Well, just got back from a 3 day trip to Germany. Oh the hardship of having to drive the scooby all that way on nice police free roads, running on real cheap (well I think, just got to wait for the visa card bill!) 98 RON SuperPlus as they call it (none of this 97 ron crap!!) Lots of fun!!

rant mode on:

I drove through, I think, four countries, namley, France, Belguim, Netherlands and Germany. On the trip there, I stayed within the speed limit in france, but once I'd got passed by everything and their dog I speeded up and manged to get used to travelling at 100mph plus (usually 120 - 130) when in good old blighty some b'stard would have radar gunned me.

So, the rant. As I said I was travelling at warp speed and I saw only one police car, a netherlands one, and that was at the side of the road waiting to chase people, but they didn't bother with me, even though I went past at around 120mph (maybe they only saw a big black blur http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif oh and a mile (or should that be kilometer) wide grin http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif)

This was one car in 600 miles, not bad eh? and whilst I was blasting along I was being overtaken by others going much, much faster than me. Another thing was that I did not see ANY speed cameras at all.

As soon as I returned to England at around midnight last night the first thing I saw was some poor sode being pulled by plod for speeding! This really, really annoyed me, I felt like pulling over and telling plod that I'd just drove for over 4 hours at 130 mph and saw no accidents or problems, and they're persucuting this poor sode for doing 80!! grrrrrr

rant mode off.

apart from this the trip was a dream, saw the speedo read 140, which I guess is really 130, but even still it's darn quick.

And when you drove off the ferry did it not feel like your car had something broken due to the poor quality of our roads?

robski

robski:
If I'd driven off the ferry I'd be really, really worried as I went by eurostar http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

seriously though, the UK roads did seem a little bumpy, but to be honest the road from Brugge to Calais was far worse than the UK motorways. the other countries roads were brilliant, not 100 percent smooth but pretty close.

One thing I did not like was the really, really tight slip roads, caning it down the autobahn and then seeing your exit and trying to zip down it at 120 is not fun! think the brakes need changing now!

robski:
If I'd driven off the ferry I'd be really, really worried as I went by eurostar http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

seriously though, the UK roads did seem a little bumpy, but to be honest the road from Brugge to Calais was far worse than the UK motorways. the other countries roads were brilliant, not 100 percent smooth but pretty close.

One thing I did not like was the really, really tight slip roads, caning it down the autobahn and then seeing your exit and trying to zip down it at 120 is not fun! think the brakes need changing now!

oh! and in the rain their roads are not nice! thought the motorway here was bad, but christ! could not see the white lines on the road due to spray, and even then you've got nutters doing 100 plus!!!

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

I drove down from the UK to Frankfurt on Tuesday and will have the car in Germany for the rest of July.

Autobahns: what a rush! Average traffic speed was 100-130mph! I managed 140mph at the redline in 5th in my WRX. Pain in the bum when you suddenly go from unlimited speed to 120km/h to 100km/h for maybe only 1/2 mile and then back to unlimited again. Also, good brakes are needed to slow you down when someone pulls out in front doing 70mph - most autobahns are only 2 lanes. I agree rain makes the road surface very tricky indeed. Got caught out last night.

Nice having a stretch of unrestricted a/bahn on the way to work (well, the long way round anyway http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif) so I can get up to max speed without having to be on the lookout for coppers.

I think I'll enjoy the next three weeks of driving. Oh, 98RON SUL too http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Stew


[This message has been edited by StewartW (edited 06-07-2000).]

Germany is a funny place though - All roads lead to 'Ausfahrt' http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Mick

I have had loads of offers of work over in Germany...what's going on over there???

Are all IT contractors abandoning ship because of IR35 ???

Hmmm.....

Is it a nice place to work?? Friendly???

I don't know about anywhere else within Germany but I worked in Frankfurt for a couple of weeks on three seperate occasions and had a great time each time.

Markus: how did you get the Scooby on Eurostar? Drive down the platform at Waterloo? Don't mean 'Le Shuttle' by any chance? http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

I know what you mean about Continental driving, especially the German Autobahns http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif
Not had a chance to take the scoob over yet but you are right, 100mph is SLOW over there!

But isn't it amazing how they all slow when required for tight bends, warning signs, road conditions? A much better standard of driving than you get on any British motorway.

Can't wait to go Skiing in Austria next year http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Chris

Sounds like Germany could be a good place for a mega-meet.

Anyone know the best/cheapest way to get there, the b/c places to stay, the b/c roads to drive, some excuse to go there?

mb

Nein

how do you get to be a super muppet?

Yet, Germany's fatality rate on motorways is twice that of the UK's as a percentage

https://www.thelocal.de/20190201/are...-in-the-world/

And dont start me on Belgium, who have a massively high death rate on the roads, and are some of the worst and most aggressive drivers in Europe.

Its a tricky one with the Autobahns. The number of accidents on the Autobahn is very low, hence the "safer" claim, but when you do crash its much more likely to be fatal, hence the higher number of fatalities. The number of non-fatal injuries is then also less. Sadly, the number of limit free sections are being ever reduced to 100, 120 or 130kmh!

Environmentally, its pretty bad though, for me above 200kmh its like having your fuel tank on free-flow, you can virtually see the needle falling. Travelling >200kmh is also extremely tiring, which is not great. I find cruising between 150-180kmh is about the optimum balance between fuel consumption, not too tiring and fast enough that you're still paying full attention and therefore less likely to crash.

I find travelling at 70mph in the UK is way too slow, I'm just not stimulated enough and my attention level drops!

Umm, all of you do realize this is a thread from 21 years ago? :D

Ja, Ja!