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

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

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Pit Pony

8,268 posts

120 months

Sunday 24th May 2020
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sjabrown said:
Back in the day we used cash machines to prove quick times between Lochgilphead and Tarbert. The machines would provide a reliable time stamp including seconds, and could be ID'd from the last 4 card digits so no cheating! 13.6 miles. Anything under 15 minutes was a good time.
Whilst my friend's parents were on holiday, they gave him the keys to his dad's company car , an X reg 2.0 Capri ghia. As long as someone with a full licence sat in with him.
For 2 weeks I'd cycle to his house and then he'd drive me to school.( upper 6th)
One Lunch time we decided to go to McDonald's. In the centre of Southport. It's only about 25 mile around trip via the coast road, but you've got to go down Lord Street and negotiate parking and then queue up.
And the coast road is always full of pensioners doing 40 in a 60. Both ways.
Lunch was a hour. Car parked around the corner from school as not supposed to drive to school. (Not sure which of the "We only have 2 rules here" it was. Probably the "respect other people")
Anyway. 4 of us got back in time to attend afternoon register. With big Mac, large fries and a drink each. Tutor woukd not believe we'd been to Southport and back.
Only went over the speed limit twice. Once on the way there and once on the way back.

blade7

11,311 posts

215 months

Sunday 24th May 2020
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MGirl said:
I used to push it and push it, to the point that others who maybe decided to ‘race’ me would end up giving up because they probably realised 130mph plus on A roads was stupid.
130mph on a dual carriageway, mumsnet are on the phone for you.

FiF

43,965 posts

250 months

Sunday 24th May 2020
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sjabrown said:
Back in the day we used cash machines to prove quick times between Lochgilphead and Tarbert. The machines would provide a reliable time stamp including seconds, and could be ID'd from the last 4 card digits so no cheating! 13.6 miles. Anything under 15 minutes was a good time.
Back in the 60s we had a holiday up in Scotland, I was only a teenager too young to drive, car mad not even any driving experience, apart from punting Dad's old A40 Somerset round Carnaby airfield. We were staying in a B&B in Killin at the end of Loch Tay, the landlady's nephew was into rallying and had a Mk1 Lotus Cortina. Him and his mates had a Wednesday night round the loch challenge, down the A road to Kenmore, then back along the yellows on the other side of the loch. Slowest bought the beer. Took me for a ride along one evening, probably what got me into rallying.

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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FiF said:
Back in the 60s we had a holiday up in Scotland, I was only a teenager too young to drive, car mad not even any driving experience, apart from punting Dad's old A40 Somerset round Carnaby airfield.
That takes me back to when my parents, sister, grandmother and I went to Scotland in my Dad's A40 Somerset, with an overnight stop in the Lake District on the way!

The speedo only read up to 75mph but Dad got it there once, although it didn't sound too happy at that speed.

I never drove it as I was just 8 when he sold it but I did sit on his lap and steer it once!

FiF

43,965 posts

250 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Mr Tidy said:
That takes me back to when my parents, sister, grandmother and I went to Scotland in my Dad's A40 Somerset, with an overnight stop in the Lake District on the way!

The speedo only read up to 75mph but Dad got it there once, although it didn't sound too happy at that speed.

I never drove it as I was just 8 when he sold it but I did sit on his lap and steer it once!
That also takes me back about overnight stops and average speeds. That holiday up to Tayside from West Riding (Yorkshire) had an overnight stop at Moffatt. Nowadays you'd just have a single pee stop, ok maybe more than one being of that age.

Another year we went to visit relatives in Gosport. Dad had sent for one of those routes from the AA, where they clipped a load of pages of directions into a book, ie take a right turn at the Woodman inn signposted to Nether Longbottom and so on. For some reason Dad had said to the AA, avoid motorways, so they sent us on a route that's incomprehensible looking at today's network. Set off, again West Riding just as beginning to get a little light, so about 4am. Drove all day apart from a lunch somewhere, remember travelling down the A34 past Harwell, like being on a quiet B road today, got snarled up in evening rush hour near Winchester and still the last leg to do. 4h 25m acc Google today.

So perhaps part of the answer to the original question is no we weren't all that quick.

Digby

8,230 posts

245 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Everything was a race and everything needed to be overtaken.

It was years before I realised that probably half the people we 'beat', were not even racing..

blade7

11,311 posts

215 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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AAGR said:
Way back in the 1980s, when I was running a Ford RS200 (no, not a misprint - an RS200) as a road car, it wasn't the flat-out speed I enjoyed most, but the sheer agility of this machine.

