Just a thought for the UK economy...
Discussion
I was thinking after reading the post stating that someone was prosecuted for doing 76mph on an empty motorway. In that thread it mentions something breifly about an automated system which automatically detects whether a car has breached the speed limit...
If the maximum you can go without suffering a penalty is always, full-stop, going to be 7-mph - who in their right mind is going to buy a performance car...
Seriously - no-one will bother buying 'fast' cars -fair enough, you can argue some people may buy for the 'look' or the 'prestige' - but that's cr@p if everyone knows you can only go the same speed as every other road user.
So I ask, what on earth will this do for the British Economy considering how much revenue the motor trade generates for us? Surely this will create a massive dent.
Infact it is clear that faster driving creates more wear on a vehicle as well - so perhaps this will have a knock-on effect to the mechanical trade as well!
I'm all for upholding the law, moreso than the average person i'm sure - but a prosecution at 76mph... What's going on?
If the maximum you can go without suffering a penalty is always, full-stop, going to be 7-mph - who in their right mind is going to buy a performance car...
Seriously - no-one will bother buying 'fast' cars -fair enough, you can argue some people may buy for the 'look' or the 'prestige' - but that's cr@p if everyone knows you can only go the same speed as every other road user.
So I ask, what on earth will this do for the British Economy considering how much revenue the motor trade generates for us? Surely this will create a massive dent.
Infact it is clear that faster driving creates more wear on a vehicle as well - so perhaps this will have a knock-on effect to the mechanical trade as well!
I'm all for upholding the law, moreso than the average person i'm sure - but a prosecution at 76mph... What's going on?
MR2Mike said:
There are far more to performance cars other than simply high speeds. The acceleration, handling, noise and looks are all at least, if not more important.
Yes I agree, but when performance cars hit the speed limit in around 5 seconds...
Also surely if this happens then manufacturers will stop tailoring cars to doing high speeds, but concentrate on cars that have much quicker 0-60 speeds... Surely this is creating a new type of danger, when cars accelerate at incredible speeds...
Then how long will it be before people try to put limits on acceleration!!!! Where does it stop?
Sponge Bob said:
Surely this is creating a new type of danger, when cars accelerate at incredible speeds...
Which is probably more dangerous than excessive speed in built up areas.
Sponge Bob said:
Then how long will it be before people try to put limits on acceleration!!!! Where does it stop?
It won't stop until the current goverment are removed and the more naive MOP are shown just what the real objectives of organsiations like T2000 really are
Anyone hooning around in a 30, 40 or on a dual carriageway or motorway will get caught eventually by the speed camera people.
That's why I leave my fast driving to mainly B roads where it is unlikely they'll be lurking and TrafPol tend to keep away from.
and I've got a clean license....
That's why I leave my fast driving to mainly B roads where it is unlikely they'll be lurking and TrafPol tend to keep away from.
and I've got a clean license....
MR2Mike said:I agree, but wasn't there a thread recently about someone being booked for 'being fast away from the lights' (or similar!)? - Streaky
There are far more to performance cars other than simply high speeds. The acceleration, handling, noise and looks are all at least, if not more important.
Sponge Bob said:
Then how long will it be before people try to put limits on acceleration!!!! Where does it stop?
Apparently, you can get done for 'excessive acceleration':
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?p=2&f=10&t=165352&h=0
Just saw Streaky's post, the link was that thread (page 2)
>> Edited by supraman2954 on Friday 29th April 14:54
i really do wonder what the future holds for transport...! Pah, as long as there is motorsport, manufacturers will always make "hot" versions of things. It's market aspirations.
In a way, it's how we can even afford motorsport. If no one is allowed to have a fast car, no one can sell them. If they can't be sold, what subsidises racing?
When motorsport dies, then fast cars on the road die
You never know, they will start arguing it's not good for the environment to have racing cars, even though they still let 747's fly around polluting the upper atmosphere like there's no tomorrow!
Uh no hope right now.
Will turn around in the next decade I think. When people really realise what the problem is (heavy industry, aircraft, 3rd world sheds for cars etc) and it's clear and public.
Right now, the real problems facing the environment are hidden, and the car is scape goated to pay for bloated in-efficient public services etc!
Dave
In a way, it's how we can even afford motorsport. If no one is allowed to have a fast car, no one can sell them. If they can't be sold, what subsidises racing?
When motorsport dies, then fast cars on the road die
You never know, they will start arguing it's not good for the environment to have racing cars, even though they still let 747's fly around polluting the upper atmosphere like there's no tomorrow!
Uh no hope right now.
Will turn around in the next decade I think. When people really realise what the problem is (heavy industry, aircraft, 3rd world sheds for cars etc) and it's clear and public.
