Speed Trap on A27 Lewes today
Discussion
mrobin33 said:
120mph on an open empty wide road in dry conditions, in a well maintained Ferrari, IMO, is much much safer than 80-90 mph on a crowded M25 in a ill-equipped old white van, and is safer than 40mph in a suburban street in a badly modified chav-mobile (nice exhaust but clapped out shocks and tires). Hence my protestation that 120mph can be safe - not in any situation - but it can be.
Safer maybe, but unlikely to be safe. If it was perfectly safe at 120, why only do that speed in a car that was capable of significantly more? Or would 130 be a bit unsafe, and 140 be unsafe on this stretch of road?? If you weren't brave enough or didn't have the skill to go faster then I can't see how 120 can really be safe..There's always the option of Goodwood or Brands nearby..
mrobin33 said:
Having said that I have driven all sorts of cars and bikes at that sort of speed and much much higher too (private roads of course) and think that absolute speed comparisons are meaningless without context.
+1There are plenty of places in the UK where 120 mph
would be a perfectly reasonable speed.
And many that aren't.
If you change lanes on a multi-lane road, don't just glance,
look twice and better three times.
The law may say 70 mph only, but best be safe and be
able to deal with any passing copper / ambulance / MP / keen driver.
Right then, I`ll hold my hands up and admit that I`m not totally alien to travelling at over 100 mph in a high performance car. In fact on Saturday a group of mates and I got together and I had a 90 minute drive when I topped something around 140mph, and not just once. Over 90 minutes my Average speed was 90 miles an hour according to the trip computer, if I then tell you I was in 2nd gear for a lot of the time through slow corners you can imagine what the top speed was !
I say that just in case some think I`m a daily Mail reading do gooder. Now as luck would have it my mates & I are really great drivers so everything`s cool. Most weekends we get together at various locations around the UK (drop me an email if you want to join in).
So why would I come on here and chastise someone for driving at a mere 120 miles an hour ?
Because my mates and I all have MSA race licences, numbers on the side of our cars, drive in a very tightly controlled environment in closely inspected cars. We have marshals posted at regular intervals informing us of impending danger. We also ensure the only people sharing the tarmac know exactly what`s happening. There are no "Davids" or land rovers towing avon ribs on our bit of tarmac, (this weekend was Silverstone). Even with all this safety people still have accidents.
You need a speed which accounts for not only other road users but also allows for the limitation of safety equipment installed on our transport network. At 120 miles an hour you will compromise both of these. You can never totally remove risk but were you to raise the legal limit to 85 miles an hour on our motorway network (and strictly enforce it rather than allow 10% plus 1), I`m not convinced accident / death rates would increase. In fact perversely I think they may even fall as people see the limit as sensible & relevant, not something to be ignored. As it is over 90% of car drivers break the 70mph limit. This breeds complacency, after all if the speed limit is "wrong" then so must be all the other warnings we are given, be they verbal from the authorities, graphic via the various signs etc.
Either way my ten penny worth is that if you do want to drive at 120 miles an hour please do so on a race circuit.
Henry
I say that just in case some think I`m a daily Mail reading do gooder. Now as luck would have it my mates & I are really great drivers so everything`s cool. Most weekends we get together at various locations around the UK (drop me an email if you want to join in).
So why would I come on here and chastise someone for driving at a mere 120 miles an hour ?
Because my mates and I all have MSA race licences, numbers on the side of our cars, drive in a very tightly controlled environment in closely inspected cars. We have marshals posted at regular intervals informing us of impending danger. We also ensure the only people sharing the tarmac know exactly what`s happening. There are no "Davids" or land rovers towing avon ribs on our bit of tarmac, (this weekend was Silverstone). Even with all this safety people still have accidents.
You need a speed which accounts for not only other road users but also allows for the limitation of safety equipment installed on our transport network. At 120 miles an hour you will compromise both of these. You can never totally remove risk but were you to raise the legal limit to 85 miles an hour on our motorway network (and strictly enforce it rather than allow 10% plus 1), I`m not convinced accident / death rates would increase. In fact perversely I think they may even fall as people see the limit as sensible & relevant, not something to be ignored. As it is over 90% of car drivers break the 70mph limit. This breeds complacency, after all if the speed limit is "wrong" then so must be all the other warnings we are given, be they verbal from the authorities, graphic via the various signs etc.
Either way my ten penny worth is that if you do want to drive at 120 miles an hour please do so on a race circuit.
Henry
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