Safe Speed Forums

I got into a discussion on another, general forum where it was claimed that Safespeed and ABD members are people who like to take risks and who drive "unusual, often high powered cars".

Now I know we have several bikers who can I'm sure can go quite fast, but I suspect most of us who post to these forums don't drive Ferraris. It would be interesting to know what people do usually drive though.

To start the ball rolling, The last thing I drove was my company's Ford Ranger pickup truck, a few minutes ago. This certainly seems to have quite a powerful engine, it needs it to shift that mass of metal.

The vehicles we own at home are my Peugeot 407 136 HDI, A VW Transporter based camper van with a 2.4 litre naturally aspirated diesel (IIRC about 90bhp, anyway it is flat out at 80mph), and my wife's new Fiat Panda 1.3. None of these are particularly fast or powerful, and I suspect that the same goes for the vehicles used by most of the posters here.

Honda Blackbird
Honda Pan European (for winter)
Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 DTI

(and occasionally the wifes Vauxhall Tigra!)

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

5 year old Suzuki TL1000S. Winter transport 14 year old Subaru Legacy Estate.

What people fail to realise is that speed is controlled by the rider/driver, not the vehicle It's easy to exceed the limit on the 125cc bikes we use to teach learner motorcyclists. Who in their right mind would call them 'high powered'?

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Alfa romeo 147 1.6 Twinspark lusso 120bhp

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

My name gives it away. I can definately assure people that the top end of the speedo rarely gets troubled.

Officially the worst car in Britain (according to Top Gear's 2005 survey).

A Peugeot 807, it's the least powerful of the range (2.0 HDi), does 0-60 apparently and has a top speed.

oh baby... we had one at work for benchmarking, seriously the best handling car in class at the time (when it was working).


me: renault megane (1.6) - quite enough oomph for most situations.
wifey: soone to be smart fortwo

(work, many & varied: fiat stilo, opel vectra, lti, m5, ascari, bugatti, electric seciento!)

I fit the stereotype for the cars owned - I have a 350bhp skyline and a 230 bhp delta integrale. I don't take risks and drive sensibly so I don't fit the pattern in other ways. I don't like being one of the sheep so cars I choose are something others don't tend to drive so that bit is true too.

Perhaps those of us who enjoy driving and take pride in it are actually safe enough to set our own speed. This is what sticks in the craws of others as they are incapable of doing so as they detest driving so much and make little effort to hone their skills.

The "fleet" consists of

cars
MG ZT (mainly used by me)
MG TF (manily used by my wife)

Bikes
Buell X1 Lightning
Suzuki Marauder

Scooter
Honda SFX

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Speed camera policy Kills

Unusual high powered car: 93 Honda Prelude VTEC is as close as we get. Not that many about and pretty good fun for a 12 year old car. Still, I don't consider it to be particularly exotic or high powered. More like cheap and fun, but also hugely impractical (useless rear seats and the boot isn't much better) so we also need a Commonplace practical car: 2.0 600 Series Rover, roomier than the Honda, rides better too, four doors, real seats in the back, nice big boot, but by comparison slow as hell.

As for being a risk taker, neither car has ever been near it's maximum speed while we've had them (admittedly we'd get bored with waiting in the Rover ) and rarely is either accelerated to it's maximum either. Besides, I'm here and this is Safe Speed. Picking up safe driving tips is one of the best things about these forums.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Citroen C5 VTR HDi110.

God knows why they put a VTR badge on this thing. It's even less sporty than me Very good for doing 30K miles per year though.

Renault Scenic. No idea how fast it goes and to my knowledge I have never felt the ABS.

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Shooting is good for you and too good for some people.

I have:

E Reg. GPZ500
Old V reg. XS650
M reg. Rover 418SLD

The other half has:

E reg. CBR1000
Old V Reg. GS850
E Reg. Bedford Midi van (soon to be camper)

He does regularly drive a 380 bhp vehicle though... (A Scania tractor unit )

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Mine - 04 reg Renault Laguna estate (sorry, "Sport Tourer", if you please), 2 litre petrol. Plenty of grunt for what I need - lots of motorway driving, plus ferrying family and/or bulky musical instruments - but not what I would call drastically high-powered, and I see plenty of both saloon and estate variants on the road. As for risk-taking, well it has more safety features than I can count and a very good Euro-NCAP rating (*****, I think).

Hers - 51 reg Ford Fiesta, 1.4 litre (IIRC) petrol. The obvious town runaround, rarely ventures onto motorways, but can be nippy when it does. Hardly very high-powered, though, and if you haven't seen one around, you haven't been looking. Risky? Well, no fleet buyer ever got fired for buying Fords!

So much for boy and girl racer! Ah well, when I win the lottery ...

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Keep right on to the end of the road ...

A car.

And a motorbike.

And another car.

And sometimes my mums car.

I must be that Stereotype then:

Subaru Impreza WRX PPP (265 ps)

But more realistically, with the new child and a Graco travel system pushchair that doesn't fit into the boot (2 sets of Golf clubs and trolleys no problems though), 80% of journeys that I have driven in the last 6 months have been in my wife's car:

Subaru Forrester X AWP which is a slightly raised normally aspirated 2L estate car (All Weather Pack just means large sunroof, heated seats and a few other bits).

I make no apologies about owning the Impreza, I worked hard for it, I pay a fortune in insurance and tax, and have had 20 years of incident free driving on gradually more powerful cars.

BMW 545i

VW Lupo TDI (just over 100bhp tuned and pushing on for 200lb/ft of torque)

Suzuki SV650

Suzuki RV125 VanVan

Soon to be added a Harley of some description.

I think it's made out of pasta

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

mitsubushi L400 2.8 TDI

more or less a high-spec 4WD people carrier built on shogun mechanics. Carries all my tools, and with high driving position, slush box, air con etc is very relaxing both in london traffic and on long runs.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

We did this about a year ago here:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1398

I still have the same Mazda 323 1.6, which has still not broken down.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed