Completed the Speyside Way on Saturday afternoon at Buckie, overlooking the Moray Firth, in glorious weather. Sadly it didn’t live up to expectations and was one of the poorer National Trails in our opinion
The Hills of Cromdale, walked over because they were there, were more interesting
Pootling home 350 miles on Sunday afternoon, four up southbound along the A74 (M) with very light traffic I didn’t spot the camera van on the bridge until too late. Hope it’s only 3 points!
Could have been far worse at other points of the journey, and still less than 1k miles on the clock
Hey ho
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Well that didn't take long!
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Was it road works or national limit? How fast were you going?
Enjoying the car otherwise?
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National limit, so 70. Under 3 figures though!
At that point....
After detoxing for 9 days I wanted to get home for a pint. And the darned thing just lopes along in a most civilised manner devouring the miles. And the petrol. Standard 20†wheels with very quiet Michelin Latitudes and a faint hum from the engine compartment.
Who’s a naughty boy then ?
Last edited by: legacylad on Mon 23 Oct 17 at 11:09
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So thirsty then? You and the car ;-)
Any idea on MPG yet?
Last edited by: Hard Cheese on Mon 23 Oct 17 at 11:13
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From Fochabers, near the Moray coast, down to the start of the M9 motorway section near Stirling, the trip computer was showing 29.
The round trip from home, 820 miles, definitely not hanging around and fully loaded with passengers and baggage, trip computer shows 26 mpg. Includes quite a lot of country roads with the ‘ sport mode’ button activated
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Often a camera van somewhere between Moffat and Lockerbie. One of the quietest stretches of motorway in Britain usually. Easy to let your speed increase without really noticing. I've been very lucky there a few times. Some here of course would say that with only four cylinders on a Diesel engine that I'm not in much danger anyway !
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Ironically, after I let out an expletive, one of my passengers who were either asleep or playing like children on their tablets, told me had he had been clocked several months previously by a camera van on the very same bridge.
There goes the money I saved on being abstemious for 9 days!
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I've had one two properly fast cars in the past, a Sierra Cosworth, a Volvo T5R and a BMW 530i among others. Every time I have though, I've managed to pick up "prizes" while I've had them. When you have a bit of oomph available it's just too tempting to use it, if only now and then.
In this modern camera infested world it's just too dodgy to go tear bottoming around. I've finally been beaten down into serial wafting these past few years. Not nearly as much fun, but it, of itself, holds its own minor pleasures I suppose. Actually that's rubbish, but my licence is too important to me to risk it. My only mitigation in defence of my previous ( now all but forgotten ) driving habits is that I never actually hit anything while doing it ! ;-)
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Entirely my fault... I was paying attention. Just not enough attention.
The darned thing is just so quiet & civilised whilst cruising on lightly trafficked motorways. Cruise control is the answer.
The 330 had similar performance figures, but being a ragtop I was happy to poodle along at 80 on the motorway in similar traffic conditions. Barbie needs to get a grip.
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I drove like an idiot when I was younger, goodness knows how many speeding fines I got, but it was many.
I think I must have been 24 or 25 when I got the last one. I've had a few close shaves and periods of waiting for the letterbox, but so far so good.
I'd say I'd been lucky more than angelic though.
Ironically of course it is usually easier to manage speed cameras. It used to be police cars parked in farm driveways, laybys, or small country lanes and the like that used to get me.
Equally there is little of no chance of getting caught for speeding here. Essentially there is no traffic law enforcement, just routine document check stops.
These days I do anyway prefer to cruise pleasantly. Usually up and around the speed limit, but rarely, if ever, really pushing it.
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>>I've had one two properly fast cars in the past, a Sierra Cosworth
What happened to it? Not stolen like the majority of them?
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No, it wasn't funnily enough. It was a company car and I only had it for about a year before changing jobs. Probably just as well, it was like an addictive drug to drive.
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Here's a thing, at the time, I thought of my Cossie as a seriously fast car. But prompted by this thread I've just compared the performance numbers of it versus my current diesel, automatic four cylinder family estate. The Ford was allegedly 5 mph faster at its top speed, and got to 60 mph a whole second quicker. It also hardly ever got better than 27 mpg while the Merc regularly beats 50 mpg.
