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| #2  13-Apr-2005, 13:44 | ||||
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| Heard about it this morning on the radio and it got me thinking about the 70 mph speed limit. I realised that the limit was introduced in 1965. That's fourty years ago...four zero...count them  In 1965 the typical family car was something like a Ford Anglia 105E, 997 cc, a top speed of 75 mph, drum brakes with no servo or ABS and skinny little cross-ply tyres with a rubber compound that was about as sticky as teflon. Or, if you wanted a bit more go than that, how about a Viva HA with a comparatively huge 1097 cc engine and a top speed of a heady 76 mph, drum brakes with no servo....blah, blah, blah.. Of course, if seat belts were fitted at all they'd be non-retractable ones that needed to be individually adjusted, so nobody bothered and as for air bags in those days? Pah.. you might just as well have carried a pack of party balloons and tried to blow them up in a hurry if you crashed. Of course there were performance cars around like the E-type, but even they are antique in terms of braking systems and safety features. Think about the bikes of that era. Blimey...Triumph Tiger Cubs, BSA and Triumph twins of various descriptions and Velocette singles, all with cable operated drum brakes. Want to stop? Bikes of those days were the equivalent of the civil service. Writing a nice letter asking the bike if it wouldn't mind stopping before we hit the wall was probably as effective as hauling on the brake lever! So my point is that 40 years ago having a 70 mph speed limit was enough for family cars of their day to be really pushing the envelope, probably with a white knuckled bloke in 'Sterling Moss' stringback driving gloves and a flat cap hanging on for drim death as the leaf sprung beam axle tried to twist it's way off the chassis with every bump. The government of the day, it seems, were quite happy to have cars roaring about at 92% of their top speed, with zero safety devices and woeful handling. Now, we live in an age where we have some family cars with e-Type performance running on wide sticky rubber that coaxes the maximum grip out of a road with the aid of fully independent suspension, sophisticated ABS braking and traction control, and we're cossetted by crumple zones, roll over cages, side impact protection, front and side airbags and cumpulsory seat belts and yet....40 years on we're only allowed to used 50-60% of a family cars peformance. Makes you think dunnit?  |
| #4 13-Apr-2005, 14:15 | ||||
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| taking this a HUGE step forward.....if all limits were enforced strictly, there would no point in having a car that does any more than 70 odd so would we see all cars, re-tuned down geared for improved acceleration? can you imagine all cars being able to do 0-60 in 3 seconds?  |
| #6 13-Apr-2005, 22:12 | ||||
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| [quote]Originally posted by bradders they are still testing in car gps which monitorsd speed all the time, and knows if you speed.........lol Every Police car will be fitted with these soon!!  |
| #9 13-Apr-2005, 23:33 | ||||
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| AA ptraols used to put a coke can over the aireil - dont know if it works on modern stuff....and arent they trialing with Skodas at the mo and this technology? double wammy - coppers cant speed and all drive a Skoda! JUSTICE AT LAST!  |
| #10 15-Apr-2005, 03:56 | ||||
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| Unbloodybelieveable...  It really worries me how this safety camera partnership thing is going.On a slightly different note, mate at work rang me today...got nicked doing 107 on a dual carriageway last week by a camera unit..he has a clean licence..whaddya reckon ?? Im thinking a month ban ?? Im certain hed have to appear in court though right ?? Nat |
Jools
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