Minimum performance...........?

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Thu 3 Jun 2004 19:12
Minimum performance...........? - L'escargot
Maximum speed limits are all very well, but at the other end of the scale we ought to have minimum performance requirements ~ say 0-60mph in 10 seconds minimum. A lot of the frustation on single-carriageway roads is caused when the second vehicle in the queue just hasn't got the necessary acceleration to enable it to safely get past the slowcoach at the head of the queue. And anyone who is being closely followed by 4 or more vehicles at substantially less than the limit should be required to pull off the road until the road behind is clear of the tailback.
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L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Thu 3 Jun 2004 19:20
Minimum performance...........? - teabelly
The second vehicle should drop back allowing a big enough space for those behind to go infront of them and get passed. Even if you had minimum 0-60 times ( an awful lot of cars fail to get to 60 that quickly) there is no guarantee that the person will use that performance. The ones sitting behind might be doing so because they don't wish to overtake and feel safer pootling along behind someone else. They're only a problem when the don't allow others to overtake them. One of those think adverts on this subject might be a better idea.

0-60 isn't the only indicator though. Mid range acceleration is what gets you overtaking as Driven have shown with their truck over taking test.
teabelly
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Thu 3 Jun 2004 19:34
Minimum performance...........? - SjB {P}
Potential performance of a car matters owt if the nut behind the wheel doesn't use it.

My missus will happily overtake slower traffic in our V70 2.4T, but won't explore anything like the available poke, even though she is good at selecting the appropriate gear for any particular manoeuvre. Tactfully questioned, she will explain that she's intimidated by 200 horses. For any given, half legal, A-road overtake, I'll do it quicker in her 1.8 306.

I also remember a police driving safety roadshow a few years ago, where a pensioner and his wife had been killed whilst overtaking a tractor, up hill, in a forty limit. The gear lever showed that fifth gear was selected at the time...
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Thu 3 Jun 2004 21:52
Minimum performance...........? - BazzaBear {P}
I was told recently by a friend whos boyfriend is a policeman that there is a law regarding slow moving vehicles holding up traffic. If there are more than 10 cars behind they have to pull over when safe to do so. I'm not sure what classes of vehicle this applies to though.
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