My first car, with a 1000cc engine, had a 0-60 of 34 seconds, my son's first car with a 1000cc engine has a 0-60 of 14 seconds.
Surprising what becomes normal eh?
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There is a corner which used to be a benchmark for us when we were young. Could we get a car around it without braking? I think the fastest we managed was 40 / 45.
I was pondering this as I drove around the same corner a year or two ago whilst wafting. At 60mph.
The speed limit on country roads used to be 60 because we could never go that fast anyway. Its only now *every* car can go that fast on country roads that the limit had to be pulled down.
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My father used to refer to an NSL sign as a "de-restricted" sign, because when he first started driving, that's exactly what it meant.
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>> My father used to refer to an NSL sign as a "de-restricted" sign, because when
>> he first started driving, that's exactly what it meant.
I still referred to de-restricted until quite recently. The NSL term seemed to come in about same time as motoring forums - say 99/2000.
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Originall it simply meant "end of speed limit". No need to derstrict something that was never restricted.
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Yeah, but you're from somewhere obscure like Yorkshire or something aren't you Bromp? Takes those sorts a while to catch up. I mean, most of them are still struggling to work out how to cope with basic stuff like vowels and the letter h, never mind anything more complex...
;-)))
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 24 Oct 17 at 11:17
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....at least they don't need to have some of their own (not aligned with the rest of the UK) speed limits like the Scotch......
(I was surprised to discover such an anomaly recently).
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>> ....at least they don't need to have some of their own (not aligned with the
>> rest of the UK) speed limits like the Scotch......
>>
>> (I was surprised to discover such an anomaly recently).
>>
Rather, like the Scots ...
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>> Rather, like the Scots ...
Aw shucks HC, we don't mind some of you guys either !
;-)
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>> >> Rather, like the Scots ...
>>
>> Aw shucks HC, we don't mind some of you guys either !
>>
>> ;-)
>>
Yep, porridge every morning for me ;-)
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>> My father used to refer to an NSL sign as a "de-restricted" sign, because when
>> he first started driving, that's exactly what it meant.
Still does in the Isle of Man.
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>> >> My father used to refer to an NSL sign as a "de-restricted" sign, because
>> when
>> >> he first started driving, that's exactly what it meant.
>>
>> Still does in the Isle of Man.
>>
I was told long ago that the diagonal stripe on the (now) NSL sign signified a crossing out of the speed limit you were about to leave.
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>> Here's a thing, at the time, I thought of my Cossie as a seriously fast car. But prompted by this thread I've just compared the performance numbers of it versus my current diesel, automatic four cylinder family estate. The Ford was allegedly 5 mph faster at its top speed, and got to 60 mph a whole second quicker. It also hardly ever got better than 27 mpg while the Merc regularly beats 50 mpg.
>>
Top speed is influenced by aero and gearing. What version of the Cosworth was it and what is your current MB? Due to gearing the 2WD Sapphire was the fastest accelerating and would do 60 in under 6 seconds, I can't think of a 4cyl diesel MB estate that would do it in under 7 seconds.
Though things have moved on, 100 bhp + per litre was a helluva lot 30 years ago whereas now days the AMG A45 is nearly 200 bhp per litre, and some exotica exceed that.
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>> Surprising what becomes normal eh?
Yes it is...when you posted about the Cosworth, I thought exactly that - it was a serious performance car in its day, now even people who couldn't drive their way out of a paper bag (better metaphor needed) think they need more than 300bhp to commute.
My idea of a car that is plenty fast enough for road use and the ability of a competent amateur driver (such as I and all of you of course) is still calibrated to the Mk1, 1600, Golf GTI. I can still remember the feeling of amazement the first time I drove one, not long after they came out in c. 1979/80... I'd had a Holbay Hunter for a while not long before, only approaching the same level of performance but with more power than its ability to stay on the road - but the Golf did it all.
The GTI wasn't torquey by today's standards, but good for 1979, and very tractable - it would accelerate smoothly (and slowly) from 1200 rpm or so, and more power could be accessed through higher rpm. 810Kg (I just looked that up) gave c. 125bhp per ton with driver.