In particular I liked going through roundabouts and such diversions at an unseemly speed, especially when some cowboy was behind me (often in a Sierra RS Cosworth or a Capri 2.8 Injection) trying to keep up - and failing. I must have left an awful lot of brown-trousered chasers in those situations ....
Driving away from a Capri or Sierra in a RS200 isn't much to brag about though is it?

Kawasicki

13,041 posts

234 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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blade7 said:
Driving away from a Capri or Sierra in a RS200 isn't much to brag about though is it?
Driving away from a RS200 in a Capri or Sierra also isn't much to brag about.

Byker28i

58,865 posts

216 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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There was that 'who could lap the M25 in an hour' challenge when it first opened

blade7

11,311 posts

215 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Kawasicki said:
blade7 said:
Driving away from a Capri or Sierra in a RS200 isn't much to brag about though is it?
Driving away from a RS200 in a Capri or Sierra also isn't much to brag about.
All 3 standard road cars, AWD, power and weight would suggest otherwise.

stogbandard

366 posts

49 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Back in the day my chosen cruising speed would be typically 85 mph on dual carriageways and motorways. That was going with the flow at the time and didn’t stand out to attract the attention of the rozzers.

After 13 point free years since getting my licence, I started to get caught out by mobile camera vans. That and higher fuel costs encouraged me to slow down. Hence, I tend to keep close to limits and aim to drive smoother. Still enjoy the occasional blip and blast on quiet roads.

Kawasicki

13,041 posts

234 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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blade7 said:
Kawasicki said:
blade7 said:
Driving away from a Capri or Sierra in a RS200 isn't much to brag about though is it?
Driving away from a RS200 in a Capri or Sierra also isn't much to brag about.
All 3 standard road cars, AWD, power and weight would suggest otherwise.
The performance difference between all three cars is maybe 1/10th of the performance difference between a careful, cautious, inexperienced driver and a driver with huge experience and a gung-ho attitude.

Bragging about car performance is silly(but fun), in my opinion, unless the drivers are fairly equal.

blade7

11,311 posts

215 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Kawasicki said:
The performance difference between all three cars is maybe 1/10th of the performance difference between a careful, cautious, inexperienced driver and a driver with huge experience and a gung-ho attitude.

Bragging about car performance is silly(but fun), in my opinion, unless the drivers are fairly equal.
Careful, cautious, inexperienced drivers don't tend to drive a RS200. My original point was, the RS200 driver that came on this thread bragging about Capri and Sierra drivers he left behind with "brown trousers" is a prize tit.

Banjaxed88

23 posts

64 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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Yes. Every car I owned got taken to the limiter.
Some very stupid things were done as a 18 - 25 ish year old. As mentioned by others, the cars I owned as a young inexperienced driver were nowhere near as fast as what is easily accessible today. First car at 17 was a 1.6i Ford Orion. It apparently would do 116 or thereabouts...I had it showing 120 on the speedo in a 30 limit. That's riddiculous when you think of how long it takes that car to accelerate. It was a long road I tell you.
2nd car was a Sierra Xr4i. That would show 140 on speedo but would probably do 130 max real speed. Used to do a lot of family airport runs in a Ford Scorpio 24v. That would happily sit showing 145 mph for a very long stretch on the way back from Birmingham airport to Northampton. Burnouts at traffic lights were common. Getting the back to slide at every opportunity was normal. I got pulled over once as I was meeting a police car coming the other way. He said I must have been doing 60 in the 30 zone. I remember the rover 800 vitesse I had at the time (cost me £400) was doing at least 80 as I approached him. He had a chat and said just calm it down. The police seemed more chilled back then.
I've been drinking btw

Edited by Banjaxed88 on Monday 25th May 20:25

FiF

43,965 posts

250 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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News from the USA that during the lockdown the Cannonball Coast to Coast record has been broken 7 times.

There's hope yet, "Speed Matters."


