Who else had an 'entertaining' drive home?
Discussion
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. 
I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? 
I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? LeoZwalf said:
blueyonder said:
I don't think I dared venture much above 60 mph!
We were doing about 70ish most of the way and that was top limit in my opinion. It amazes me how fast some people drive, a few occasions we were passed by people doing 90+.
I was staggered by the speed some of those cars were going past me in those coditions
....nutters!blueyonder said:
And was that Paddy I saw at the BP station on the A11 just leaving as I pulled in? We weren't introduced but I was sat opposite you for a while when we were sat at the table near the doors to the marquee....nice porker you got there 
I was in the Cooper Green Chim 
That wasn't Paddy that would have been Marquis Rex in his gorgeous little Porker. Me and Paddy were in the big huge red BMW with hods of PH stickers on that was parked next to the Porker most of the weekend. That is id you mean Paddy27 that is I was in the Cooper Green Chim 
Damn, Silent! Echo the sentiments! Glad you're OK.
My drive home was uneventful on Sunday night. Very windy and wet, but these new Eagle F1s feel so much better in the wet than my previous Pirelli P Zero's. As a result, I could give it some on the back roads from Snetterton to my house, a few miles away.
Darren
My drive home was uneventful on Sunday night. Very windy and wet, but these new Eagle F1s feel so much better in the wet than my previous Pirelli P Zero's. As a result, I could give it some on the back roads from Snetterton to my house, a few miles away.
Darren
Just got in, I think my journey home warranted another thread!
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...
Phew!
Im going to go have a shower!
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...
Phew!
Im going to go have a shower!
The spray was giving me really bad eyestrain. I had to keep stopping every 10 minutes towards the end because I would have fallen asleep at the wheel. I did have a moment when I understeered but sorted it. The one thing that got us was the single carriageway section. An Astra was desperately trying to get past us in the dual carriageway despite us taking it easy. He was slowing right down for the roundabouts then very slowly coming out of them eventually getting some speed up, like someone in a diesel not knowing changing gear to get back on the boost. When the lane narrowed he'd got in front but there was an artic in front. The guy was sitting a foot away from the lorry's bumper in all the spray. Since I'd noticed he was driving like a loon I stayed well back. Then he started swinging out into the other lane violently without looking, trying to overtake. The number of extremely close misses was so much we thought we were going to be the first on scene to a really nasty head on. He eventually pulled out and somehow managed to squeeze through a gap between the lorry and the vehicle in front of the lorry which was turning right, at 70 or so mph. I have no idea how he didn't get rendered into a 2d state by that maneuver...
Kermit power said:
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather?
Must have been a good time to leave. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? Did wonder how fast you were going to go! 
Rain was no longer horrendous and I had a reasonable cruise home.
Sorry to hear about the mini.
Mrs Trackside said:
We had an awful journey. I've not driven the Elise in weather like that before, and now I know why!
1. Wet brakes on an Elise don't work properly
2. I had to pull out into the outside lane for someone to filter onto the A14 and ended up aquaplaning, plus I couldn't see where I was going because of the spray from a truck in front of me.
3. Once we got off the A roads, it looked like a hurricane had hit Northants and there was all sorts of debris on the road - including leaves that made it really slippery.
We saw two accidents that had already happened before we got to them. A Clio had taken a slip road too sharp and ended up going across the grass. He looked OK, but the car looked like he'd been rallying. And then there was an Almera that had planted itself into a wall after bouncing off a couple of hard obstacles!
same here, got to love those MMC brakes, fills you with loads of confidence when you hit the brakes and sod all happens 1. Wet brakes on an Elise don't work properly
2. I had to pull out into the outside lane for someone to filter onto the A14 and ended up aquaplaning, plus I couldn't see where I was going because of the spray from a truck in front of me.
3. Once we got off the A roads, it looked like a hurricane had hit Northants and there was all sorts of debris on the road - including leaves that made it really slippery.
We saw two accidents that had already happened before we got to them. A Clio had taken a slip road too sharp and ended up going across the grass. He looked OK, but the car looked like he'd been rallying. And then there was an Almera that had planted itself into a wall after bouncing off a couple of hard obstacles!
Kermit power said:
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather?