Uncannily similar to the MX-5 1.5 in fact, which has exceeded my expectations. With my 2017 turbo driver's head on, I had accepted the idea that 150Nm of torque was minimal, whereas in fact it is surprisingly useful at well below the 4,800 peak (the GTI had 140Nm @5000). Like the Golf, if you are not in a hurry it will pull away lazily from low rpms.
Today's cars, the 'sporting' versions anyway, are in general massively overpowered for the uses to which they are put. Of course that doesn't mean they have to be driven to their potential - and in fact they can't be on the roads. They are about as sporting as shooting rabbits with a cruise missile (better simile required).
Yes, I know people have different preferences, as do I on occasion, and it's a free(ish) world...no offence intended to our power addicts.
Last edited by: Manatee on Tue 24 Oct 17 at 13:22
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>> Mk1, 1600, Golf GTI.
When did you last drive one? I drove one about 3 years ago, it was awful.
Noisy, harsh and uncomfortable, handled like a dog and the brakes were terrible.
By today's standards.
>>a competent amateur driver (such as I and all of you of course)
I believe you've over looked the driving God who lives amongst us. He of the yellow shoes.
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p.s. turns out there was more than one engine fitted in them, I have not the slightest clue what was in the one I drove.
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>> >> Mk1, 1600, Golf GTI.
>>
>> When did you last drive one? I drove one about 3 years ago, it was
>> awful.
About 1980! My calibration might be a bit off, but it was brand new and unregistered and so far ahead of anything I had driven at the time that I struggle to believe the one you drove was up to snuff.
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You may well be correct and it wasn't very good, though it looked pretty good.
I think its so difficult to work out how a car from long ago would feel today., things have changed so much.|
The context alone is so different now..
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Boots dear boy, boots. Actually, I think I'm gradually coming out of my yellow phase, more of a dark red these days mostly. Or tan nubuck.
Said before and still my view, I now get almost as much fun wringing the neck of my son's little Aygo round the lanes as any I had with more powerful cars. You can actually push it to its limits, to the accompaniment of much revving and tyre squealing without seriously endangering anything including your licence.
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>>, to the accompaniment of much
>> revving and tyre squealing without seriously endangering anything including your licence.
Credibility is however down the crapper. Specially in red boots.,
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I may have to get him some new brakes actually, might have cooked his off a bit...
Credibility? No worries on that score, well, I've not for the past couple of decades anyway. That really is the best thing about getting a bit older, the acceptance of who you are and the recognition of the irrelevance of anyone else's opinion!
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 24 Oct 17 at 16:12
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>>
>> Credibility is however down the crapper. Specially in red boots.,
>>
...careful Z, they may just be Doc Martens.......... (they'll go with his collection of jeans).
;-)
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Good Lord no. Normos wear those.
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There is only one of us with a number two, and its not the Beau Brummel of Cheshire
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I am not a number, I am a free man...
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>> can still remember the feeling of amazement the first time I drove one, not long after they came out in c. 1979/80... I'd had a Holbay Hunter for a while not long before, only approaching the same level of performance but with more power than its ability to stay on the road - but the Golf did it all.
>>
Rose tinted glasses ...
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>> Rose tinted glasses ...
>>
Correct to a certain extent, HC, but more likely judged by experience and comparison with what else was around at the time. From what I remember, there wasn't much else at that price/performance point.
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I drove a golf GTI round Oulton Park when they had just come out. It was fast by the standards of the day, and I discovered it handled better than nearly anything on the road. It was a revelation.
I discovered that immediately after I discovered the brakes didn't work,
It was an age ago now, mists of time have diluted judgement of its abilities against modern steeds available to us now.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 24 Oct 17 at 16:06
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>>
>> Rose tinted glasses ...
I don't think so. I'd have to find one and drive it I suppose.
They were light of course. Today, it would weigh maybe 200Kg more and need another 25bhp.
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if it's any help, my mate was done on the M6 recently (89mph) he had choice of a course or 3 points and £100.
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Thanks Devonite
I’ll happily take 3 points
Could have been waaaay worse
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Doesn't this motor have cruise control for licence protection? You also need to be aware that traffic cars park on the on slips of the M74 waiting for the unwary.
