trashbat wrote:and maybe they regularly went too fast through hazards
trashbat wrote:So, I spent Wednesday to Sunday in Wales, based somewhere in Carmarthenshire near Lampeter. As you might imagine, it's a lovely place to drive, with lots of twisty, hilly roads.
I'm working from very limited, anecdotal data, but I noticed a few things:
First, everyone seems to drive quickly. Traffic was light throughout but I overtook maybe three cars on these kinds of roads in the whole trip, and was overtaken more myself. I regularly used the limit point, flexible gears, and all the power the car can give me - and I'm not in a really slow car - but I had all sorts of vehicles catching up and keeping pace. I followed similar too and didn't see anyone getting it wrong.
Anyone spend much time there and can elaborate on all this? What about accident rates etc?
StressedDave wrote:The other thing to consider is that 'progress' is variable amongst trained drivers. I was in another depopulated driver playground last month and had the opportunity to do some back-to-back driving with someone else in the same car and over the same relatively empty route. The difference between two drivers, despite using the same performance envelope (I.e. the same maximum g pulled in every direction), was of the order of 15% in terms of average speed.
Probably, on multiple counts; I aim to get the speed on early and then ease off, and I aim to brake smoothly but also only gently and minimally. Braking in advance of an unknown bend also loses more speed than, as you suggest, reactive braking helped by local knowledge.StressedDave wrote:trashbat wrote:First, everyone seems to drive quickly. Traffic was light throughout but I overtook maybe three cars on these kinds of roads in the whole trip, and was overtaken more myself. I regularly used the limit point, flexible gears, and all the power the car can give me - and I'm not in a really slow car - but I had all sorts of vehicles catching up and keeping pace. I followed similar too and didn't see anyone getting it wrong.
I guess it's easier to follow than to lead, and maybe they regularly went too fast through hazards, but I couldn't help but wonder if the quality of driving or at least the ability to keep pace was significantly better. Either that or I'm way off the boil. At one point I was in a long line of vehicles that included someone towing a burger van - still doing 60mph. No chance of that in England.
Purely a left field thought, and not in any way to be taken as criticism, but have you considered whether your driving style lends itself to being less progressive than it might be? Purely as an e.g. 'deceleration sense' where engine braking is less efficient at improving average speed than the more typical reactive style of a typical driver. Chuck in a bit of local knowledge and its pretty easy to stay with anyone.
The other thing to consider is that 'progress' is variable amongst trained drivers. I was in another depopulated driver playground last month and had the opportunity to do some back-to-back driving with someone else in the same car and over the same relatively empty route. The difference between two drivers, despite using the same performance envelope (I.e. the same maximum g pulled in every direction), was of the order of 15% in terms of average speed.
trashbat wrote:Probably, on multiple counts; I aim to get the speed on early and then ease off, and I aim to brake smoothly but also only gently and minimally. Braking in advance of an unknown bend also loses more speed than, as you suggest, reactive braking helped by local knowledge.
I can only go so far with it as it's a fool's errand to compare progress between drivers with potentially drastically different values.
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