Speeding and Accidents..

[190]

Methinks you mean kinetic energy

I did. Just left out the velocity.

As long as the point wasn't missed in the semantics. Many of us often drive at 5 MPH over the limit but how many would have realised an extra 5 MPH can result in a 25 MPH increase in the impact speed.

 

[Justintyme]

It's always been that way, but youngsters have much faster cars nowadays. I remember struggling to get my Viva up to 80 with 4 on board

And most likely, you were going downhill at that.. with the wind at your back !!!

 

[markjay]

My first car was a 1958 Renault Duaphine... 845cc, 27bhp, 3-speed manual gearbox.

The much-sought-after Gordini model with the 37bhp tuned engine and the 4-speed box was out of my price range at the time...

 

[James Copeland]

My first car was a 1958 Renault Duaphine... 845cc, 27bhp, 3-speed manual gearbox.

The much-sought-after Gordini model with the 37bhp tuned engine and the 4-speed box was out of my price range at the time...

My brother had one and it was very often on 2 wheels around corners.
Scared me

 

[BTB 500]

My first car was a 1958 Renault Duaphine... 845cc, 27bhp

[MontyPython]Luxury. We used to dream of having 27 bhp.[/MontyPython]

My Fiat 126 was 594 cc and just 23 bhp!

 

[190]

I can top that with an original Fiat 500 estate - very rare and worth a fortune now if I still had it. As far as I can tell it was only 13 HP. I rebuilt the twin cylinder engine at the age of 16; sneaking it up stairs and hiding it under my bed until my mother found it. Who remembers when beds were tall enough to hide an engine underneath.

 

[BTB 500]

I can top that with an original Fiat 500 estate - very rare and worth a fortune now if I still had it. As far as I can tell it was only 13 HP. I rebuilt the twin cylinder engine at the age of 16; sneaking it up stairs and hiding it under my bed until my mother found it. Who remembers when beds were tall enough to hide an engine underneath.

I suspect the engine would have been 17 bhp (it looks like the original 13 bhp one was dropped from the range at the time the Giardiniera came out) ... but who knows! I was interested to see that the 500 and the 126 were actually sold alongside each other for several years - I never knew that. Also the hot Abarth 695 SS only had 37 bhp! I always wondered why there was no Abarth version of the 126.

Fiat 500 - Wikipedia

 

[E55BOF]

My first car was a 1958 Renault Duaphine... 845cc, 27bhp, 3-speed manual gearbox.

So was mine! It was sh1te...

 

[markjay]

So was mine! It was sh1te...

I had mine for only one week

Didn't like it much so got rid of it.

It had a stripped thread in the engine block. That was the bolt that tightens the alternator belt. So the belt kept going loose, and the battery discharged. When this happened, the car could be push-started, but the lights were dimm and you couldn't drive it at night time.

Still... officially, it was my first car

 

[James Copeland]

Used to roll very very easily to!

 

[Stratman]

Linked to on another forum, I thought an interesting read, especially -
" ..... 85% of fatal and 93% of serious RTAs involve road users travelling at or below the speed limit ...."

Possibly due to lower speed accidents occurring in predominantly urban areas with higher speed ones tending to be on motorways and dual carriageways?

Statistics on their own rarely tell the full story.

 

[whitenemesis]

Possibly due to lower speed accidents occurring in predominantly urban areas with higher speed ones tending to be on motorways and dual carriageways?

Statistics on their own rarely tell the full story.

I think the take away message is that speeding i.e driving at speeds above the indicated limit for the road, is not the main cause of RTAs. And it's speeding that is being targeted by the Police with the excuse that it reduces accidents.

 

[E55BOF]

I bought mine in 1969. Time had not been kind to it; nor had the God knows how many previous owners.

I was an impecunious and very VERY green 19-year-old Pilot Officer, and I bought it from a Corporal in the MT Section. He told me:

It was a Gordini; it wasn't.

The block was cracked; it was. He had fixed it with Isopon: Isopon, yes - fixed, no. (Yes, Isopon; I was that green...). Radweld and steel wool didn't help. either, and I had to top the cooling system up every twenty miles. On the good side, though, I didn't need to worry about antifreeze.

It had a year's MoT; it had three weeks - and he was posted the following week...

The battery was OK; it wasn't. However, the car started OK on the handle (remember them?), and I was young and strong.

The brakes pulled (they did) because he had just fitted new front shoes (he hadn't) and they needed to bed in. The brakes pulled because one of the front wheel cylinders was leaking fluid into the drum... though to be fair, it went round left-hand corners beautifully on the brakes, because only the left-hand front brake was working...

I won't mention the sticking clutch,'fixed' (for twice what I paid for the car) by the Renault agent in Northallerton by replacing the clutch and flywheel; a week later it was slipping again - the cable was partially seized, and a little WD40 sorted it for good. Refund? "Oh no sir; we've done the work." "Oh, OK". I told you I was green...

Or the heater that didn't work, because the long sacking tube under the car taking warm air from the radiator at the rear to the heater in the cabin had dropped off.

Or the silencer that dropped off the end of the downpipe on the A1 at Ferrybridge; it cost me all of £5 to have it welded back on, but I had to go back the following weekend to reclaim my spare wheel and pay the bill, because they wouldn't take a cheque.

It was sh1te...

 

[grober]

I bought mine in 1969. Time had not been kind to it; nor had the God knows how many previous owners.

I was an impecunious and very VERY green 19-year-old Pilot Officer, and I bought it from a Corporal in the MT Section. He told me:

It was a Gordini; it wasn't.

The block was cracked; it was. He had fixed it with Isopon: Isopon, yes - fixed, no. (Yes, Isopon; I was that green...). Radweld and steel wool didn't help. either, and I had to top the cooling system up every twenty miles. On the good side, though, I didn't need to worry about antifreeze.

It had a year's MoT; it had three weeks - and he was posted the following week...

The battery was OK; it wasn't. However, the car started OK on the handle (remember them?), and I was young and strong.

The brakes pulled (they did) because he had just fitted new front shoes (he hadn't) and they needed to bed in. The brakes pulled because one of the front wheel cylinders was leaking fluid into the drum... though to be fair, it went round left-hand corners beautifully on the brakes, because only the left-hand front brake was working...

I won't mention the sticking clutch,'fixed' (for twice what I paid for the car) by the Renault agent in Northallerton by replacing the clutch and flywheel; a week later it was slipping again - the cable was partially seized, and a little WD40 sorted it for good. Refund? "Oh no sir; we've done the work." "Oh, OK". I told you I was green...

Or the heater that didn't work, because the long sacking tube under the car taking warm air from the radiator at the rear to the heater in the cabin had dropped off.

Or the silencer that dropped off the end of the downpipe on the A1 at Ferrybridge; it cost me all of £5 to have it welded back on, but I had to go back the following weekend to reclaim my spare wheel and pay the bill, because they wouldn't take a cheque.

It was sh1te...

They took your spare wheel as collateral against non payment--- couldn't do that now!

 

[Ted]

I bought mine in 1969. Time had not been kind to it; nor had the God knows how many previous owners.

I was an impecunious and very VERY green 19-year-old Pilot Officer, and I bought it from a Corporal in the MT Section.

It was sh1te...

He wasin the MT section.
You should have known better

 

[E55BOF]

He wasin the MT section.
You should have known better

I knew nothing...