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Having done the Coast to Coast this year, we were poking about at what might be next. The Speyside was on the list of possibles. What was disappointing about it, LL?
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Distilleries too far apart?
;-)
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I know the circumstances around you getting that car is a one-off.
However, I know its an old boring faaart thing to say but much as I would love a fast car etc, the reality of what you have experienced is why I wouldnt. At the end of the day you can only do within speed limit thresholds or you risk problems.
I went down south last week and there was a van sitting on the bridge, possibly the same one as you refer to.
But that is what cruise control is for, setting it within the threshold and then just , well, cruising along. I know that makes it boring but that is the reality of driving nowadays!
Having said all that, and going back to my first line, if I won the lottery tonight I can assure you I wouldnt be rushing out to buy a 1.6 diesel.......
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>> But that is what cruise control is for, setting it within the threshold and then just , well,
>> cruising along. I know that makes it boring but that is the reality of driving nowadays!
Even better and more boring, set the adaptive cruise control and active lane assist. Then the car should speed up and slow down for other traffic and do most of the steering.
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I reckon that having a quick car I probably drive more carefully on average and only occasionally hoon about across country. I'm certainly more courteous and let people out in front of me more readily.
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Agreed HC. "Bimbling" can be turned into an art-form, with the occasional blast to get past something.
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Crankcase...I’ve crossed Scotland several times C2C planning my own routes on the TGO Challenge in May, so my low opinion of the S Way is not reflected in the initial few days adverse weather. Too much walking on disused railway tracks, too many minor tarmac roads, too many forest tracks. Not sufficient views of the Spey, or much else really.
I’m walking with friends tomorrow, from Dent station over Whernside to Ribblehead, and they walked the Speyside Way a few years ago so it will be interesting to hear their opinions of it.
For alternatives, have a nose at the LDWA website which is still the best reference guide for trails.
Friends I walk with have done over 75 long distance paths over 50 miles in the UK so plenty to choose from.
I’ve completed several, but still prefer the Alps hut2hut ( vastly improved in recent years) or valley hopping between hotels
PM me if you want details or recommendations of trails to walk. It’s my specialist subject. That and how not to use cruise control.
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>> PM me if you want details or recommendations of trails to walk. It’s my specialist
>> subject. That and how not to use cruise control.
>>
Mods, would you be so kind as to enable that please? I'm happy for my email to be passed on and Legacylad is happy for his to be given to me (apparently!).
I've sent LL your address CC. Smokie <.i>
Last edited by: smokie on Thu 26 Oct 17 at 10:13
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>>If it's any help, my mate was done on the M6 recently (89mph) he had choice of a course or 3 points and £100.
>>
There is no option of a course in Scotland.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 23 Oct 17 at 20:55
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>> >>If it's any help, my mate was done on the M6 recently (89mph) he had
>> choice of a course or 3 points and £100.
>> >>
>>
>> There is no option of a course in Scotland.
>>
s'funny you say that.
6 years ago or so I had to attend a speed awareness course. I remember one guy who explained that that he was was on 9 points (I recall) though not all for speeding and his latest conviction would take him to court if points received.
It transpired that he was from Scotland and was flashed on a passing trip down here in the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire.
Somehow he got offered the course and said the round trip back down + the cost of the course was more than worth it compared to the aggro if it went to court.
The icing on the cake, as we was all leaving he roared out of the car park in a ..... Nissan GTR!
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Fast is fun... but I do prefer slower. Sure I've mentioned it before, but I borrowed a 2.8 quattro summer before last for a weekend. Loads of fun. But I think there's more fun to be had with something smaller and nippier really. And I love my Accord with it's 4-cyl diesel.
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Bit misleading. The vast majority of those fines relate to local authority parking fines. Only 1 million relate to speeding/ traffic light offences.
As for:
"A study warns that increased use of cameras to catch drivers could prompt fears that discretion and common sense are lacking."
I think it more points to the inability of a large number of the population's inability to read a simple notice or take notice of a clearly displayed sign.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Wed 25 Oct 17 at 18:50
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"The vast majority of those fines relate to local authority parking fines. Only 1 million relate to speeding/ traffic light offences."
