[Spitfire]

@skandyhere: Spot on man. Hope the message spreads and we see less of this dare devilry which is taking young innocent lives on such a regular basis.

I get laughed at and made fun of my driving when i do sane speeds even on highways. Hope no one gets into a situation where such things make sense only when a near one is a victim.

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by skandyhere

Whoever thinks driving at less than crazy speeds can't be fun hasn't bonded well enough with his car.

Look out for a Bolero hogging the middle lane on ring roads at a relaxed pace. That might be me.

I used to be a complete idiot behind the wheel till about 7 yrs ago. Then one day, I thought, I might be in control but whats the guarantee that the guy in front or behind me is in control? and whats the gurantee that my tyre wont blow out when I'm doing 120? whats the guarantee that the driveshaft wont fail during a risky overtaking maneuver.

once we realise how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things, we slow down, immediately.

I didnt need an accident or a near miss to teach me this. i just saw the light. I'm grateful that i did.

wish I could take back all the stupid things I'd done when I was in college. but no harm done to anyone except a few skipped beats and angry words. so its all ok I guess.

SB- I think you over corrected during your initial lane change maneuver. kind of like an unintentional scandinavian flick. the rear ends up oscillating till you meet something else during your snaky tour through the road, or till you mange to gently damp/ control the oversteer.

its always nice to drive with a performance reserve on the tires, engine, brakes and oneself, so that we can escape when our roads throw us a curveball, which does happen quite often.

[Shan2nu]

Absolutely not. We need not learn how and what to do at 'high speeds' under any conditions. For once, let the mind override the adrenaline, and tell me if you still believe it makes ANY sense to do high speeds.

Maybe some people don't think doing high speeds is interesting but for some of us it makes perfect sense to do high speeds in a controlled environment. I never said that i do 185 everyday nor did i say that everyone should try it. My average speed on a daily basis is just 20kmph within city limits.

Had there been any racing circuits close to my place, i wouldn't have even bothered to drive on the highways (except when i needed to get to the track) Hehe.

So there's nothing wrong in speeding, especially if you're doing it on a race track or on a drag strip.

And the definition of high speeds changes with every vehicle you drive. I will never drive my Wagon R the way i drive the Vtec or the Innova. They all have their own limits.

Shan2nu

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

Maybe some people don't think doing high speeds is interesting but for some of us it makes perfect sense to do high speeds in a controlled environment.

So there's nothing wrong in speeding, especially if you're doing it on a race track or on a drag strip.

Shan2nu

Perfect!

Everybody (atleast most of us in this forum) loves to speed.....but in a CONTROLLED environment.

Then why are we discussing corrections / flicks etc on a PUBLIC ROAD???

[DriverR]

SB, glad to hear that you came out of this safe and wiser. I was surprised to hear you narate this as I have found you to be one of the sane and stable people on this forum. But then, I understand that itchy urge to speed "just for a minute" on an empty good road. I will not preach as I am equally guilty of sucumbing to such urges. While Spitfire might appear very preachy, his one point is very good. If you have a photo of your loved ones in front of you, it will calm you down and help moderate your driving.

Take care and drive safe. We need more mature drivers like you on our roads who can lead by example.

(Guys, just my two cents, but SB made a mistake and has emerged out of it wiser and more mature. No use berating him for his mistake. It serves no purpose)

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by DriverR

(Guys, just my two cents, but SB made a mistake and has emerged out of it wiser and more mature. No use berating him for his mistake. It serves no purpose)

Well put. And with this i would request the mods to please lock this thread.

[Shan2nu]

Perfect!

Everybody (atleast most of us in this forum) loves to speed.....but in a CONTROLLED environment.

Then why are we discussing corrections / flicks etc on a PUBLIC ROAD???

Why shouldn't we discuss something that we've experienced? There might be some new drivers out there who might have been thinking of doing high speeds in their cars? Atleast now that we've mentioned our experiences, they know what can happen if they do try it out.

This thread was never intended to encourage high speed driving on public roads but was being used to chalk down your experiences, so that others can profit from it.

Shan2nu

[Jeep]

Thanks for sharing this, SB.

The max speeds that I have done are

about 105 kmph (M 800), 115 kmph (Accent GLS 1.6L) and 100+ kmph (Yamaha RX 135). All the above speeds have been done in open stretches of highways in broad daylight.

Saw someone do 180 in Accent in youtube and since then I have been planning to take it to the limits... But after reading this, I will not try it ever. Period.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

Why shouldn't we discuss something that we've experienced? There might be some new drivers out there who might have been thinking of doing high speeds in their cars? Atleast now that we've mentioned our experiences, they know what can happen if they do try it out.

This thread was never intended to encourage high speed driving on public roads but was being used to chalk down your experiences, so that others can profit from it.

Shan2nu

Thats right Shan2nu.

I never crossed 80 kmph for atleast a year after purchase of my car. After going through the ''max speed' thread. I did took my car to 130 kmph on Bangalore highways. Actually I wanted to hit 150+ kmph, when I get a chance again.

But after going through SB's thread, A BIG NO. I feel safer at 120 kmph on empty stretches, let me limit to that. Even for that 120 kmph on empty stretch, again a big no without upgrading the rubber

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by DriverR

While Spitfire might appear very preachy,

Define preachy?

