Try Millbrook at 155mph then, I have, and I'm in no hurry to do it again. Cavalier Turbo 6spd 4wd on the limit, no thanks, roll cage or no.
The link to the Darwin Awards JATO car page is here:
www.darwinawards.com/darwin/index_darwin1995.html
Just open a new browser window, find the page on there you want to link to, highlight all of the address, right-click on it and select "copy", come back here, position your cursor where you want the link to go, right-click and select "paste". It comes up as a valid link when you actually post it to the thread.
HTH.
Dave.
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Anything on the M25!! Earlier this month I had to make 2 very busy and stressful trips to UK. These entailed a lot of driving (Kent, Essex, Norfolk, LHR etc) and as a result I covered a good few miles on the M25 at various times of the day and in varying weather conditions (including that cold snap you had in the first week of Jan). I tell you there were times on that M25 when I was shaken and stirred, genuinely afraid and perpetually nervous. The antics of truck drivers, bullying other vehicles around, the terrifying high speed tailgating that was simply ALL the time, the undertaking not so much, that's normal in most countries, but the sheer closeness coupled with speed that people drive at. Drivers of BMW's who seem to think their vehicle is an extension of a certain body part and drive accordingly, the cutting in, the violent bunchups where the whole world lights up with red stoplights and you pray not only you will make it in time but that the guy behind does as well. The same on the A roads, everyone gives you the impression they're in a tearing hurry, that you are in their way and devil take the hindmost. No, I don't dawdle. Mostly I did 80 when I could safely and STILL I oftentimes got hassled. I'm not as young as I was, and maybe I'm just a country boy in the big city nowadays but how anyone gets much pleasure out of UK driving beats me.
I am joining the M25 via a slip road. Moderate snow is falling, it is early evening. The road is greasy (Biker experience notes that fact!) I am winding my rental up to join the heavy mainstream traffic, I know I'm doing 60 mph because I just looked. Literally out of nowhere (I looked in my mirror not 2 secs ago) howl two sportsbikes, cut in front of me with inches to spare and literally wheelie (front wheel in the air), in the snow, between the traffic, splitting lanes and gone like a cool breeze, to quote Chuck Berry. They had to be going 90, possibly even more. Aside from their own antics and the risk they were running what havoc might have been caused if someone (maybe a car, not even them) had panicked? I really wanted to stop and settle down my nerves but of course in a situation like that I couldn't.
Now I have driven in more countries than you can shake a stick at, a wide variety of vehicles. I've done Highway 101 out of Burlingame in the Friday rush hour before Thanksgiving, Iranian mountain passes, Delhi on any day, and so on. Not a boast, it's a fact and has been job-related. I live in a place where traffic rules and regulations are honored more in the breach more than the observance, altercations are occasionally resolved at pistol point, where if a cop stops you it's an even chance it's beer money he's after, and where I routinely see stuff every day which would make your hair curl. Even our own meticulous DVD if he was back on the force couldn't fill up in a lifetime of police-issue notebooks what happens here. In a word, fairly close to anarchy. I am definitely not a nervous driver, but give me Filipino traffic anarchy any day. That old M25 knocks the socks off 'em for chills and thrills. I was glad to get back to the familiar chaos. Just take it easy, you guys.
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If you like the M25 you'll love the M6 J8-10a at 7:30 in the morning, its like accidently wondering onto Snetterton during one of those truck races!
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Dave,
Thanks for link and info on how to post HTML links.
I am impressed at your 155mph at Millbrook - the sight of an exact version of my X-Type in BRG at stopped on the inside lane every lap kept me to 120 although John Lyon had it over 130 with a bit in hand.
Regards,
Matt35.
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Mm-hmm, they have very strict hazard procedures there, I know if someone's going for a flat-out run they will clear the outside lane and warn other cars using the track of what's going on. Still un-nerving though, seeing all these professional test-drivers move aside to let you try not to kill anybody! I don't think I'll be doing it again. The proximity to the crash barrier and the force of the cornering are enough to remind you of the enormous speeds and forces involved, something you're likely to forget in a straight line in the centre lane of a 3-lane motorway.
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Dave,
We picked up a radio before entering Millbrook and it was in the car all the time to warn us of anything untoward, or let us report anything we had done wrong.
The Armco does get nearer - the pre drive warnings about not swerving for birds or animals begin to make sense over 100 or so?
Not on the constant speed circuit - on another part of Millbrook - there was only me and a test driver.
I was desperately trying to follow John Lyons instruction about getting the apex right - watching the mirror to let the test car through so I would not hold him up.
Later, I think I learned something....the test driver did not go when I put the left indicator or held up my left hand ..he waited and gave me space - possibly had a laugh - and overtook me about every second lap.
I think I learned what a lot I still have to learn!
Regards,
Matt35
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Dave,
The other X was in a kind of parking area - not inside lane - sorry.
