Supercar owners treated like criminals

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brucemillar

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
8,661
Location
Next Door to Alice - 25 'kin years now
Car
C55 AMG Wagon - W124 300te 4matic Wagon - BMW 4.8is X5 E53 - SWB Pajero 3.5 V6 24v
I read this on my commute home. An update on previous posts about the similar subject.

London supercar drivers: 'We're being treated like 'criminals' | London | News | London Evening Standard

FYI: Where I live many locals have now got together to protest about a "lack" of action by the Police against similar behaviour by motor bikers who every Sunday gather on the a249 and spend the entire Sunday driving up and down the dual carriageway. To see and hear these guys starting at around 7:30am up till dusk can be a Sunday ruined. Several high profile smashes have added to weight to the locals complaints. In one a bike went clean through a caravan that was turning across the carriageway. Dash Cam videos show bikers pulling wheelies as they exit the M2 onto the a249, several appear to lose control on the bend and get a tank slapper before pulling onto the central reservation. Police are now stopping and charging bikers where the use of race cans is obvious.
 
Tell me something new. In the 60s motorcyclists would regularly gather at the Ace cafe on the North Circular (A406, north London). The main attraction was to put a record on the juke box, run outside (trying not to slip over on the many dropped greasy chips), get on your bike, race to the bridge at Stonebridge, turn round and blast back to Hangar Lane (waving to the cheering crowd as you passed the Ace at over 100mph), then return to the Ace before the song had finished. The cafe racers were all over the country and only around one a week died! I used to enjoy looking at all the bikes but was never stupid enough to take on the juke box challenge.
 
More attention seeking.
 
I believe that the point of the article and my post is to highlight that we now have a culture, where if residents who are directly affected complain, they are then seen as the bad guys for spoiling somebody's fun, be that fun illegal or not.
 
To see and hear these guys starting at around 7:30am up till dusk can be a Sunday ruined.

Just like the avid gardeners with their petrol mowers / strimmers that take the entire day to fettle their surroundings . Or the DIY "enthusiasts" with their power tools. Or people that have children that dont have the ability to talk and can only scream incessantly at each other. Or the people that think you want to listen to their type of music whilst sitting in your garden. Or the dog owners that stick fido in the garden just to let the neighbours hear how loud and irritating his bark is because he is making too much noise in the house.

Bike v caravan , could the caravan not have been at fault pulling across the path of the bike ??

Race cans - I love it how some (inc. myself) love the sound of enhanced exhausts on cars but when a bike fits an aftermarket system then it is the crime of the century to some - double standards IMHO. There was a YT clip on one of the UK MB forums that showed an AMG with a seriously loud system being thrashed along a street in a built up area at night and of the numerous replies there was not one condemning this , plenty positive comments about the racket it made though :dk:

Kenny
 
Just like the avid gardeners with their petrol mowers / strimmers that take the entire day to fettle their surroundings . Or the DIY "enthusiasts" with their power tools. Or people that have children that dont have the ability to talk and can only scream incessantly at each other. Or the people that think you want to listen to their type of music whilst sitting in your garden. Or the dog owners that stick fido in the garden just to let the neighbours hear how loud and irritating his bark is because he is making too much noise in the house.

Bike v caravan , could the caravan not have been at fault pulling across the path of the bike ??

Race cans - I love it how some (inc. myself) love the sound of enhanced exhausts on cars but when a bike fits an aftermarket system then it is the crime of the century to some - double standards IMHO. There was a YT clip on one of the UK MB forums that showed an AMG with a seriously loud system being thrashed along a street in a built up area at night and of the numerous replies there was not one condemning this , plenty positive comments about the racket it made though :dk:

Kenny

Don't even get me started on my neighbours dogs... Out in the garden barking constantly from 6am to 11pm, it's beyond a joke.
 
This is why this "motorbike awareness" thing sticks in my throat.

Oh I'm well aware of bikes. I'm aware of the crotch rocket groups using the Rugby bypass as a race track at 6am on a Sunday morning. I'm aware of the bloke with some kind of cruiser that must have had its silencers removed as it actually hurts my ears when it goes past. I'm aware of the 16 year old 125 riders who've drilled out the restrictor in their cans and think it's hilarious to go round and round and round and round or wheelie up and down the street.

To be fair I despise the chavs in crappy cars with tin can exhausts also.

Exhaust noise is just ****. It's not cool, it's just ****. The sound of an ENGINE, a good V8 or V12 - now that's nice.
 
In SE London there's this group of bikes that meet up, sometimes 200-300 bikes/quads and they basically do what they want, when they want :/ no number plates, wheelies, through red lights, flash mob at petrol stations, stealing whatever they can get their hands on etc etc. Police just aren't equipped to deal with that. Happens all too often, and one died the other day and another critical when they crashed...
 
In SE London there's this group of bikes that meet up, sometimes 200-300 bikes/quads and they basically do what they want, when they want :/ no number plates, wheelies, through red lights, flash mob at petrol stations, stealing whatever they can get their hands on etc etc. Police just aren't equipped to deal with that. Happens all too often, and one died the other day and another critical when they crashed...

So only 198-298 now...
 
Bike v caravan , could the caravan not have been at fault pulling across the path of the bike ??

