John 'O' Groats To Lands End - Our Story & Potential Record?

[Captain Muppet]

SpeckledJim said:

sunbeam alpine said:

If you got stopped would they just lock you up until you coughed, or would they eventually have to let you go?

The secret to the perfect murder is...just don't tell the police who you are?

Makes for a boring episode of Columbo though.

[sunbeam alpine]

SpeckledJim said:

sunbeam alpine said:

If you got stopped would they just lock you up until you coughed, or would they eventually have to let you go?

The secret to the perfect murder is...just don't tell the police who you are?

I was thinking that speeding was a bit less serious than murder.

It was a semi-serious question - what can the police do if you refuse to reveal your identity?

[r129sl]

sunbeam alpine said:

SpeckledJim said:

sunbeam alpine said:

If you got stopped would they just lock you up until you coughed, or would they eventually have to let you go?

The secret to the perfect murder is...just don't tell the police who you are?

I was thinking that speeding was a bit less serious than murder.

It was a semi-serious question - what can the police do if you refuse to reveal your identity?

Speeding is not an arrestable offence. You don't even have to get out of the car when you get pulled. However, you are obliged to furnish your particulars to the policeman. He will undoubtedly check them against the Police National Computer and probably against the vehicle's particulars at the DVLA. I think they can do a licence check, too. The insurance check just verifies that there is a policy in respect of the vehicle, I don't think it tells anything about the driver. A solid false identity would probably survive a roadside check assuming the identity corresponded with a driving licence. You wouldn't want the insurance policy in your real name because this is a link back. Nor would you want your real name anywhere near the vehicle. But this would be perverting the course of justice.

Having driven up and down the country at high speed, I'd just take the risk. Last time I had a really high speed pull (130), we compromised on 3pts and a fixed penalty. Less hassle for all concerned.

[hairykrishna]

Ranger 6 said:

Mattt said:

I assumed he meant an average of 80 odd, rather than Vmax.

I hadn't thought of it as an average - maybe that's right as my average over the 8 hours is usually 75/78ish.

You're right in the traffic/stops as well - without them I've managed some averages which I'd rather not quote on an open forum.....

Average, including fuel stops and (brief) toll stops. Like I said - much over 80 is harder than you'd think over an extended period. It involves cruising at a good margin over 100 for long stretches.

[s_zigmond]

hairykrishna said:

Average, including fuel stops and (brief) toll stops. Like I said - much over 80 is harder than you'd think over an extended period. It involves cruising at a good margin over 100 for long stretches.

+1 having driven to northern Italy pleanty of times im yet to cover the 850 miles in under 11 hours, even with periods of 150mph +. roadworks, toll's, fuel and pissing always hold you up more than you think.

[hairykrishna]

The thing about the 'in flight re-fueling' is, why would you bother? It's expensive to set up, prone to failure and dangerous both in terms of being spotted and genuine fiery death.

Add a extra filler pipe, two blokes waiting with NASCAR style filler cans. You'd only be stationary for about 15 seconds. I reckon if you geared up to do it either on the hard shoulder or just off a junction, on a roundabout which let you rejoin the motorway immediately, you'd lose less time than buggering about on a section of A-road with the 're-fueling tanker'.

[djdestiny]

Ranger 6 said:

bks - you're barely on the limit at 80mph in France.....

I'm going on holiday next week and will be setting my cruise control at 85mph - for roughly 8 hours. It's hardly difficult and not half as stressful as trying to do 100mph+ for extended periods.

Legality plays a huge part in the ease of maintaining a decent average speed and if you're not looking for the law but purely focused on safe driving then it's much much easier than you'd think - a good argument for more relaxed limits I guess....

Agreed. Around 1996 I drove from Northamptonshire to Malaga with my Dad, we were in no hurry but cruised for most of the day through France around 90-100 with some 110-120 sections near Bordeaux and I can honestly say it was'nt that hard work

I think we did

Day 1 Northamptonshire to just south of Paris - 360 miles
Day 2 onwards to Bilbao - 570 miles
Day 3 on to Malaga - 570 miles

Edited by djdestiny on Thursday 14th February 11:57

[hairykrishna]

djdestiny said:

Agreed. Around 1996 I drove from Northamptonshire to Malaga with my Dad, we were in no hurry but cruised for most of the day through France around 90-100 with some 110-120 sections near Bordeaux and I can honestly say it was'nt that hard work

I think you're reinforcing my point that people who haven't done it underestimate the difficulty. What I mean by 'haven't done it' is compare the total elapsed journey time, stops and all, to the distance traveled to calculate an average speed. I think anyone who has is surprised by how low the average turns out to be.

To get into the mid 80's requires driving at ~100 in traffic and basically as fast as you can when the roads clear.

[djdestiny]

I agree. 99% of our trip was motorways but I bet the average was still only about 80 or so even though most of the time was 80+ driving speeds

[Mr-B]

hairykrishna said:

I think you're reinforcing my point that people who haven't done it underestimate the difficulty. What I mean by 'haven't done it' is compare the total elapsed journey time, stops and all, to the distance traveled to calculate an average speed. I think anyone who has is surprised by how low the average turns out to be.

To get into the mid 80's requires driving at ~100 in traffic and basically as fast as you can when the roads clear.

Spot on.

A high average speed over an entire trip is quite difficult to achieve. To average say 80mph for every minute you spend at 40mph you have to spend another minute at 120 just to keep the 80 average. Being stationary (traffic lights) and slowing for roundabouts, slip roads, other traffic takes great chunks out of the average.