Trying to post Millbrook layout PDF as a link.
Matt.
www.millbrook.co.uk/newsite/level2_files/TRACKS.pdf
If this works, it's down to you!
Matt35
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It works!
Incidentally, the top part of the hill route is the highest surfaced road in Bedfordshire.
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Hi again forum.
Read this post and what I believe is as follows,
Derestriction at certain times on certain stretches could be a good idea, with 'safety' cameras deserving their name in areas that were still restricted?
210 on the m25 is excessive though, and as for slight bends feeling like 'hairpins' well its probably down to the quality of the car's roadholding. Certainly scared myself on the m4 when I nudged 125 in the 309, revs in red-line, obviously pushed past its limit (it was downhill and probably with lots of wind behind.) A very slight bend was indeed a struggle. This by the way was at about 1am on a tuesday.
210 on a truly long, straight stretch at a very quiet time of night may not be so daft.
Modified Skylines can exceed 200 by the way - the engines can be modified to a worrying 1000+bhp (from 2.6 litres, wonder how long theyd last?)
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Meant to add, the danger will always be the crawler in the middle/outside and so on, such things should be dealt with but probably won't. A higher speed limit then, is the solution.
By the way, wonder how Bugatti are going to prove 252mph the Veyron should manage?
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Modified Skylines can exceed 200 by the way - the engines can be modified to a worrying 1000+bhp (from 2.6 litres, wonder how long theyd last?)
About 5 minutes if your lucky! Someone I know entered the Silver State Classic (Basically a legal cannonball run on a closed highway)in the US, Apparently the moded Skylines didn't even make the 1st couple of K's!
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Dave, Thanks for info - Andy Warhol said that everyone can be famous for twenty minutes?
To all of you in Bedfordshire - I almost sh!t on the highest surfaced road in your county last December!
Matt35
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I have to add my 'tuppence worth' on this...
The whole point of someone driving '210 mph on the M25' seems utterly ridiculous to me...what thrill do they get from it? It takes absolutely no 'skill'...No really...no skill at all! A monkey could do it!
One of my cars is a BMW E30 M3...It's not the fastest car in a straightline...but so what? If anyone thinks it's "Too slow" all that means is that they're slowing down too much for corners!
This argument will I believe hold for quality performance cars from many other manufacturers too??
210 mph is idiotic for anywhere except the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans..and proves nothing on a public road. Even F1 cars rarely pull 210 mph...are the silly little rich boys who pull 210 mph on public motorways where 'Joe Public' may have his family on the road in their family saloon trying to prove they have 'bigger balls' than 'Joe Public'? If they are perhaps they's like to compare the size of their balls against me in my M3 on a wet,dark and deserted Scottish B-Road in the rain?!
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I wonder what the stopping distance would be at this speed ??
Probably could be measured in junctions ;-)
Agree with you delboy, no skill whatsoever to drive a car at this speed just a severe lack of self-preservation required.
With the variable speed limits on the M25 it could be possible to raise limits when traffic is light (120MPH max).
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The formula used for (imperial measure) Highway code figures is
Speed in MPH squared, divided by 20, equals stopping distance in feet.
Obviously compounds have improved since this was devised, but it gives some idea: 2205 feet.
It's a long way...
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So I presume his insurance covered him for driving at this speed? That he's got adequate funds to cover the clearing up of him,, his car, the road furniture and whatever else it hits when it finally lands?
156 on the A90, 210 on the M25? The speed is the easy bit. It's what happens when you hit a bird, fox, have to change direction. That's when you'd realise that no matter how fast the car was going, you're always ten steps behind it.
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210 is excessive but the 70 limit introduced years and years ago is still wrong. *Some* stretches of motorway could be derestricted or subject to fairly high limits and at the end of the day if you hit a bird/fox/whatever at 65, 70 ur still going to be in trouble. There's always a place when speed is safe and as a passenger I feel far more comfortable sitting in the outside lane at 90-100 (when traffic is quiet) than in the inside at 50-60 negotiating lorries and junctions.
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I must admit then when I first started driving in my 1.3 Astra, I thought 70mpg was REALLY the top safe limit for any car on the motorway.
Now that I've progressed up to an S-class, I can appreciate what people have been going on about ll these years!
Perhaps they should increase the limit to 90. Over that, I think the mixed British motorway driving 'skills' we have in this country would become the limiting factor.
(Yes, that pointed to all you loonies who think that the middle lane is the medium-to-fast lane where you shuold be at the speeds of 64.5 to 79.5 miles an hour. No matter what)
210mph! On the M25? Wow ...
But stupid
Rojer
rojer@lycos.co.uk
Astra, Renault 18, Renault 25 TXi, Astra Est, Passat Est, Mercedes 190E, Mercedes
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I thought 70mpg was REALLY the top safe limit for any car on the motorway.
Or even 70mph ;o) Want me to edit it?
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