Renault Twizy, Battery Charged - Brain Was Flat!

[StefanVXR8]

Heading up the very busy M3 northbound (Junction 6 - 5) this morning was some stupid woman in a Renault Twizy doing 40MPH!! There is a perfectly good A road that runs parallel with the M3 pretty much all the way up.

First time I've seen this kind of stupidity so a couple of questions:

Anyone see this on a regular basis, Twizy drivers using the motorway and secondly would you risk it personally?

To me it seemed little more sensible than the old Sinclair C5 phase, the Twizy is a tiny car, lighting was rubbish and she was genuinely only doing 40MPH. Mind you, she was certainly well wrapped up for the journey!!

I can imagine it's probably a blast to drive one around town on a nice warm sunny day, but seriously, the motorway?

Stef

[dtmpower]

The A30 would make far better sense.

[StefanVXR8]

Definitely, especially if she was just doing a junction to junction hop. I think the max speed on those is only 50mph anyway?

Stef

[cianha]

It's quite possible the driver wasn't aware of a suitable route that avoided the motorway?

Do EVs fall into the sub 50cc exclusion for motorways?

[StefanVXR8]

I'm not sure about that, the Twizy isn't designated as a proper car either is it? Plus I have no idea what the range is either.

Stef

[eybic]

Yep, she uses it day and night, I see her quite often at J1 and as far back as J3, not sure how far she goes but it's a bloody hazard.

[dtmpower]

eybic said:

Yep, she uses it day and night, I see her quite often at J1 as far back as J3, not sure how far she goes but it's a bloody hazard.

Worth a call to the non emergency number / local Police, especially if she's going slower then trucks etc ?

[eybic]

I can't remember/ find what the minimum limit on a motorway is but I seem to recall it is a lot lower than I thought.

[The Boosh]

Twizy is classed as a quad, and it is allowed on motorways. It has a top speed of 50 mph flat out.

[twizynorthwood]

Just sold my Twizy after 18 months of happy ownership during which time I did 8,500 miles. Now have a beautiful Smart Electric Drive and very happy with that. Love electric motoring...

I drove the Twizy from J1 to J5 of the M1 many times at a steady 52. Apart from a few people hovering parallel to me in the middle lane nothing bad happened and while I would have been happier with 60, 52 worked for me...

Don't know why you guys make such a fuss...

[Frimley111R]

Sounds like the speed was the issue, not the car. Same would have applied if she'd been a Fiesta. 40mph can catch driver's out as they are often not expecting such slow moving vehicles.

[eybic]

Yep, speed (or lack of) is the issue with her.

[StefanVXR8]

Yeah, exactly that guys, I have no issues with the car itself, would love a go in one personally.

Saw her again last week farting along at 40 on the inside lane and a lot of cars were coming up behind her at 60-70 and having to either brake hard or simply pull out in front of other cars, she's causing all sorts of issues with trucks having to do the same. I'm quite expecting one day to join a Q of traffic only to find 40 tonnes of articulated lorry wedged up her behind with some poor distraught truck driver being comforted by the police!

She's a bloody menace, with the M3 being one of the busiest motorways in the South in the mornings she is being incredibly stupid and putting her and others lives at risk. Especially when there is a perfectly acceptable A road that runs parallel pretty much from Winchester right the way up and through Surrey.

Stef

[StefanVXR8]

twizynorthwood said:

Just sold my Twizy after 18 months of happy ownership during which time I did 8,500 miles. Now have a beautiful Smart Electric Drive and very happy with that. Love electric motoring...

I drove the Twizy from J1 to J5 of the M1 many times at a steady 52. Apart from a few people hovering parallel to me in the middle lane nothing bad happened and while I would have been happier with 60, 52 worked for me...

Don't know why you guys make such a fuss...

Have you driven the M3 heading towards London at rush hour? It's a solid wall of relatively fast moving traffic for the majority of the way, and to be fair your 52mph is quite a pace more than 40mph.

My fuss is the fact that she is putting her life and more importantly other drivers lives at risk, she doesn't impact me as I tend to catch up with her just at the point I turn off.

Mind you the 50MPH limit for the roadworks has just come in to force at junction 5 so that will make things a bit safer past that point for others.

Stef