h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So now that I've got the new car; well, a car that's new to me anyway.

And now that we know that it is phenomenally quick - 0 to 60 in 7.6 seconds with a top speed in the region of 140mph.

How long do people think it will be before I pick up another set of 3 points on my licence for going a 'tad' over the speed limit? Me, I give it about three weeks

I'll lower that three weeks by a week... give you two weeks

When's the next time you're driving?

I doubt I'll be driving for another 12 hours.

However I know the location of all the cameras in the Brighton & Hove area; the local Police don't use mobile cameras that often, and when they do they set up the warning signs and stuff correctly to tell you that there is a mobile patrol out and about. So on that basis I'm unlikely to get a ban tomorrow or on most of the working days next week.

Can you afford to get a driving ban ?

Driving bans for speeding - unless you're caught doing something really outragious - aren't usually that long. Up to three months is what you would expect to get.

The bans for drink driving - which is what the chap I bought the car from has got - are much longer. They typically start at a year, but up to two years is much more likely.

I could survive without a car. Some of the meetings that I need to go to would be a bit tricky. But the getting to and from work would be straight forward as the train station is right next to my office in Worthing.

No fines for speeding then ? They're quite tough here, points in Flensburg, huge fines - growing with the speed you have been over the limit, driving ban for at least three months, although I've heard you can choose when to do it, so you won't necessarily lose your job because you're not allowed to drive.

Did you collect that before you flew off?

There are fines as well, but they're not that big and the points are considered the main part of the punishment. Typically you get three points for speeding, twelve points makes a ban, so you have to get caught four times. I gather from his post that GD doesn't have a "clean" licence.

Traveller in Time looking at the fuel prices
"I will give you a Danda (42 days)

But long before that time you will notice the car consumes way more fuel when you drive a little too fast. "

So, let me see if I've got this straight. You've just lashed out some wedge on a new motor and now you're gong to do something that could legally prevent you from using it.

Am I the only one seeing the flaw in this?

Bagpuss - yes, I have three points at the moment - there's a journal about it somewhere in the backlog. My lifetime total is nine points, of which I held a maximum of six for about 14 months. When it comes to insurance, three points isn't a problem, there are so many people who've got them that the insurers don't bother. Even when I had six my insurance only went up by about £20 for that year.

TiT - At the moment I'm loving the efficiency differential of a diesel over a petrol engine. The trip computer reckons that the £30 of fuel that I put in the car this afternoon will last me 370 miles. Three hundred and seventy miles of petrol in my old car would cost more like £45.

Traveller in Time thinking of a smuggling hose
"It does cost me about half a tank of petrol to pay a fine for speeding 30 kilometers over the limit.

Think I will stay riding a bicycle, nobody ever measures the speed of a bicycle "

I could be smug about never having gained any points, but then I've spent much more money on repairs after crashing the thing (a few years ago now) than I would have done on fines.

I've broken speed limits on a bicycle Only 20mph ones and usually with the help of some form of hill, but rules is rules...

I dream of an Alfa 156 like we hired when we went to Italy two summers ago. Only a diesel, but that went very nicely and more importantly it Had Style.

I'm not allowing myself a fast car on the grounds of what I might do with it. Oh, and I can't afford one.

I've caught cars up going downhill on my bike in a 30 limit, so I must assume I was being illegal.

No 6 - Alfa's are lovely to drive but a nightmare to own. I loved the Alfa I had (even more than the Audi that followed it!) but it was a company car so someone else picked up the bills, including fuel and gave me another one while it was being mended or serviced which was about once every 2 months - got to know the garage really well and even some of the other customers

Returning to the subject - I am not sure how long it will take GD to collect more points - in some ways when you drive a fast an powerful car you are a lot more careful as you are always cognicent of the fact that you may be going too fast!

I've got a new game I like to play.

The A27 out of Worthing towards Brighton is an urban dual carriageway - 40mph speedlimit and lots of side road turnings, that sort of thing. Well after the last roundabout in Worthing the road opens up to a full 70mph speed limit on a dead straight line. But the first 400 yards or so of that are still 40mph.

My game? I stick religiously to that 40mph limit until I pass the national speed limit sign. I have a queue of cars behind me, and an empty road in front of me as everyone else had sped up as soon as they were over the roundabout.

Then I floor the bugger

In response to post 13-16

According to Norwegian news agency NTB, a man has reported all riders in Tour of Spain to the police for driving at least 60 km/h in the sprint at the end of stage four - in a street where the limit is 50 km/h!
(Link in Norwegian http://www.vl.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/NTBS/700598827)

*rolls eyes*

... and if that happened in Britain, then they'd go right along and prosecute them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3257523.stm