Fast cars = Fast drivers?

[jimmy]

Had a conversation last night about fast cars and drivers. Me and my mate reckon that having a fast car tends to make the drivers drive fast.........because they can!

I have got nothing against fast drivers as long as they do it safely, sensibly and don't put anybody else at risk, I dont have a problem. Out of all the cars I have had from MK2 Escorts, Peugeots <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> , Land Rovers, Discoveries, BMW's and now my Merc, I have only been stopped once by the Police, that was when I had a  BMW325i.

It was late one night and a motorbike behind me was annoying me with it's bright light, I gave it opportunity to pass but it wouldn't. Being as I was young, in my early twenties I decided to lose the bike and floored the car up an uphill stretch. Got to 85 and the bike was dissappearing, got to 120ish and I thought I had lost the bike...........stopped at a set of traffic lights and the bike pulled up next to me and tapped on my window, &quot;sorry officer was I really going that fast&quot; I apologised, and he gave me a warning and let me off, luckily.

When I had the BMW I could not help but drive fast. The same happened last year when I had my dad's C43AMG Estate for two weeks whilst he was on holiday. My dogs loved those two weeks!!

The feeling of the car, the superb exhaust sound and the thump in the back when you wiggled your toes, instantly brought a big grin to your face, even after two weeks of driving it, it still did. On reflection I found I was taking risks by overtaking everything that got in the way, and flooring it at every opportunity, just because I could and it felt good, it had the grin factor!.

Since then, probably because I have never had a fast car since, although my car is no slouch, I find I drive more sensibly and feel safer. I sometimes drive 150 miles up the M6 sticking to 70mph and feel more refreshed and relaxed and only a few minutes later arriving than if I had travelled at 80+mph all the way.

Oh dear am I getting old, boring and sensible ?

Just wondered if those of you with fast, sporty cars tend to drive faster, take more risks and perhaps have more points on your licences?

This should get some interesting replies <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

 

[Koolvin]

YIKES!!!

I was doing about 110 on a dark non-lit motorway yesterday when I saw some big bright Xenon lights coming fast - first thing I thought of was a big menacing Police omega - I moved over faster than a pig in Sh*t and slowed down quicker than my car could ever accelerate - what was it?

Brand spanking Ferrari!!!!! must have shot past at about 150+ easy.

I used to drive like this in my other cars - dunno whats got into me recently - it's only a 1.8 FFS.

 

[Billy]

Disagree,

I've been lucky enough to have &quot;fast&quot; cars for a number of years. And I now find that I don't need to thrash these cars or drive them fast, simply because I know that they can go faster that a 17 year old in his mums Nova.

These cars have power, performance &amp; safety.

The most one thing that stands out to me about performance Mercedes is their ability to STOP!!!

Try going from 70 to zero with yours hands in the air, that's what they make you do on an AMG driving day.

 

[Big Ed]

I'm not so sure it is completely about how fast the car is - more how it delivers it's power:

I personally find that in cars that if I have to rev the nuts off I end up driving fast, just because it's more natural to have your foot down. In cars that have loads of low end torque I tend to go at more of a sedate pace, since I'm more relaxed and have to make a deliberate decision to floor it. I find that in my C280 Sport I rarely do over 3000-3500 revs in day-to-day driving - any more and I am beginning to pick up some serious speed. Conversely, I used to go quite a lot faster in my previous C240 Sport since I would need to be on the gas more to make the same progress (this was also a company car, so I might have been less worried about breaking it, whereas now any bills come out of my own pockets&#33<img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

A good example of this is an old mate of mine who years back had a Celica (150bhp 16v 2 litre) which he thrashed the whole time because the engine needed revs to work well - he got banned several times in the process. He then got an Audi S2 (220bhp turbo 2.2 litre - somewhat quicker than his Celica) and drove a lot slower, since the car gave oodles of power low down.

I think it's probably why a lot of BMW drivers get bad press - most BM engines seem to respond far better to caning them (325, 330, E36 M3, etc), so I guess the drivers just get used to driving them that way.

I also reckon that when driving a reasonably fast car it makes me not bother going so fast - there's no challenge to going fast  (apart from the corners, but personally I've started to think a bit more about what might be round that corner - horses / stationary vehicles, etc. so I'm normally a bit more sedate round corners these days) You're almost always in a faster car than those around you, so if some kid in a hot hatch wants to blow up his 16v Nova by trying to get past me then let him (it must be said that when I was a kid in a hot hatch I didn't necessarily see it quite the same way!!&#33<img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> Has anyone else noticed that some of the fastest cars on the motorways tend to be Corsa's + Fiesta's bowling along at around 100mph with the engine screaming for mercy?

I've driven a few quick cars recently (an Audi S4 and a CLK430 like Fudgers), and found that it was natural to just potter along quite gently (80ish on dual carriageways), since if you made an effort to go fast you'd be way beyond what is either legally or even publically acceptable for a public road before you knew it. Once in a while I'd open it up to get a quick fix of speed, but normally in the lower gears to keep below silly speeds, then after a scary look at the fuel computer, return to cruise mode.

Sorry for droning on!

Ed.

 

[Malc]

I endorse the comment about Mercs being good at stopping - and not just the performance ones.

I was with a colleague, in his C-class diesel estate, returning from a business trip. We were just leaving the M6 at Sandbach and were half-way up the slip-road, when his attention was taken by something on the motorway. When he turned back to look where he was going, it was a case of sh*t, should have braked hard 25 yards ago. So he braked very hard! The rate at which the car came to a stop was astounding. I thought we had no chance of stopping before ploughing into the line of traffic in front, but he almost stood the car on its nose, and you'd have been lucky to slide a sheet of paper between his bumper and the car's in front.

I've not had cause to test the brakes in my more venerable motors to quite that extent - and I hope never to do so.

 

[Fudger]

In agreement with Big Ed on this one. I don't tend to thrash around even though the car could do it. I like to know the car has 'it' but don't use it very often.

Mercs have always been GT's rather than racing cars (in the main) and my CLK430 is a prime example of that. Also, kids don't tend to have them so you don't get a lot of wreckless MB drivers. BMW on the other hand...........

I always consider safety first and will only open it up when it's safe to do so. My recent trip in France allowed me to cruise at 110 ish over 200 miles when I would not in the UK both because of the road quality and lack of traffic (and police).

The original point was do fast cars tend to make drivers drive fast. I am not sure that is a generalisation you can make although it does stack up in some circumstances  <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

I hate to admit it but for me having a 'fast car' is not about how fast it is but about having it in the first place. Status and all that... <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

 

[BaldGuy]

Quality.....