Tell us about when you were nearly a driving god

[DickyC]

Today I drove eastbound along the A38 towards Exeter in my Audi A4 1.8T Quattro. The climb up the hill towards the racecourse is a long and winding road flagged at 50mph max. It could have been made for the Audi Quattro. I know from experience the Quattro and I can go up there at 80. Normally my fellow road users prevent a clean run. But this morning I had a clear shot at it, the slower cars were tidily in the left lane agog at my abilities as I passed.

It's just that following me closely up the hill was an elderly Transit van.

[DickyC]

P5BNij said:

I drove an Inter-City HST 125 at 128mph once. Thread done...?

The 125 and I have grown old together. When I wasn't commuting somewhere by car I was in and out of Paddington on the HST. When they were newish and allowed to leave stations at full chat I timed one, standstill in Paddington to standstill in Reading, at 17 minutes exactly. If I was right and didn't dream it, it would have been an average speed of 125.

Is there a railway section here? I could go and ask if I imagined it.

[DickyC]

kuro said:

That must have been late morning then as someone else trying the same thing ended up on their roof at 6.30am. It's actually a 70 limit up there but the first bend is flagged at 50 as that's the one that can catch people out.

It was getting on for lunchtime now I think about it. Interesting psychology by the authorities to flag the first bend at 50 without reducing the overall speed limit. A lot of folk do go up there at 50.

Here's another Almost Divine story I posted off topic on another thread yesterday.

Ten or so years ago I proudly took my RS2 to an Audi track day at Castle Combe, gleeful in the knowledge I would have one of the faster cars there. In the paddock was an NSU Prinz in race trim. To my eternal shame I was snooty about it. Why would anyone bother, I wondered. On one session we were in the same group. Honestly, he came past me like I was tied to a tree. And then he disappeared. And then he lapped me. And I wasn't hanging about; I was doing my Flat-Through-Eau-Rouge-But-At-Castle-Combe thing. Okay the NSU was hotted-up and lightened but deep down it was still an NSU Prinz with the engine out the back. To drive it like that must have needed extraordinary ability and experience. I had to come to terms with the knowledge that if I'd been let loose with it I'd have demolished the scrutineer's bay.

[DickyC]

In my Avonbar 1380cc MG Metro, being pursued vigorously along a fast country road by a tiny pre-war sportscar, we came to a series of fast bends. "This will sort the men from the boys," I thought. "You with your pushbike tyres." With the Metro in full, tyre squealing, white knuckle, heart thumping, understeer I glanced in the mirror. The tiny machine was close behind in beautifully controlled oversteer slides, first one way then the other as we flew through the bends.

Wouldn't you know it? I was a mere mortal in the presence of a real driving god.

I slowed down a bit to let him past.

[DickyC]

legless said:

Spinning

This reminded me of a story told by the owner of a 6.3 litre Virage Volante in the 90s. He was joining the M25 from - I think - the M11 very fast and lost it. Unfortunately he had passed a Police car on the slip road and thought there was no point in slowing down. He spun across the M25, missed everyone but hit the barriers very hard. For reasons unrecorded the two police officers present didn't charge him and he wondered whether they thought he had suffered enough. One of them said, "When you went past us you nearly sucked the windows out of our car." He had the car repaired as a Vantage Volante before the factory built the handful they made at the end of production. On a tour of the AML factory I mentioned the badly damaged Virage Volante rebuilt as a Vantage Volante and the guide gave me an old fashioned look. "Other than the engine and gearbox and a few bits of the interior it was a new car."

[DickyC]

To return briefly to my hotted up MG Metro of yesteryear, one of my commutes involved the Marlow Bypass. With no traffic this would be a fast dual carriageway joining the M40 with the M4 with just one roundabout to interrupt flow. At the time of day I used it I never had a clear shot at the roundabout and the boy racer in me had to content himself with blasting round the roundabout from stationary and then away on the dual carriageway. Southbound was best as it was uphill away from the roundabout. Then, one evening, I fell through a hole in the traffic and after a fast run south from the M40 the roundabout was clear and waiting for me. Round the roundabout, left, right, left, then foot down even harder for the hill. Bang. The only engine I've ever blown up. Limped to the layby, disconnected plug leads until I found the blown piston. Turned it off, took the plug out and drove home on three cylinders to decide not to have the engine rebuilt again. So endeth the MG Metro period of my life.