"Modern cars are too powerful for UK roads"

Sounds like a fun car, jimjam. Pretty sure a Forester / Legacy will be my next car 😀

Nice road, that. Looks narrow!

I do understand the reluctance to mention car specifics…part of me wonders if mentioning online what I’ve done to mine contributed to **** stealing it. Edit: Not the Panda. I’m happy for everyone to know that that’s 999cc of completely stock fury.

thooms

Sounds like a fun car, jimjam. Pretty sure a Forester / Legacy will be my next car

Awesome. Just be sure never to drive like a cock, bell end or arsehole like me.

I’ve never got a bike because my inner cock would get the better of me and I’d almost certainly die – probably have the same trouble with a Subaru of some kind.

epicsteve – Member
While that is one possible scenario I’m going to put forward another one – which is that the hand gestures …

Always a possibility, but seeing as they had the power to clear off safely, the hand gestures were unnecessary when they should have been concentrating on the road. (IMO)

I think jimjam needs to get a motorbike though. His car sounds really expensive to maintain.

That way he could have a nice slow car (all cars are slow), loads of cheap petrolheading with the motorbike, and the opportunity to make hand gestures at slow cars. 🙂

When buying a car, my policy used to be to look at the price of the base model, and the price of the loaded model, subtract the prices to get the difference, buy the base model and spend the difference on motorbikes. That rationale kept my wife onside with my motorbike habit. The year I bought an H-D ElectraGlide and a BMW K1 on the same day needed a bit of smooth talking, and the purchase of a somewhat flasher car than I cared to drive. 🙂

Always a possibility, but seeing as they had the power to clear off safely, the hand gestures were unnecessary when they should have been concentrating on the road. (IMO)

I’m assuming they were tourists riding Harleys, so they might not have had the pace to get away or wanted to go any quicker.

I’m assuming they were tourists riding Harleys, so they might not have had the pace to get away or wanted to go any quicker.

I know a guy who rides a Triumph Rocket and races anyone who dares to pass him. He always wins.

epicsteve – Member
I’m assuming they were tourists riding Harleys…

You can have a surprisingly good time cornering a big Harley if you get your weight forward over the tank, and then hang off to stop everything dragging. 🙂

But Harleys barely have the performance of a good 250, so quite possible.

You can have a surprisingly good time cornering a big Harley if you get your weight forward over the tank, and then hang off to stop everything dragging.

You’d be having fun (which is the important thing) but not going very fast.

epicyclo

I think jimjam needs to get a motorbike though.

No chance. I love the idea of it but I couldn’t trust myself.

And you couldn’t even imagine a scenario where a bike wouldn’t be massively superior.

Yeah I thought that was a bit blinkered. While bikes are biblically fast in straight line accel, their braking and cornering ability is not quite so impressive and requires serious skill to extract. Even a car that a hardcore biker would dismiss as being “slow” (like an M3) is pretty much impossible to drive flat out on a typical UK country road. The winner of any “race” would be the one with the most skill and least regard for their own mortality, not the one with the theoretically fastest bike/car.

Edit: local road knowledge plays a huge part too.

No chance. I love the idea of it but I couldn’t trust myself.

Hahahahahaha you never really wrote that did you ?

You did ? Was it supposed to be that amusing ?

If we take an example, Cadwell Park circuit has a good selection of corner types and is regarded as being one of the best circuits in the world to drive by many riders/drivers. Parts of it are like typical UK B-class road (Mountain section etc) the rest is like a very fast country A-class road.

A Radical SR8 Sports car will get round in circa 1min 22 secs (lap record)

Shayne Byrne riding his ZX-10 British Superbike race bike lapped and set a new record for bikes at 1min 26 secs

I love Cadwell and it’s great fun on the bike. Unfortunately I’ve never driven my car round there so don’t know which one I’d be quicker with there. My guess is that in the wet I’d be quicker in my car, but in the dry I’d be quicker on the bike.

The example above, while legitimate enough, isn’t a full answer though. I had a quick look at the lap records for BTCC and BSB at UK circuits and it looks like the bikes are normally quite a lot quicker in the dry. Given they’re both based on the type of machinery we’re likely to see on the road then that might be a better basis for comparison with “real world” situations.

Now put Cadwell into the real world context

Your average ‘fast’ guy is around a 1min 40-45s of Cadwell on a bike you can buy new for £10,000 That’s just your average fella on an average sportsbike.

What’s the times for Cadwell in a real world car?

http://www.planet-9.com/united-kingdom-ireland-region/77714-lap-times-cadwell-park.html

From there, the fast fellas in GT3’s etc are about the same time it seems.

vids showing your trackday boys 1.47-1.50 so very little in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAOndxsFv10

weeksy – Member
…What’s the times for Cadwell in a real world car?

…From there, the fast fellas in GT3’s etc are about the same time it seems.

vids showing your trackday boys 1.47-1.50 so very little in it.