Pan Pan Pan

9,777 posts

110 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
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It seems that some people still do!
I was watching the news yesterday evening, and the reporter girl was standing in a high street setting of a Northern town somewhere (didn't catch where it was), and in the back ground was a small lowered Audi, with black wheels and a loud exhaust went past.
Just out of frame the driver must have floored it, because the noise was marvelous, and heaven only knows what revs he took it to. The reporter girl stopped talking for a sec and had to look at what caused it.
Likewise I live on a main road, and a few days ago an Audi R8 did a U turn outside my house, andthen more or less did the same as the car on the TV. Again don't know what revs it was taken to, but it sounded exquisite!
Part of me was thinking, watch it chum this is a 30 limit area, but the piston head in me, could not help but enjoy the noise.
I may need a dose of mind / thought control, and social correction therapy smile

Kawasicki

13,041 posts

234 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
quotequote all
blade7 said:
Kawasicki said:
The performance difference between all three cars is maybe 1/10th of the performance difference between a careful, cautious, inexperienced driver and a driver with huge experience and a gung-ho attitude.

Bragging about car performance is silly(but fun), in my opinion, unless the drivers are fairly equal.
Careful, cautious, inexperienced drivers don't tend to drive a RS200. My original point was, the RS200 driver that came on this thread bragging about Capri and Sierra drivers he left behind with "brown trousers" is a prize tit.
I don’t connect driver talent with car driven.

smifffymoto

4,527 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
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I live in rural France and potter about without a care in the world.Driving is a lot less stressful when you don’t have a schedule to keep.

FiF

43,965 posts

250 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
quotequote all
Pan Pan Pan said:
It seems that some people still do!
I was watching the news yesterday evening, and the reporter girl was standing in a high street setting of a Northern town somewhere (didn't catch where it was), and in the back ground was a small lowered Audi, with black wheels and a loud exhaust went past.
Just out of frame the driver must have floored it, because the noise was marvelous, and heaven only knows what revs he took it to. The reporter girl stopped talking for a sec and had to look at what caused it.
Likewise I live on a main road, and a few days ago an Audi R8 did a U turn outside my house, andthen more or less did the same as the car on the TV. Again don't know what revs it was taken to, but it sounded exquisite!
Part of me was thinking, watch it chum this is a 30 limit area, but the piston head in me, could not help but enjoy the noise.
I may need a dose of mind / thought control, and social correction therapy smile
I think like most things, it all depends, devil in the detail. Some while back I had to check my PH credentials, I was in Worcester walking up Foregate Street past the railway station, when a Maserati GranTurismo got the green light at the crossroads with Sansome Street, floored up Foregate ignoring pedestrians crossing, bus passengers alighting, taxis jockeying for space on the rank etc. First reaction was, the noise, then it was well that's dangerous, then but the noise, then right noise, wrong time and place it's prats like that who get us all a bad name. Yet I was probably such a prat at one time.

Pan Pan Pan

9,777 posts

110 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
quotequote all
FiF said:
Pan Pan Pan said:
It seems that some people still do!
I was watching the news yesterday evening, and the reporter girl was standing in a high street setting of a Northern town somewhere (didn't catch where it was), and in the back ground was a small lowered Audi, with black wheels and a loud exhaust went past.
Just out of frame the driver must have floored it, because the noise was marvelous, and heaven only knows what revs he took it to. The reporter girl stopped talking for a sec and had to look at what caused it.
Likewise I live on a main road, and a few days ago an Audi R8 did a U turn outside my house, andthen more or less did the same as the car on the TV. Again don't know what revs it was taken to, but it sounded exquisite!
Part of me was thinking, watch it chum this is a 30 limit area, but the piston head in me, could not help but enjoy the noise.
I may need a dose of mind / thought control, and social correction therapy smile
I think like most things, it all depends, devil in the detail. Some while back I had to check my PH credentials, I was in Worcester walking up Foregate Street past the railway station, when a Maserati GranTurismo got the green light at the crossroads with Sansome Street, floored up Foregate ignoring pedestrians crossing, bus passengers alighting, taxis jockeying for space on the rank etc. First reaction was, the noise, then it was well that's dangerous, then but the noise, then right noise, wrong time and place it's prats like that who get us all a bad name. Yet I was probably such a prat at one time.
Indeed it was the bloke who drove up the (barrier less M1) in a Cobra fastback at far above 100,which gave Castle the `in' she needed to introduce the 70 mph limit.
Norman Dewis max speed tested the development E Types on the M1, but did it in a thought out and safe way.
To be fair to the bloke in the R8, the road outside my house was totally devoid, of other vehicles, and of any people, even I was just standing in my living room. However It is the tw*ts that do it to show boat, when there are people, and cars about, that get the rest of us a bad name, (and some ridiculous speed limits)