On 30/08/2007, Alan B. Pearce <A.B.Pearce@rl.ac.uk> wrote:
> >LARGE black car is glued to back bumper.
> >Unlike NZ, no flashing of lights, no horn.
> >Just stays glued to back bumper at 140 kph+
>
> The 'polite' way of indicating you want to get past is to put the left
> indicator on, apparently.

The least polite way I've seen is putting on your left indicator,
sticking to your bumper (at less than 4 meters), flashing lights
(being fairly pointless as I couldn't see them directly anymore) and
using the horn all at the same time.

> >No speed limit at all on the autobahns in many places.
> >I did 160 kph+ just once just to have done it.
> >Peugeot 307 Skywagon manual diesel.
> >A marvellous car. Managed 160 kph OK but I suspect it didn't have too
> >much more left.
>
> Back in February I did manage sustained 200kph (120mph) in my Ford Focus
> diesel estate. Still felt there was a little bit of pedal motion left, so
> might have got another 5kph if I had really tried. It was a nice new bit of
> autobahn with hardly any traffic on it.

My first car did 189 on the counter there, which was probably around
160/170 realistically. My current car (Seat Ibiza 1.9tdi topping out
at 195) did a nice 195 continually there once. It's odd to see a car
coming up to you at high speed when you're doing nigh 200km/h
yourself.

> We did also strike a multilane piece through a hilly area north of
> Nuremburg, which was restricted to 80kph. The road was on a grade, and had a
> number of tunnels through the hills. Also many signs about speed cameras.
> The German discipline meant that everyone did keep to the 80 kph.

The moment we got to the border (of the Netherlands - country of speed
camera's) both me and the motorcycle driver next to me (who was
overtaking me with about 220-250) plummeted the brakes and we slowed
to 100km/h within a few seconds. Oddly enough, people in the
Netherlands never can seem to care about speed limits. It's more
crowded too... I heard a traffic analyst proclaim that "given the
2-second distance, a top amount of 1800 cars per lane could move
through a given motorway at any given time. We have measured an
average of 2200 during rush hour but cannot give an explanation."

Also drove through a road works thing in germany once. It was very
long and the speed limit was only 60, but everybody kept to it. Until
the end of the speed limit, after which most cars launched off.

Regards,
Peter
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