Originally Posted by frog
Azrael
Azrael, I understand what you mean, however, the fact that I drive a powerful car which is capable of 160mph speeds doesn't mean I drive at that speed all the time everywhere
Nor do I have to.
You don't have too to drive like that but you have all the means to let someone quicker go.
I may have two children and a wife in the car, and if I feel 100mph is fast enough for the road condition, so be it, I won't be pressurised into going faster by someone who wants to. I won't take the risks...
That's were right (slower) lane comes in handy
I am within my own right to overtake at whatever speed is above those I am overtaking, as long as I move back into the inside lane when appropriate to let others past.
I don't know about UK triffic law but over here it states very clearly - "you must overtake as fast as possible" and they teach that on driving course to every driver-learner.
To be honest, if a car takes miles to reach those speeds, it is probably VERY unsafe to drive at those speeds, even more so, when you are stuck to someone's bumper with nowhere to go in case of emergency
Probably with much more powerful brakes too
Let me worry about my brakes and handling
Still managed to push BMW M5 that was taking corners far too slow for my liking into braking contest and overtake him mid corner
although car difference was mad. It copes just fine if driven with care.
I often have to slow down for other people in the outside lane on UK motorways, I give them space to complete their manoeuvre and then overtake them when I can, I don't sit on their bumper, that usually results in the opposite of what I want, they sit there and block me
Here we use high beam lights, indicators at such people. In Greece I've seen some poeple just not slowing down and making others run to the side
PS: I wasn't blocking, the guy arrived in my rear view mirror long AFTER I started overtaking, and suddenly filled it with his bumper
I was overtaking a long line of lorries, should I have slipped in between two lorries and slammed the brakes on to let him past ???
You know it's all matter of seeing certain situations. I do such things as you described in last sentence form time to time. Brake and let people go past, I do that quite often, although I don't have any idea if I would do so in that case or if I would advice you to do so.
The fact is that drivers in UK are not used to other cars coming from behind at speeds a lot higher then their own. Even on local roads near the city here I can expect someone to go 1/2 faster them me and on German Autobahn someone ca be incoming at double my speed it's not unheard of. You don't want to be in his way and do everything to avoid that. Probably it's all matter of customs and what you're used to. When driving slow car on motorway overtaking is one of worrying moments for me as I have to be very carefull not to gointo somebody's way, when driving fast car I'm looking very carefully at slower cars and sometimes slowing down if I think thee is a risk they could start overtaking. SOmetimes I have to use lights, horn etc. to warn them of my coming. In UK from what I rememebr from driving there triffic is more homogenous, more like in USA - no huge speed differences, not much overtaking compered to what you can see in continental Europe.
Don't worry though - rst of the world is going to become like UK when the Police buys even more speed cameras.