No, we were the same in the wife's 330i. Some major tramlining as we joined woke me up to the situation and I switched to the middle lane whilst there was no traffic behind, dipping into the inside lane when needed to let faster traffic past and whilst there using the water pooling in the ruts to alert me as to where they were and making sure I kept my wheels out of them. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? Other than that we cruised home down the A11/M11/M25/A3 at between 0.6 and 0.8 leptons as appropriate for traffic and conditions with no problems whatsoever.
Edit: we left at 10am, BTW.
Edited by JonRB on Monday 28th May 20:12
As i said in the debrief thread - total nightmare of a drive. The high beams are worse than the normal ones. A windscreen wiper ripped itself off. The tramlining in lane 1 was so bad that i drove in the outside lane most of the time. Everytime i went over white painted lines i felt my life was in the hands of the gods - there was standing water everywhere and the crosswinds didnt help. Windscreen had some kind of wax on the outside so the (crap) wiper(s) didnt really do much and the blower wasnt keeping the inside all that clear either. I cant believe i made it all 200 miles home looking back.
Silent1 - glad your ok, cant believe i was talking to you just an hour or so before. I also went down the A14 so cant have been far behind, i did see a 4x4 which had binned it only moments earlier on the other carriageway sideways in the outside lane so no police yet. Just goes to show that if a 4x4 can loose it in those conditions then you can never be too carefull. As i said before though those tramlines with water running down them were lethal - amongst the worse driving conditions i have ever driven in.
Car is
ed now for sure, interior totally soaked, cooling system is full of lager and its pissing oil everywhere (probably because i wound it up to 1.3 leptons on the motorway when it got light and stopped raining). So thats the end of TVR driving for a couple of months until i can summon some cash
Silent1 - glad your ok, cant believe i was talking to you just an hour or so before. I also went down the A14 so cant have been far behind, i did see a 4x4 which had binned it only moments earlier on the other carriageway sideways in the outside lane so no police yet. Just goes to show that if a 4x4 can loose it in those conditions then you can never be too carefull. As i said before though those tramlines with water running down them were lethal - amongst the worse driving conditions i have ever driven in.
Car is
ed now for sure, interior totally soaked, cooling system is full of lager and its pissing oil everywhere (probably because i wound it up to 1.3 leptons on the motorway when it got light and stopped raining). So thats the end of TVR driving for a couple of months until i can summon some cash Was alright for me, 70ish, stick to the middle lane to avoid aquaplaning in the sodding ruts. Was being passed by many cars, mainly range rover sports as I recall...
Main problem was staying awake!
Sorry to hear of the write off, hope you are ok.
Main problem was staying awake!
Sorry to hear of the write off, hope you are ok.
Edited by chrisbr68 on Monday 28th May 21:12
Kermit power said:
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather?
Me too, me & FJ left just after 9'ish, A11/A14/M1 north, 80-100 most of the way, but I upped my flow rate later on. No issues. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? I left about 1:30 on the sunday, soaked and lots of wet gear in the car so most of the windows steamed up, kept to the speed limit and below due to visibiity probs. Got back to J4 M25 in 2 1/4 hours, was held up by an accident just before the M11/M25 junction though.
Was reasonably confident as have decent tyes recently scrubbed in and well sorted suspension. RainX was a god send though.
Was reasonably confident as have decent tyes recently scrubbed in and well sorted suspension. RainX was a god send though.
Balmoral Green said:
Kermit power said:
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather?
Me too, me & FJ left just after 9'ish, A11/A14/M1 north, 80-100 most of the way, but I upped my flow rate later on. No issues. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? Kermit power said:
This thread is starting to make me question my ability to judge road conditions. I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather?
Maybe so Kermit (sorry, I didn't actually ask your real name when we chatted), but as Becca said: I left at 9 this morning, took the A11, M11 and M25 clockwise, and apart from the single lane on the A11 and when I had to wait behind others, I had a perfectly comfortable 80-85mph cruise the whole way home. Maybe I just got lucky and had a clear patch of weather? becca_viola said:
it's so individual to the car and the driver
I was JUST happy at 75, any more would have felt REALLY wrong to me. Mind you my front tyres are past their happiest and even when they were good they weren't ever too amazing in the wet (Continental somethings).Gassing Station | Events & Meetings | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff