Only in Germany...

Quiet Storm

Quiet Storm

Joined
May 17, 2002
Messages
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One of the best things about living in Germany (besides the relatively reasonable knife laws) are the Autobahnen (plural of Autobahn).

It's probably the only road system in the world where you can constantly drive around 115 mph (like I do) and still occasionally have cars flying by so fast you can't even recognize what model it was. :D

My girlfriend makes a point of not going any slower than 160 mph in her tricked-out BMW if traffic permits. :eek:

Just came home from a nighttime Autobahn ride and wanted to share that.

It's fun. :)
 
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:( I wanna take my XB GT Ford Falcon on there one day, I've been tricking it out and currently I'm rebuilding it...I could fly along there at close to 180mph I predict, but I need to get the super charger first.

Man that sounds so freaking fun though, also one of my car mags had featured a race track i think in germany that is considered a road, idea is if you total your car racing its covered by regualar insurance ;).
 
NeedleRemorse said:
Sounds fun! Drive safely, slipups at those speeds don't end well :eek:
Click to expand...

Yea, but easily cleaned up. All you need is a sponge! :eek:

Last time I drove on the Autobahn, my son said from the back seat: "Dad, what's this car coming up behind....<<<whooosh>>>.....us?"

Before he got out the word "behind", the car had blown by me on the left and was already too far away to make out the Mercedes model number. (although many Germans remove the model insignia from the trunk lid of their Mercedes)
 
Quiet Storm, you are one lucky b@stard to be legally able to drive that fast!!
wish we could in the US... :grumpy: :( :) :D
 
you can ;) goto your local race track...its no more then $20 a day usually to use the track in the off season.
 
usually its the hick areas that have the tracks ;) its a shame though...I personally feel more safe on the track knowing I wont kill an innocent family out for a drive. any old air fields around? ones for crop dusters and such? there's usually somewhere you can safely let your speed demon loose.
 
No real way to do that kind of thing at most tracks....if you're trapping 115, you're probably running mid-12's or so, which is beyond most people's capabilities. Auto-X and opentrack have curves, no super long blasting straights like the Autobahn. Maybe an airstrip, though. :D

Ash
 
i run mid 11's (well not at the moment, fully rebuilding my car so i'd have to push it over the finish line lol)...but tracks here cater to everyone in a government initative to get street racers on the track, but our V8 supercar tracks have nice long straights for the home stretch...we also have a air strip that closed down 6 years ago, since then people cut the gates open and racers who dont wanna get caught on the roads go there, the police turn a blind eye to it supprisingly.

but then on the autobarn the straights are much longer, that'd be fun!!! :D
 
German autobahn system rules, honestly :) And the pretty part (not obvious to most continental Europeans who haven't been to Germany yet) is that it's all "free" (As in:L one doesn't have to cough up for a permit like in Austria or money every few kilometers like elsewhere).Ironically, despite the fact that there are pretty much no speed limits there are about as many (or fewer) fatalities from traffic acidents as there are in the US, with very modest speed limits. Odd.
 
I can honestly say that after living in Frankfurt while my dad was stationed there (US Army) you can keep the autobahn and I deffinitly stuck to riding the trains. :eek: Are the taxis still Mercedes? I'll take driving in Atlanta over the autobahns any day. I know, I'm a wimp.
 
No civilian driver has the skills to drive a car safely at 115mph. Most don't have the nous to drive at 70. Many shouldn't be driving Scalextric.

Make sure you wear a full-face helmet. It won't save your life, but at least the remains will be identifiable.

maximus "LEO" otter
 
maximus otter said:
No civilian driver has the skills to drive a car safely at 115mph. Most don't have the nous to drive at 70. Many shouldn't be driving Scalextric.

Make sure you wear a full-face helmet. It won't save your life, but at least the remains will be identifiable.

maximus "LEO" otter
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Yeah, no civilian has the skills to safely handle firearms either :rolleyes:
 
Back in the 60s, when I was in Germany curtesy of the army, we very occasionaly ventured onto the autobahn. We had a 1953 beetle with the 35-horse engine. No starter, we couldn't afford one. (a quick push from the passenger side, pop the clutch, and the "pusher" swung in-hardly more complicated than using the key...hehe)
What you would do is get into a "convoy" of sorts with a bunch of other VWs, all of which were floored. Streaking along at a lordly 75mph or so, we would experience the occasional "WHOOSH" of passing Mercs or Porsches...It was not very confidence-building.

I agree with Maximus, driving at insane speeds is...insane. Perfectly safe, mind, as long as nothing goes wrong. Murphy being the gentleman he is, something will always go wrong.
 
mwerner said:
.....We had a 1953 beetle with the 35-horse engine......
Click to expand...

Did that model still have the orange-red "winker" turn signal indicators that popped out of the door frame on either side of the car? ;)
 
No one has the skill to pilot machines fast eh? Check this out.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0922042speed1.html

At 205 MPH, Speed Thrills
Minnesota biker cited for driving 140 mph over limit
SEPTEMBER 22--The below Minnesota speeding ticket should be in a museum someplace. That's because motorcyclist Samuel Tilley, 20, was clocked Saturday afternoon going 205 mph on his Honda. That was 140 mph over the limit on U.S. Highway 61. Tilley was clocked at Indy car speeds by a State Patrol pilot flying overhead, stopwatch in hand. The pilot radioed ahead to a state trooper who pulled Tilley over and issued the reckless driving citation. Tilley, the son of a sheriff's deputy, displaces William Faenza at the top of TSG's speediest driver list. Faenza was nabbed last September when Pennsylvania cops clocked him doing 182 mph in his Lamborghini Diablo. (1 page)


0922042speed1.gif
 
Since civilians are pretty much the only ones driving at thoe speeds in Germany that makes one wonder what is it that makes American roads so much more unsafe (stats-wise) compared to German ? Is it the driving skills (and the lack thereof), average quality of the vehicles, culture on the road, infrastructure, what ?
 
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