[psychoR1]

A couple of years ago one of the bike mags (fast bikes IIRC) did 24hrs of M25. They had two bikes a BMW and a Kwack ZX12. They set average speeds of over well over the ton including the crossing and some road works sections. The BMW was fastest as it could complete the lap without juice.
I think the fastest lap was something like 115mph.

[ajcj]

Mr-B said:

Spot on.

A high average speed over an entire trip is quite difficult to achieve. To average say 80mph for every minute you spend at 40mph you have to spend another minute at 120 just to keep the 80 average. Being stationary (traffic lights) and slowing for roundabouts, slip roads, other traffic takes great chunks out of the average.

I always figure an average of over 50mph in mixed roads (A and B roads as well as DC/m'way) driving is good going, it's always frustrating how slowly motorway bursts up your average. I did two trips last year to Austria through Germany, 630 miles from Calais to destination, one in a 1.8 Zafira, one in an Alpina B5. Cruise control on the Alpina was set to 120 for long periods, while the Zaf struggled to get over 85. The difference in arrival time was less than half an hour (9hrs 15 vs 9hrs 40). The top speed makes less difference than you think once you hit traffic, roadworks, fuel stops etc.

[The Game]

ajcj said:

I always figure an average of over 50mph in mixed roads (A and B roads as well as DC/m'way) driving is good going, it's always frustrating how slowly motorway bursts up your average. I did two trips last year to Austria through Germany, 630 miles from Calais to destination, one in a 1.8 Zafira, one in an Alpina B5. Cruise control on the Alpina was set to 120 for long periods, while the Zaf struggled to get over 85. The difference in arrival time was less than half an hour (9hrs 15 vs 9hrs 40). The top speed makes less difference than you think once you hit traffic, roadworks, fuel stops etc.

Here is a video of a race across Germany (606kms) between a 600hp Techart Cayanne and a 54hp C1 diesel, in truth the winner won't suprise you but the time differance and cost will

http://youtu.be/-sMx9efVw6Y

To save you some time the results are here

Result: after 606 km C1 arrived 17 min later

-C1,diesel consumption: 30 liters for 35€

-Magnum,Super Plus:150 liters for 210€

[Ranger 6]

I think the powerfully built Cayenne driver (with goatee ) was the disadvantage there, not the frequent fuel stops....

[Mr-B]

ajcj said:

I always figure an average of over 50mph in mixed roads (A and B roads as well as DC/m'way) driving is good going, it's always frustrating how slowly motorway bursts up your average. I did two trips last year to Austria through Germany, 630 miles from Calais to destination, one in a 1.8 Zafira, one in an Alpina B5. Cruise control on the Alpina was set to 120 for long periods, while the Zaf struggled to get over 85. The difference in arrival time was less than half an hour (9hrs 15 vs 9hrs 40). The top speed makes less difference than you think once you hit traffic, roadworks, fuel stops etc.

An average of 60 is very good going too. I remember many years ago doing another night run of 30 miles in 28 minutes and that was nearly all dual carriageway and motorway and although wasn't driving like a bat out of hell I was still doing 90+ on the motorway and 80+ on the dual.

[ajcj]

The Game said:

Here is a video of a race across Germany (606kms) between a 600hp Techart Cayanne and a 54hp C1 diesel, in truth the winner won't suprise you but the time differance and cost will

http://youtu.be/-sMx9efVw6Y

To save you some time the results are here

Result: after 606 km C1 arrived 17 min later

-C1,diesel consumption: 30 liters for 35€

-Magnum,Super Plus:150 liters for 210€

Interesting! I remember putting my Cerbera in for a service and driving a 1.1 Fiesta on my normal 45-minute commute. Time difference that day? 1 minute.

[SpeckledJim]

The Game said:

Here is a video of a race across Germany (606kms) between a 600hp Techart Cayanne and a 54hp C1 diesel, in truth the winner won't suprise you but the time differance and cost will

http://youtu.be/-sMx9efVw6Y

To save you some time the results are here

Result: after 606 km C1 arrived 17 min later

-C1,diesel consumption: 30 liters for 35€

-Magnum,Super Plus:150 liters for 210€

So the time saved by fuelling a Cayenne over fuelling a C1 will cost you €652 per hour.

Crumbs.

[6fire]

I once ( on a bike) averaged just over 97mph for 2hrs and 11 minutes on a mix of single carriageway, dual carriageway (punctuated by roundabouts) and motorway.. On a Sunday afternoon and including a fuel stop. I didn't find I particularly stressful and could have doubled the distance at that speed with ease.

On quiet roads, if you have the cojones to risk the consequences o beng caught, and with the right vehicle, I really don't see that a 3 figur averag speed over distance isn't achievable.

[cheddar]

6fire said:

I once ( on a bike) averaged just over 97mph for 2hrs and 11 minutes on a mix of single carriageway, dual carriageway (punctuated by roundabouts) and motorway.. On a Sunday afternoon and including a fuel stop. I didn't find I particularly stressful and could have doubled the distance at that speed with ease.

On quiet roads, if you have the cojones to risk the consequences o beng caught, and with the right vehicle, I really don't see that a 3 figur averag speed over distance isn't achievable.

I'm not being the speed police but if that included a fuel stop and roundabouts you must have been at 130+ for much of it to average 97.

[Col 666]

Nice story, don't believe a word of it but entertaining none the less.
Reminds me of some daft antics myself and friends used to get up to on the A9 in the early 90's. Perth to Pitlochry in about 13mins in a mates dads brand new Sapphire Cosworth and Pitlochry to Aviemore in 30 mins in a B reg Vauxhall cavalier Sri 130!
Always had a camcorder with us too, got plenty footage of these jaunts and more on VHS tape somewhere. Tempted to stick a few on youtube but a knock at the door may ensue!