One Day Driving Distance?

[psi310398]

Ardennes92 said:

Two trips I don’t fancy repeating now given a bit more age/sense; col du turini to Chester in a mk1 golf gti, left after about 30 cars through and home for lunch via ferry and Shropshire to Elba, left after work got there by lunch via Chunnel and a ferry, only optional stops on both trips were fuel/caffeine/food

Picking up on your last sentence - what were your non-optional stops !

[RSbandit]

Longest for me was 630 miles from East London to Verbier in the RS6 I had at the time car was made for runs like that fast and comfortable it just ate up the miles, still felt pretty tired by the end tho think I made stops every 200 miles or so.

[Red Devil]

This was mine, driving solo - https://goo.gl/maps/MaVo4EsrNZFG5BQ78
2 stops for fuel/food/men's room: Dreghorn (Edinburgh bypass) and Leeming Bar.
Hadn't planned on doing it as I had been out driving until 3pm that day.
However an unexpected situation meant I had to get back to Kent pdq.
Left at 4pm, arrived 4am. Totally spaced out by the finish. Never again.

Max for me now in one day in the UK is whichever comes up first. 450 miles/8 hours.

[FiF]

Some people take it the other way, I had a disagreement with the boss of the fleet manager, he had tried to introduce a clause into the company car use T&C's which would limit folks to four hours a day under duty of care obligations.

[Yertis]

psi310398 said:

I did similar with my wife from Rheims to Belgirate a couple of years ago in a high revving old Alfa Spider on one of the hottest days of the year. Tinnitus and a very red face. I needed to come off the Autoroute to buy eye drops at a small pharmacy in some one goat Savoyard town as well.

I once did Glasgow – Bristol in one hit (apart from two fuel stops) in the TR6. Roof down all the way, on a May bank holiday Monday. Door to door it took exactly five hours (I timed it) but hadn't until a moment ago checked the distance, which gives an average speed of a tiny bit over 70mph. No ill effects except I couldn't get the six-cylinder sound out of me head (not actually a bad thing either).

[Tony1963]

Stansted to Woodbridge to Bishop Auckland to Woodbridge to Stansted. 650 miles of monotony, with only two hours rest in Bishop Auckland. Thankfully there were no jams!

[Wozy68]

I left Stuttgart local time 9.30am arrived Evesham (via a detour to the nurbring for half an hour) ,
I was sat in my local pub at 9.30PM supping my first pint. ...... 775 miles ...... highlight of the trip 160mph and climbing before I chickened it and slowed to a leisurely 120 on the autobahn. .... this time included using the ferry to cross the channel.

Car was a twenty (at the time) Year’s old Porsche 911 993 with 115K Miles on the clock ..... She made the trip seem easy.

Edited by Wozy68 on Sunday 8th September 00:49

[colin_p]

Many years ago I did Manchester and back 2 x 200 miles (ish) in a day.

Not much, but when you are in a 1974 Mini 1000 it is.

[borcy]

FiF said:

Some people take it the other way, I had a disagreement with the boss of the fleet manager, he had tried to introduce a clause into the company car use T&C's which would limit folks to four hours a day under duty of care obligations.

We have to follow hgv drivers hours at work, even though it's just cars, under a duty of care situation. I don't think that's too bad.

[bolidemichael]

colin_p said:

Many years ago I did Manchester and back 2 x 200 miles (ish) in a day.

Not much, but when you are in a 1974 Mini 1000 it is.

This reminds me of my second semester in my first year of uni. I drove from SW London to Wiltshire to collect a friend then drive up to Stirling... in a 998cc Mini. We arrived at around 5am or 6am and were absolutely knackered!

[colin_p]

bolidemichael said:

colin_p said:

Many years ago I did Manchester and back 2 x 200 miles (ish) in a day.

Not much, but when you are in a 1974 Mini 1000 it is.

This reminds me of my second semester in my first year of uni. I drove from SW London to Wiltshire to collect a friend then drive up to Stirling... in a 998cc Mini. We arrived at around 5am or 6am and were absolutely knackered!

My sympathies. At the time though, for me, it was all a huge adventure.

As nostalgic as I am for the old Mini, they were pretty crap for anything long distance.

I'd still have one though.

[FiF]

borcy said:

FiF said:

Some people take it the other way, I had a disagreement with the boss of the fleet manager, he had tried to introduce a clause into the company car use T&C's which would limit folks to four hours a day under duty of care obligations.

We have to follow hgv drivers hours at work, even though it's just cars, under a duty of care situation. I don't think that's too bad.