Add to this the 1.2m who have to attend a 'speed awareness' course every year.
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Entirely self inflicted. No point complainimg about getting caught and I speak as someone who got a speeding ticket earlier this year
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I haven’t complained CGN. Never have when I’ve collected points make prizes.
Goes with the territory and surprised I don’t have more points living where I do, surrounded on all sides by glorious quiet country roads there to be enjoyed.
Lass I was chatting to on Monday evening has 9 points currently...mind you she does hoon around in an Audi Q3 RS in a loud colour. I’ve recommended she get an S1 which doesn’t stand out as much. Farmers daughter. Bit of a goer.
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I know you weren't complaining LL. Just a general observation. So many whinge about penalties for speeding when it's no one else's fault but our own if we choose to break the law.
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I didn't realise you had broken the law on purpose CG. That was a bit silly.
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"I didn't realise you had broken the law on purpose CG. That was a bit silly."
He did it so that he could wag his finger at himself. CG is very, very righteous.
;-)
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Better choosing to speed than doing it without realising I'd have thought.
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>> Better choosing to speed than doing it without realising I'd have thought.
>>
There's an idea, if you choose to speed you only get 1.5 points ...
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Exactly. If you are aware you are exceeding speed limit.and get caught you have no reason to complain. If you are unaware of the limit or your speed you deserve the penalty
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 26 Oct 17 at 14:25
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I don't think anyone thinks they don't deserve the penalty despite the reasons they got caught.
I got caught in a little village called Roade in Northants by a speed camera which was situated around 50 yards before the speed limit ended going out of the village....at 3am. I had kept to the limit all through the village but saw the end of it and accelerated too soon.
Silly, Yes. Careless, Yes. Understandable at that time of day, yes but I deserved the 3 points and didn't whinge about it.
A few months later I got caught on the A141 close to where I live by a camera I knew fine well was there. I had gone to Sutton to load but the load of cardboard wasn't ready and I was running very late for the customers booking time. I was doing 46MPH in a 40MPH for lorries but it is now a 50MPH for lorries. I hadn't seen above 2 other vehicles on the deserted fen roads since I had started work 2 hours previously at 1am.
My fault entirely, no problem with that and 6 points concentrated my mind which it's designed to do when your licence is essential for your employment!
Pat
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>> I got caught in a little village called Roade in Northants by a speed camera
>> which was situated around 50 yards before the speed limit ended going out of the
>> village....at 3am. I had kept to the limit all through the village but saw the
>> end of it and accelerated too soon.
Roade is a village but hardly a little one. It sits astride the A508 and was one of the Northants settlements selected for expansion in the seventies and consequently it has extensive housing and a large comprehensive.
The camera, which is no longer in use was well signed.
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>>The camera, which is no longer in use was well signed. <<
I didn't complain that it wasn't Bromp, in fact I had stayed at the limit all the way through the village at 3am, despite not seeing anyone else on the road at all, but more to pass through it quietly and not wake people up.
....But I'm human, and seeing the end in sight I just pressed the loud pedal a tad too early.
As I said, my fault.
Do I need to grovel anymore:)
Pat
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I don't think anyone thinks they don't deserve the penalty despite the reasons they got caught."
Don't think that is true. Having attended speed awareness course I would say that most of the people attending felt hard done by and felt themselves to be victims rather than perpetrators pf their own misfortune. No end of whinging hard luck stories.
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I'd like to bet they weren't professional drivers and didn't have to rely on their licences to earn a living.
Pat
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>> I'd like to bet they weren't professional drivers and didn't have to rely on their
>> licences to earn a living.
>>
On the course one of my daughters went on, a "pro" van driver seemed genuinely not to know that vans had different limits to cars!
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Yeah that was my experience too.
Mind you, while speed awareness courses are all well and good for those who have only transgressed in a minor fashion, IMO they should be mandatory as well as points and fine for those who were going even faster. I'm thinking that those caught at lower speeds are the better, or at least more aware, drivers...
