Did you really drive *that* quickly 'back in the day'?

[Deep Thought]

Yes.

And sometimes moreso now, as cars are much more capable than some of the cars i drove "back in the day".

[tomsugden]

I may have done Mitcham to Brighton in just over 30 mins, in a Renault 5 GT Turbo back in the day.

[Johnnytheboy]

Yes.

I was brought up by parents who actively encouraged us to beat previous records between certain points.

The times we achieved in the 90s would be impossible now during the day.

[dontlookdown]

velocemitch said:

I remember doing a very fast trip from Yorkshire to Inverness, using the A1 A68 and A9. When I checked the average speed it was almost 70mph.
Could never get anywhere near that now, even if I was daft enough to try.

Similar story - in the mid 90s I regularly drove Islington - York environs and back for the weekend. Return trips on Sunday evening were usually traffic-clogged even back then. But outbound late on Thurs or Fri night, my target was to average the ca 200 miles at 70. It was entirely doable without taking big risks or resorting to crazy speeds, mainly because there was so much less traffic. But also fewer speed cameras and greater tolerance of 'safe' speeding by Police and other drivers.

These days I definitely do drive more sedately, but even if I did want to go faster more often, the road environment has changed so much. Society has a different attitude to speed-related risk taking and keeping up a high average speed on a long trip these days is not only too much like hard work, it can also make you feel like public enemy no 1.

I do enjoy still a sweeping open and traffic free B road, however, on the rare occasions one can be found.

[anonymous-user]

Absolutely yes. Unfortunately the B-liar government era cut many of our previously NSL b-roads to 30 limits to raise revenue from the speeding tax, and the road classification insanity just continues.

[blade7]

I reckon a tweaked Sierra Cosworth would touch 160 in 1990.

[PomBstard]

Yep. Big power wasn’t necessary to maintain high average speeds as there were more overtaking opportunities and fewer cameras. Get to a decent lick and, if you knew the road, it could be maintained. Of course, bellend driving would help, and in my late teens, I was pretty good at that too

[Paul Dishman]

Yes. Even the Mrs used to cruise at 95 plus on the motorway back in the 90s when we were heading for race circuits, its much harder to drive like that nowadays because of the volume of traffic and increased enforcement, plus the fact that having retired we're not in so much of a hurry to get anywhere nowadays.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

Yes

My best time between Birmingham and Aberystwyth was 1 hour 45 mins. In a 2.0 Capri in 1994

My cars now are much more powerful and faster and handle better, but with the cameras and traffic levels, maintaining the speed limit is an achievement.

[anonymous-user]

Yes! Simply due to the lack of traffic.

I used to drive about 25 miles cross country on a small B road to go to college, and i was driving a rip snorting 115 bhp volvo 3 series, and it was EASY to do 1 mile a minute on AVERAGE, despite never seening more than about 85 on the speedo (probably at least 5 mph slower in reality due to rather optimistic cable driven speedo's back then...)

Today, i drive a car with around 3 times the power, a car that is capable of reasonably easily and repeatidly hitting over 120 mph on the same B road, and yet, my average speed on my daily commute is........ 31.5 mph.

Sure, if i drove somewhere at 2am i could certainly go faster than i used too back in the early 1990's, but frankly at 2am i'd rather be in bed!

[Justin Case]

Going back 40+ years to my youth, I could only afford old sheds (late 50s and 60s) I never went very fast as none of them would do much more than 60, but I did manage to wreck four engines in trying to do so

[ensignia]

It's amazing to see the hypocrisy and double standards on this place sometimes

[vikingaeroatwork]

There used to be more Police than you see on the roads these days, but no cameras, fewer 50mph/40mph/30mph zones and traffic calming. But equally fewer houses and population in certain areas.

I remember "someone" being ballsy one summers evening and taking 30 minutes to drive from Maidstone to Heathrow...

[Dave Hedgehog]

even ignoring the cameras and traffic calming its simply impossible in the SE to drive like we used to, so much traffic now

gone are the days you can drive london to manchester in 2 hours in a 20v quattro or have the trip computer show avg speed over 140 on the way to work in an RS4 lol

happy to avg 30mph now ...

[RDMcG]

I remember when the PH logo included “speed matters”.

Now it is “safety first”

[Limpet]

Yes. My then girlfriend's house in Uxbridge to my parents house in Oxford (door to door) in 28 minutes. I remember joining the M40 at J2, flooring it, and lifting at Sandhills coming into Oxford.

I've just put the two postcodes into Google maps, and it times that journey at 44 mins today, with next to no traffic on the road.

Drove like a complete tool and thought nothing of it. The only saving grace was that I was mostly driving gutless piles of excrement back in the day.

[irocfan]

HustleRussell said:

I'm afraid so. My first car was a 60bhp Clio and I would use all revs through the gears and max throttle wherever I could. I remember going for a drive and decimating a pair of budget front tyres double quick. I came back and ran my hand over them to see how they were holding up and cut my finger on a stray steel wire. I spun it once. More luck than judgment but I didn't crash it properly or injure myself or anybody else.

To be fair this has reminded me of when I friend of mine told be to take his X1/9 out for a blat on a particular 'circuit' he had close to home - I came back and smoke was pouring from his brakes. Possibly one of my prouder driving achievements!

[Dave Hedgehog]

vikingaeroatwork said:

There used to be more Police than you see on the roads these days, but no cameras, fewer 50mph/40mph/30mph zones and traffic calming. But equally fewer houses and population in certain areas.

I remember "someone" being ballsy one summers evening and taking 30 minutes to drive from Maidstone to Heathrow...

but at least the police had the decency to drive really slow st boxes like rover SDi's or land rovers, if you went past one it was better just to keep your foot down

[Dave Hedgehog]

RDMcG said:

I remember when the PH logo included “speed matters”.

Now it is “safety first”

[mike74]

We used to be able to light ciggies off the break disks after a 'run' over the Snake.

So I'd say it's a yes, we did used to drive *that* quick back when we were indestructible teens.