I'd agree, in the discussion that was the compromise I offered, namely offering to follow hgv hours and rest break regs. But he wouldn't have it. Bear in mind that some days the job and distances covered meant that some days were nothing more than driving days. 4 hours max under those situations was and is ridiculous.

I can accept that to do a full day of driving hours split either side of a full day at normal work can be exhausting. Once did Sheffield to Swansea, 3h40 without stops, a full day of quite intensive investigations starting at 8:30, no stop for lunch, left at 5 for another 3hplus home. Remember being quite knackered on the final bit up the M1.

[bolidemichael]

colin_p said:

bolidemichael said:

colin_p said:

Many years ago I did Manchester and back 2 x 200 miles (ish) in a day.

Not much, but when you are in a 1974 Mini 1000 it is.

This reminds me of my second semester in my first year of uni. I drove from SW London to Wiltshire to collect a friend then drive up to Stirling... in a 998cc Mini. We arrived at around 5am or 6am and were absolutely knackered!

My sympathies. At the time though, for me, it was all a huge adventure.

As nostalgic as I am for the old Mini, they were pretty crap for anything long distance.

I'd still have one though.

Likewise for me too! I had no idea where Wiltshire was and how much it would add to my journey and I didn't care! Driving North on the M6 in January in the pouring rain and trying to overtake lorries on a slight gradient, when the wipers don't make contact with the screen because of the vortex created by the hgv wheels, is NOT amusing

[StanleyT]

Was working about as far North as you can on UK mainland.

10 am. Got call from SIL that FIL was unlikely to make out the next 24hrs, could me and the wife get over to Ireland. (SIL was a nurse, she was basically saying 'morphine driver now, get here').

10:10 am, ring wife. Wife was in Liverpool at the start of a hen do, so distraught but realistic, got straight on a plane to Belfast and Irish relatives picked her up. She got to her fathers house around 6 pm.

I was tasked driving via our home in Newcastle at the time to get a weeks worth of clothes for myself and wife including smart clothes for the inevitable funeral and getting other SIL from South Mancs.

By silly hours (11 pm), me and other SIL are on the North Wales Expressway and it is starting to snow (this was Feb).

Tail happy V6. Fun on Rualt mountain, brake, oooh back end is going, let gravity take us in a straight line, getting fasty, brake...oooh back end is going, let gravity take us in a straight line, ...started breathing again after the bottom somewhere around St Aspah.

Are we going to make the boat SIL asks. st. I realise all I've done is auto pilot I haven't yet even thought which ferry co we're going with, I've just thought go to Holyhead as the best shot as we'd missed the LPL / BHD / BFS / DUB early evening boats.

SIL rings ahead, there is a boat going soon, she asks how do we pay for it we're in a car driving (early 2000s, so no pay on phone / app etc), will we make it? The real nice lady from Irish ferries takes our reg, arranges we can pay on the boat and primes the stevedores that we get put on as late as possible, in reverse (that was fun) meaning we're the first car off!!!!! Bloody brilliant work Irish Ferries.

Now consider the goggle map time. In early 2000s there was no port tunnel in Dublin (though we did dock at 5 am). The N3 was only motorway to orbital Dublin, not out through Navan, Cavan, Kells etc as now. Then the Irish N roads were wide single carriageway.

We did Dub to Sligo in 3hrs at an average speed of I don't know what.

Here is the google map of what the journey would take today, cf early 2000s.......narly 900 miles in 18 hrs - not sure if the modern google time includes the ferry time. I / we did the 900 in 22 hrs, including two diversion to get / pack cases, pick up SIL etc and a few fuel / toilet stops.

Most notable moment of trip. Sat on a long straight N road in Ireland doing 70 mph as I was really flagging so wasn't going to push it. Virginia Transport artic caught me up and overtook me and I never caught him / her up on the later mountain road!!!!!!

[StanleyT]

vikingaero said:

1,400 miles from Kent to John O'Groats and back in 23 hours.

Back in those days I was 21 (Hertz rented to 21 year olds then), and if I needed a car for work on the Monday, I would get the hire car on Friday - back then it wasn't 24/7/365 rentals like today, so needed a bit more organisation. The highest group car I could get was normally a Ford Escort 1.4LX and that's what we drove up in. Being youthful we could manage 6-8 hour toilet breaks no problem. We arrived in JOG, took a photo by the sign and drove back.

On the A9 southbound we stopped to lend the wheelbrace to someone with a flat tyre. He looked up at the numberplate on the Escort which said "Eastbourne Ford" on it and he said: "You've come a long way!" I replied: "Well, about 40 miles from there and we're going Maidstone to JOG and back in a day!"

I used to do that all the time with those hire cars and unlimited mileage - Lands End, Holyhead, wherever.