EDIT One awful awful bloke on mine was bragging to us about having attended loads of speed awareness courses. He said if you are caught in a different police district then they don't know that you've already done one. This time he'd been caught speeding in a mobile crane... he was a pro!!
Last edited by: smokie on Thu 26 Oct 17 at 17:10
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>> This time he'd been caught speeding in a mobile crane... he was a pro!!
>>
"
....he was a pro"per numpty??
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Most amusing bit of the course was an old guy was in his eighties with a mobile phone. We were warned in no uncertain terms that we must switch off all phones or we would be ejected from the course. Apparently videos of previous courses had ended up or YouTube
Twenty minutes from the end his phone rang. He was told in no uncertain terms to switch it off immediately. He clearly didn't know how to and actually answered it. The threats from the instructor became more urgent and he was within seconds of being sent dismissed.
The situation was saved but the young girl sitting next to him snatching the phone from him and swiching it off.
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The instructor should have done what I do.
Take the phone off them and lock it in a drawer till the end of the course.
No signal whatsoever in my desk drawer in the training room!
I declined a course because it was on a Wednesday and I would have been in Dundee on the Tuesday so it effectively meant having to lose 3 days work to attend.
Pat
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Young lad on my course was sent away after falling asleep for a second time. Whatever he might have thought of the course it was only his own £100 and afternoon he'd wasted.
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I would have done that too:)
Pat
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Hmmmm. I may get a place at naughty drivers school. M40 southbound up the hill out of Wycombe, speed about 83 indicated, camera van on overbridge. Saw it a bit late-ish may have dumped enough speed and ducked behind the car on my inside in time, might not.
Going to be tight.
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Worth trying one of those GPS speed apps to reassure you (Or not) - according to the one I checked my speedo reads about 8% high!
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>> Worth trying one of those GPS speed apps to reassure you (Or not) - according
>> to the one I checked my speedo reads about 8% high!
I have, it's 5mph fast at 30 and 3 mph fast at 80
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Strange? Would have expected it to be a set percentage out?
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>>Strange? Would have expected it to be a set percentage out?
Do the GPS speed programs consider gradient (the distance between A & B is going to be less on a flat road then on a hilly road).
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No, but road gradients ( in trigonometric terms) are so slight, and multiple GPS sats, some low on the horizon, make it for all practical purposes insignificant
Fir car purposes, satnav speed is real speed
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 2 Nov 17 at 10:58
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>> Worth trying one of those GPS speed apps to reassure you (Or not) - according
>> to the one I checked my speedo reads about 8% high!
>>
Is GPS speed supposed to be pretty spot-on?
Interesting (maybe) that we used one a few weeks ago in the US (Here WeGo on iPhone) and the hire car speedo, both analogue and the digital display in the cluster, were spot-on the GPS speed. Indeed lots of 45's there and at cruise 45 on the digital display the app would beep randomly and say we were doing 46.
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Either I've misunderstood or it's a dumb question I expect, but why would satnav speed be different to GPS speed?
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Is that aimed at me? I'm saying the GPS speed (per the iPhone's nav app) was exactly the same as the speed shown on the car's speedo. If anything, the car apparently under-read by 1mph.
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A modern car can show anything it likes on the speedo. There is no direct connection between road speed and speedo these days - it is an electronic unit showing the car's speed. Some cars no longer have a physical unit with a TFT screen instead.
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No, sorry, I think it was Zero who said they are different.
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Ahhh ignore me, I misunderstood, it all obvious when I re-read it...
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Did you hear from the police LL? They have 7 days IIRC.
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>> Did you hear from the police LL? They have 7 days IIRC.
>>
...14 days to serve a NIP, so about 17 before you can breathe easy if "it's in the post".
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Not as of today.
I fully expect an invite from the Scottish Constabulary inviting me to join their ‘ Points make Prizes’ competition to be awaiting me on my return from Spain later this month
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Did you get away with it?
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Hi smokie
I fully expected an envelope to be awaiting me when I arrived home at the end of last week. Nothing. The indiscretion was Sunday 22/10...
How strange
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With a of luck you are ok then!
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Camera must have been manufactured for use in Wales! - no on switch!! ;-)
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One car, two walks and three points - Zero