Right now, the real problems facing the environment are hidden, and the car is scape goated to pay for bloated in-efficient public services etc!
Dave
I've heard it said that the German Autobahns are the sole reason why cars are still developed to be capable of, and safe at, high speed. While there are still unrestricted roads the cars will be produced. If/when Autobahns are restricted then, yes, that will be the end of safe high performance.
So it's probably not the UK motorway limits that are the issue. We need to lobby the German government to keep things the way they are.
So it's probably not the UK motorway limits that are the issue. We need to lobby the German government to keep things the way they are.
A car with higher speed potential than average normally has brakes and handling of higher than average quality also.
Therefore, higher performance cars are safer in a given situation.
Therefore, it would figure that there are probably dull grey control freaks who would like to penalise these safer cars.
Therefore, higher performance cars are safer in a given situation.
Therefore, it would figure that there are probably dull grey control freaks who would like to penalise these safer cars.
How about the fact that most of the current speed limits were 'invented' when cars had crossply tyres and drum brakes!
Have they updated the braking distances in the Highway Code yet? Not the last time I checked.
I know there's more volume of traffic on the roads than there was back then, but that argument doesn't really hold any water when poors sods are getting done for 76mph on a dry, deserted motorway!
>> Edited by nelly1 on Monday 2nd May 12:26
Have they updated the braking distances in the Highway Code yet? Not the last time I checked.
I know there's more volume of traffic on the roads than there was back then, but that argument doesn't really hold any water when poors sods are getting done for 76mph on a dry, deserted motorway!
>> Edited by nelly1 on Monday 2nd May 12:26
james_j said:
A car with higher speed potential than average normally has brakes and handling of higher than average quality also.
Therefore, higher performance cars are safer in a given situation.
Therefore, it would figure that there are probably dull grey control freaks who would like to penalise these safer cars.
Yep, that is so true, saved me a couple of times last Sunday when old numpties in Pacific rim cars pulled out right in front of me, causing me to take evasive action, and thats travelling BELOW the speed limit!!
On the other hand one could be a mindless optimist: there is always the possibility that at some point, a sufficiently right wing mindset will have permeated the political zeitgeist that the concept of going faster per se becomes an accepted goal.
I've mentioned this many times but when Ferruccio Lamborghini created the 350GT in the 1960s, he was doing so with a view to enabling massively fast, intercity/continental travel.
No different in principle to the Rainhill steam locomotive trials of the late 1820s - man wants to go faster.
So why are we, as a society, so befuddled by left wing batty boys, hell bent on buggering up the whole shooting match?
In the same way that Maggie swept away the dead philosophies of traditional, suicidal socialism after 1979, there is no reason to assume that at some point, a grand design of broadly anti-politically correct disposition may not swell up to smite our short-arsed suppressors.
This is one of the things I noticed for the first time about Vlad t'other night: straight talking - no, seriously - and I suspect, that despite the smarmy guffawing of the intelligentsia, many viewers in Taxpayerville warmed to the old bloodsucker.
Probably too few, too late but in a few years, this preference for the right wing will usher in some decent Johnnies: I just hope we will still have an economy and Brussels hasn't completely keel-hauled Blighty.
The dogs...
I've mentioned this many times but when Ferruccio Lamborghini created the 350GT in the 1960s, he was doing so with a view to enabling massively fast, intercity/continental travel.
No different in principle to the Rainhill steam locomotive trials of the late 1820s - man wants to go faster.
So why are we, as a society, so befuddled by left wing batty boys, hell bent on buggering up the whole shooting match?
In the same way that Maggie swept away the dead philosophies of traditional, suicidal socialism after 1979, there is no reason to assume that at some point, a grand design of broadly anti-politically correct disposition may not swell up to smite our short-arsed suppressors.
This is one of the things I noticed for the first time about Vlad t'other night: straight talking - no, seriously - and I suspect, that despite the smarmy guffawing of the intelligentsia, many viewers in Taxpayerville warmed to the old bloodsucker.
Probably too few, too late but in a few years, this preference for the right wing will usher in some decent Johnnies: I just hope we will still have an economy and Brussels hasn't completely keel-hauled Blighty.
The dogs...
Sponge Bob said:
So I ask, what on earth will this do for the British Economy considering how much revenue the motor trade generates for us? Surely this will create a massive dent.
Ownership of a fast car has a considerable knock on effect on the local economy. Better tyres, better brakes, better servicing etc.
It's a dream for the motor industry.
No need for all that in the UK - just buy something that will do 70 mph in reasonable comfort and that's enough.
Which is what millions of UK citizens do. Sad really.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff