurred in bad weather such as fog when the speed limit is irrelevant and drivers should be travelling more slowly anyway. This pattern of very low accident rates on motorways is repeated worldwide and the figures show clearly that there is no direct correlation between the casualty rates and the speed limits imposed. The rigorous enforcement of the existing motorway and trunk road speed limit as little more than cynical exercise in raising even more revenue from motorists. It is also perhaps symptomatic of a general move to a less liberal and less tolerant society where citizens' freedom is more controlled than it has been in the past.

 

[bigasotonuk]

hi,
excellent article david

 

[eric242340]

Dan 966 I Think you were risking your life and people around you. if you want to play at high speeds,then try the racing circuit. As old as I am I still work with the racing circuit and maybe you should look at this side//
l

 

[television]

Two very good postings from David,its true what he says,I lived in Watford then at the start of the M!,I too have had all of those fast cars of the day,E types,XK150,Masserati,the big Alfa's,Alvis TE's and many more. The Zodiac MK11 photo I put up in the Veedweb thread recently was a Jeff Urin Conversion.

Today I had to go to Croydon,London to pick up my new wheels,a 150 mile journey. I left home at the end of the 8am news and arrived at destination 11am including a coffee stop, I got home at 1pm,only stop for petrol. That makes 300 miles including coffee and petrol in 5 hours. I did not see one police car the whole way, thats was on the 303-M3-M25-A23. deducting the coffee,and petrol stop ½hour, that gives me an average speed of 66.6666666mph, and Croydon was slow and busy,and i had to find the place.

I was driving the V70R thats almost as quick as the SL, I never blew my horn once (never do) and i backed off to let stupid people who think that they can indicate and change lanes immediatly without looking, and there was plenty of them doing that today.

Such is life. Malcolm

 

[Juddian]

Good heavens Malcolm all those sixes i'm eating garlic as we speak and wearing a crucifix for the rest of the year!!!!

 

[Flying Scot]

Wooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo

THE DINOSAUR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBw9c2iVK3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mp0mLTTlTY

NICE CARS - GOOD MUSIC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQV7telS4ak

VERY FAST LADY and CAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-x9a9ilZk0
BUT does not know how to switch off the wipers

155 MPH at NIGHT and a misty night too with deer crossing the road GULP!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtlvYqlgdu0

100+MPH on one wheel Now this IS MADNESS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8Ug0ls9KnI

 

[daveenty]

VERY FAST LADY and CAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-x9a9ilZk0
BUT does not know how to switch off the wipers

Doesn't pay much heed to warning lights either

The 1st piccie is 17 secs in with what I thought was a red lamp lit up.

The 2nd is 30 secs in and confirms that the original one was in fact orange (Oil?)

At 340+ KPH I think I'd have been tempted to slow down on seeing my dash lit up like that

 

[Flying Scot]

Doesn't pay much heed to warning lights either

The 1st piccie is 17 secs in with what I thought was a red lamp lit up.

The 2nd is 30 secs in and confirms that the original one was in fact orange (Oil?)

At 340+ KPH I think I'd have been tempted to slow down on seeing my dash lit up like that

not near my car so cant say what these lights are i am sure Malcolm can

However at these speeds your not looking at the speedo though i must say when i lifted off when i was speed testing mine/ checking for a max speed limiter i did 'notice' the warning triangle in the middle of the speedo came on for a second or two - but by then my foot was totally off the go pedal and the car was slowing down very fast - without me touching the brake pedal. I suppose by then i was much more relaxed (until i saw the light flash) but for sure i consciously did not look at the instrument panel and speedo when the car was getting close to maximum speed - on the way up there yes - (wont mention numbers here) - but i only knew how fast i had gone by looking at the max speed logged on my GPS

 

[Flying Scot]

Doesn't pay much heed to warning lights either

The 1st piccie is 17 secs in with what I thought was a red lamp lit up.

The 2nd is 30 secs in and confirms that the original one was in fact orange (Oil?)

At 340+ KPH I think I'd have been tempted to slow down on seeing my dash lit up like that

well of course this depends on what the lights signify - if it was the washer bottle empty hardly a reason to slow down he he.

For sure it is not the oil light that is on the other side of the panel.

i 'THINK' it is the worn pads light 'orange' - needs new pads or they did not replace the pads with the sensors in them and the SRS light 'red' prob the wheel sensors are a bit corroded need the grooves cleaned out - at high speed there was no zero signal and the wee computer got kunfoosed

 

[daveenty]

well of course this depends on what the lights signify - if it was the washer bottle empty hardly a reason to slow down he he.

For sure it is not the oil light that is on the other side of the panel.

i 'THINK' it is the worn pads light 'orange' - needs new pads or they did not replace the pads with the sensors in them and the SRS light 'red' prob the wheel sensors are a bit corroded need the grooves cleaned out - at high speed there was no zero signal and the wee computer got kunfoosed

Having said that, it's a woman driving so it could have been the parking brake on :mrgreen:

*Ducks for anticipated flak*

 

[Dan996]

two weeks and no ticket yet