[backset mode] From the vid it looks like he could have improved his times with a different approach to the corners and some later braking. [/backset mode]

[backset mode] From the vid it looks like he could have improved his times with a different approach to the corners and some later braking. [/backset mode]

Watching a video of me there at about 1min50’s you’d think the same too… which is easy when it’s not you having to control it 🙂

I watch me and think “why in gods name is he braking so early….” etc.

The last trackday I did at Cadwell we had guys in the fast group dipping below 1:40, however 1:47-1:50 would have been a decent fast group pace and about as quick as I could manage on my CBR600.

It’s been a few years since I did a trackday though. I’d be happy to get close to 2:00 now, especially as I fell off the last time I was there!

epicsteve – Member

The last trackday I did at Cadwell we had guys in the fast group dipping below 1:40, however 1:47-1:50 would have been a decent fast group pace and about as quick as I could manage on my CBR600.

It’s been a few years since I did a trackday though. I’d be happy to get close to 2:00 now, especially as I fell off the last time I was there!

I feel your pain mate… 2.00 wouldn’t make me too unhappy next year for sure lol.

jimjam – Member
Or rather, could. Till the engine blew up. When I get it back it won’t be in that state of tune.

So, this mythical beast of a car has about 0 bhp, then??

Rachel

Should be lifting it again in a couple of days. So we’ll see.

On the public roads. Sticking to the speed limits.

On the public roads. Sticking to the speed limits.

Really? It is possible, you know, to travel from 0 to 60mph as quickly as your car will allow and do so perfectly safely.

Ahh, but only if you know the road!

Ive spent the last two weeks driving in Kuwait and our roads seem serene. Its madness here, packed 3 lane motorway, doing 120kmph then a dick in a V8 comes up 2″ from your bumper flashing even though you have meerly one cars width between you and the next car so where he thinks he going is anyones guessThey will then gun it fly to the slow lane and cut back in before lamping the anchors on. Its madness.

I wouldnt mind but every day there are smashed up cars at the side of the motorway, they dont get cleaned up like in the UK, they just sit there till someone shifts them so you would think its a wake up call to them. Its bloody sobering to see as some look horrific and i struggle to see how anyone would get out alive but they dont think at all.

There again they have Allah looking down on them so all is safe and well…….

Ill not even go into the super bike riders with the helmets attached to the rear of the bike doing wheelies at stupid speed

hence the weekends club ride having some extra arse protection as everyone is looking at their phone constantly, god knows what at but its terrifying how little attention they pay to the road

There again they have Allah looking down on them so all is safe and well…….

You realise you just brought religion (and possibly racism) into a driving thread don’t you? I think you’re about to brake the internet.

I was in Bahrain for a couple of weeks in the summer and did a fair bot of driving while I was there. Outside the city it was fine as the roads were very quiet, but the standard of driving in the city wasn’t great. Not really any worse than London though.

their words not mine!

and possibly racism

Islam is not a race. Nice try though.

@bland the motorway from Dubai to Abu Dhabi used to have speed humps on it to try and slow the traffic down, I saw some spectacular wreckage by the side of the road over the years. I’m stunned anyone would ride a bike on the roads in the middle east, it’s dangerous enough in a big 4×4

Don’t drive in the middle east simple as. A lady in my rock and roll dance group had a kid run under her car in Saudi. Her passport was taken off her and she had to wait months for the trial. Fortunately witnesses confirmed she was going through a green light at reasonable speed. If not she’d still be there. Take taxis.

Edit: I forgot to mention she nearly stopped and the girl was unhurt.

And in other news…

“Sensible cars are too powerful for Arab roads”

Puts things into perspective slightly, yes?

Hang on, aren’t drugs illegal over there?

Those saudis are just having too much fun

That’s pretty much how I picture the average STWer in his/her turbo-diesel estate approaching the trail centre car park, but obviously a fair bit slower 😉

A car is only unsuitable (as far as excess power/speed goes) if it simple CANNOT mechanically drive below the speed limit. Any other reason is the driver.

There are two points being made:

1) Buying a fast car if you’re not going to drive it fast is pointless – therefore it’s going to be drive fast at some point

2) A car with more capability is going to make it both easy and tempting to drive fast, and eventually physics will catch up with you.

So yes, it’s the driver – but the driver is influenced by the car.

Shit I said I was out of this.. dammit.

molgrips – Member

1) Buying a fast car if you’re not going to drive it fast is pointless – therefore it’s going to be drive fast at some point

Which is, to be fair, obvious rubbish on both counts

Really?

Who buys a fast (note I didn’t say ‘nice’) car and doesn’t drive it fast? And why?

Speed limits are way out of date.
Nobody does 70 on the motorway anymore, cars just stop and go so much better than they used to. Cars are more powerful but they stop and handle way better too even tyres have moved on – just the drivers that haven’t moved on. At least some of them.

Who buys a fast (note I didn’t say ‘nice’) car and doesn’t drive it fast? And why?

Pretty sure I covered speed vs power on the first couple of pages. For most people, it’s not about top speed.