If you tell someone that speeding on public roads is preachy then so be it. I never said i have never done any mistakes. But i have never done anything deliberatly which i know can harm me, my family and others.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

SB- I think you over corrected during your initial lane change maneuver....

I think so too and the speed added to the problem.

Originally Posted by DriverR

SB, glad to hear that you came out of this safe and wiser. I was surprised to hear you narate this as I have found you to be one of the sane and stable people on this forum.

Thanks. I do try to be a sane person (if not always, atleast most of the time). But then, "To err is human", ain't it ?

Originally Posted by DriverR

(Guys, just my two cents, but SB made a mistake and has emerged out of it wiser and more mature. No use berating him for his mistake. It serves no purpose)

I have no issues with people who point out my error. As some of them said, they have had cases where they lost loved ones in similar situations. So I can understand where they are coming from. And frankly, I have been on the forum long enough to expect what kind of reactions to expect while posting this here.

My issue is only with people thinking that this is about glorifying hi-speed driving on city roads. It is not - my post is pretty clear on that. I just pointed out something which happened to me that I was not expecting. It could even happen at much lesser speeds too and if someone sees the implications and it helps them, the thread would have served its purpose.

AWARENESS / COMMON SENSE is a rare commodity here. What we need is an education system where they teach us stuff like .... "Why should i brake and pass when i can swerve and flick?", ........ Sorry, i've given up on this country.

Seems like the fallout of this thread is seen in other threads. Did not want to go OT on that thread, so posting it here.

Agree that in my case, a brake-and-pass would have been the best move, while the swerve-and-flick turned out to be a wrong decision. But, given the kind of roads we have, have we never done sudden swerve-and-flick in normal city driving ? Say you are driving at the normal city speeds and out-of-the-blue, you see a pothole big enough to cause damage. Would you still brake or swerve ? I am sure many of us would swerve - its instinctive. And if there is a biker riding alongside you, you could end up swiping him.

I swerved once to avoid a pothole in my M800 resulting in a brief buckling of the car - nowhere near what I experienced on Friday, but still a bit unsettling. Was doing about 50kmph only.

I am sure there would be guys who would still say that they would brake in such situations. Fine. But what about the guy behind you, who is not expecting you to brake unexpectedly and rear-ends you. Happened to me a few months ago.

I am on Sterling Road (relatively good road in Chennai), morning rush hour traffic, speeds being 30kmph or so and suddenly the 3rd car ahead of me brakes due to a pothole that appeared overnight. The Palio behind it brakes in time and so does the Esteem behind. I also brake inches away from the Esteem. I hear a sudden thud behind me - an M800 has rammed into my rear and a biker has rammed into it.

I ask the driver of the M800 (a lady) why she did not brake. She shrugs and asks me, "Why did that guy brake all of a sudden ?" I am like, "He could have braked for whatever reason, but why were you not able to do the same, when 3 of us behind him could ? " She has no answer. A swerve in this case could have saved me a broken bumper. At the same time, it could have even resulted in hitting some innocent riding in the side lane.

Driving is about a lot of things - the car, the driver, the road, other drivers, lighting, road rules etc etc. And the challenge is to take the best decision, while keeping all these factors into consideration. And sometimes the decision you take could end up being the wrong one. Happened to me and I am sure it can happen to anyone, even in normal circumstances.

Just isolating the speed of the vehicle as a culprit is not right. The bikers you see flitting in-and-out of traffic might be doing less than 40kmph (and legally within the speed limit), but would be the rashest due to the other rules they break. On the other hand a car guy doing a steady 60kmph on the fast lane in the city, is breaking the speed limit, but could be driving sanely and in control. Just to point out that you could speed without being rash, just as much as you could be rash without speeding.

[Torqy]

@supremebaleno: That brake / pass / swerve / flick was not a fallout of this thread. That's something we see all the time.

I try (my best) to be in a situation where i can comfortably brake instead of swerving into somebody else's lane. When i have a problem in my lane i don't want to spread it to another lane. But then there are situations where as you said we instinctively swerve.

In traffic, the guy following you will be atleast as fast as you. So you basically control the traffic speed. Would you follow a call centre cab and drive like him through the city? He might be doing 40kmph on crowded roads flicking his qualis like a bicycle. Now that's rash.

I'd love to learn advanced driving skills (I love WRC). But i'm against using them on the public roads......unless you're pushed into a situation. I would try my best not to put myself in such a situation. It's not just the speed. It's about speeding on public roads. Not everyone out on the road is a WRC driver.

I'm not a great driver. I just don't want to put somebody else in trouble. This is also not about pointing fingers at you. But the discussions turned to how to speed safely on public roads.

Can we stop here?

[Shan2nu]

Define preachy?

If you tell someone that speeding on public roads is preachy then so be it. I never said i have never done any mistakes. But i have never done anything deliberatly which i know can harm me, my family and others.

Who on this entire thread is promoting speeding on public roads? You say you've done mistakes. But whats the point of keeping it to yourself? It would be better if you could share your experience with us so that it helps others, avoid making those mistakes.

I could have kept silent about my experience at high speeds but how is that gonna change anything? Infact by posting about it on this forum, i'm doing some good to those who might have benefited from reading it.

Shan2nu

[ac 427]

hey there,

good to know you are all right and nothign is wrong with you.

But i strongly feel that this is a case of 'reckless' driving.

sorry to sound rude but i strongly feel you could have avoided going through the gap and subsequently would have avoided the same.

cheers