I used to love the reaction of the Hertz employees when I would return the car with 2-3,000 more miles on!

Ha Ha. I had flatmate work for a company in the 1990s who did very similar. The commute the hire car was meant for was mid North England - mountainous area in North England 300 return miles away. The company was a real stickler that everything was legal with hire car etc so they were insured from the moment you got the keys until the keys were picked up again, say in case you needed to move the car. So quite often on a Fri night there would be a conversation "got a petrol taxi, anyone fancy going climbing in the Lakes on Saturday", same on Saturday night as we wouldn't stay in the Lakes, no we'd come back to Stoke for another night out and then the least knacked person entitled to drive the car would take us back up Sunday.

Car would get 1000 - 1500 miles on it in 3 - 4 days! For a 350 mile business trip. (And if the car was really unlucky, get its tyres swapped for snotters, batteries misplaced, stereos downgraded, fuel syphoned). Good job we worked for a quasi governmental civil service company with a high level of audit.

[StanleyT]

FiF said:

borcy said:

FiF said:

Some people take it the other way, I had a disagreement with the boss of the fleet manager, he had tried to introduce a clause into the company car use T&C's which would limit folks to four hours a day under duty of care obligations.

We have to follow hgv drivers hours at work, even though it's just cars, under a duty of care situation. I don't think that's too bad.

I'd agree, in the discussion that was the compromise I offered, namely offering to follow hgv hours and rest break regs. But he wouldn't have it. Bear in mind that some days the job and distances covered meant that some days were nothing more than driving days. 4 hours max under those situations was and is ridiculous.

I can accept that to do a full day of driving hours split either side of a full day at normal work can be exhausting. Once did Sheffield to Swansea, 3h40 without stops, a full day of quite intensive investigations starting at 8:30, no stop for lunch, left at 5 for another 3hplus home. Remember being quite knackered on the final bit up the M1.

We're now allowed maximum four hrs driving on a working day.

If the journey can't be done in a four hour drive, it has to be by other means, rail, bus, plane, even if the total journey time takes longer. Travel system (Oracale system) stops you booking a journey if it has more than 4 hours drive.

Best I have seen to date is what would be 1hr drive to airport, UK internal flight, 3hr drive at other end, replaced by 45 minute UK taxi, 1 hr 20 minute flight, 12hr ferry, 2hr ferry back from offshore UK Island, 20 minute taxi.

I'll take my chances here with my own travel arrangements and getting them paid back through expenses ta! As the Client is't going to pay for the 10hrs extra that journey takes.....

[NSNO]

Below is my list, none of which felt long. However travelling a few hours in rush hour along British motorways is a lot more stressful than enjoying a mountain scenery in the alps or dashing down the Autobahn at speed.

Starting from longest to shortest:-

Liverpool to Pettnau (957 miles) via the ferry in Calais, only stopping for fuel and the ferry of course. From memory left Liverpool around four in the morning and stopped at nine that night.

New York to Indianapolis (709 miles) again only stopping for fuel stops.

Copenhagen to the Dutch/Belgian border on the way to Bruges (592 miles) including a long dinner somewhere in northern Germany due to a bad accident on the autobahn, decided to come off and grab dinner as wasn't going anywhere fast until it cleared up.

Kalgoorlie to Eucla (556 miles) stopped for fuel/food and including the ninety mile straight.

Bergen to Oslo (209 miles) not very long distance wise, but lots of winding roads. This is definitely one of the most memorable drives if not the longest, stunning scenery all along the way and lightly trafficked.

[Light17]

The longest near continuous drive I've ever done was from Perm to Tallinn airport (1530 miles), lots of energy drinks and a 2 hour rest around Moscow. From start to finish just over 36 hours. Not something I want to repeat in a hurry.

Edited by Light17 on Friday 13th September 13:35

[jonmiles]

Mr Tidy said:

In 2010 I did Salignac Eyvigues to home in Berkshire in one day (just over 600 miles) which was fine - but I was pretty tired when I got home!

I just did 527 miles and found it was the most I would be comfortable with driving whilst still remaining safe to pedestrians and other road users. More would have been do-able quite easily but fatigue can set in quickly on a motorway.

[robbieduncan]

As a kid my parents used to drive us Aberdeen to Munich for Christmas holidays. Best time they managed was 20 hours. 2 drivers. We would leave Aberdeen about 2pm (leave school early) and my mum would drive until it got too dark for her to be comfortable. My dad would then take over and get us to Dover. A bit of a rest on the ferry then he'd drive all night. My mum would then complete the journey across Germany. Totally insane. I would not consider driving it that way now! A little over 1200 miles