:dk:

Kenny

Sadly. The guy and his bike went through the caravan and carried on for around 300 yards after they exited the other side of the caravan. It was fatal. The hole in the caravan resembled the shape of the bike and biker.

The Police estimated the bikes speed before impact at around 130+ on a bend where the right turning would not have been completely visible to him due to the central reservation barriers. The car driver stated that all he saw was a "flash" behind him then heard a bang. He carried not not realising that the bike had gone through his van.
 
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Sadly. The guy and his bike went through the caravan and carried on for around 300 yards after they exited the other side of the caravan. It was fatal. The hole in the caravan resembled the shape of the bike and biker.

The Police estimated the bikes speed before impact at around 130+ on a bend where the right turning would not have been completely visible to him due to the central reservation barriers. The car driver stated that all he saw was a "flash" behind him then heard a bang. He carried not not realising that the bike had gone through his van.

carried on not realising it had been hit? what was he towing it with a tractor unit?

Tony.
 
They all they're god's gift to riding and inherently better than us "cagers".
 
The Police estimated the bikes speed before impact at around 130+ on a bend where the right turning would not have been completely visible to him due to the central reservation barriers. The car driver stated that all he saw was a "flash" behind him then heard a bang. He carried not not realising that the bike had gone through his van.

That explains it in a bit more detail, no sympathy for the rider but i feel for his family and the car driver also.

The last bit of the post i find strange though , something went straight through a caravan body , chassis and internal fittings and the driver never felt anything through the car. I would have thought going through the box section of the chassis , at those speeds, would have almost detached it from the towing hitch ?

Kenny
 
That explains it in a bit more detail, no sympathy for the rider but i feel for his family and the car driver also.

The last bit of the post i find strange though , something went straight through a caravan body , chassis and internal fittings and the driver never felt anything through the car. I would have thought going through the box section of the chassis , at those speeds, would have almost detached it from the towing hitch ?

Kenny

Kenny. I live opposite where this happened and was at the scene. The hole in the van was around 90% above chassis height. It was (and I mean absolutely no offense here) Almost a cartoon cut out hole. The Police speculated that the rider at split seconds before impact had pulled back on the front of the bike and launched it. The effect being being similar to pulling a table cloth from under a fully laden table.

This is a very well known road for fatalities. Mainly due to the fact that it is a dual carriageway that is dotted with right turns along it's length. Most accidents happen at speed (it is a 70mph limit) and often involve cars, bike, trucks etc carrying out u-turns which are not illegal!!!

There have been several where cars have gone under tractor units and carried on for some distance with their headless occupants still seated and belted. I attended one where a female transit van driver attempted to avoid a bike that crossed the carriageway (having crashed into the center reservation. She was thrown out her van when it barrel rolled down the carriageway. She survived but was horrifically injured. The biker was killed having crossed the center barrier, the carriageway and a hedge. He was found in the adjacent field.
 
The hole in the van was around 90% above chassis height. It was (and I mean absolutely no offense here) Almost a cartoon cut out hole.

Yup caravan side panels are normally just a sandwich of foam sheet with thin ply on one side and very thin aluminium on the other. Interior furniture is also very lightly constructed - something small going at high speed would just punch straight through.

The chassis is a different matter. I was towing a caravan that got hit by an HGV - big mess, but the chassis wasn't damaged at all. The HGV tractor unit had to be recovered afterwards as it wasn't driveable.
 
This is a very well known road for fatalities.

We have a local "twisty" road local to us that has seen more than its fair share of accidents . It goes from a 30 to the national speed limit with a long straight which give people a chance to get up to three figure speeds before they reach the Z bends at the end , once at these bends you either go around them or straight into an 8 ft. stone wall which bares too many automotive scars.

They even put Shellgrip on the corners to help those who had overcooked it but that has now partially lifted making braking from speed interesting to say the least.

As they say - "there is a time and a place for everything" and clearly your local road isn`t one of those places.

Kenny
 
....and for the benefit of any doubters. I have a C55 Wagon that is de-catted and no resonator.

I just don't drive it up and down the same bit of road all day at full chat. Or my 3.6 V6 24valve SWB Pajero with the modified exhaust that enjoys a good pop & bang.
 
Sorry but I just don't believe that the Police are not capable of dealing with these large gatherings of car or bike "events" where regular anti social and dangerous behaviour develops. Over the years I have seen many local Lancashire car meetings brought to an end by the Police simply due to nothing more than the odd "peel out" from a car park. The Phantom Winger supercar meets in Preston have had the occasional patrol car hiding on the approach roads ready to catch the unwary. Driving through Chorley recently in an ordinary suburban area where the traffic moves slowly there were at least 20 coppers at the roadside (on not more than a 10 meter stretch) stopping random modern cars and clearly checking tyres and presumably other stuff. Surely it would only take the presence of one patrol car and a camera to prevent recurring idiot antics on the same stretch of road. "Cutbacks" are not an excuse.
 
The Police speculated that the rider at split seconds before impact had pulled back on the front of the bike and launched it.

While travelling at 130MPH around a bend? And what purpose would it serve even if possible? What kind of idiots are in the Police these days?

Russ
 

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