Text 2825, 199 rader
Skriven 2010-01-08 12:10:49 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
   Kommentar till text 2724 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Misconceptions
======================
07 Jan 10 09:26, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>> Here, that's 72km/hr.

 RB> 45 mph? That would probably be an expressway, then, not merely a
 RB> two-lane highway.

That's the minimum speed on the freeway. Here in a city with 55k
population, the maximum speed is 70mph or 65mph at night. In San Antonio,
the maximum speed limit is 65mph, 60mph at night.

 RB>>> That doesn't mean you must drive that fast regardless of
 RB>>> conditions, and in fact under hazardous conditions driving that
 RB>>> fast could be reckless and thus illegal.

 RW>> Here that would mean that you cannot drive on that particular road
 RW>> if you cannot maintain the minimum speed limit. You could drive on
 RW>> it, but you would be subject to a ticket for obstructing the flow of
 RW>> traffic. Rush hour traffic not withstanding.

 RB> So in your case, it's the _actual_ speed that's considered, not the
 RB> top speed in the registration papers. OK, then that's a difference in
 RB> the systems.

Yes sir. To  help people with vehicles that can't maintain, there are
frontage roads alongside of the freeways where the max speed limit is
55mph and 35mph min.

 RB>>> But a VW bus can easily travel more than 100 km/h on a level
 RB>>> stretch and thus has no problems on the Autobahn.

 RW>> That's too slow, even for a two lane highway with a max speed limit
 RW>> of 100km/hr because everyone will be going faster than that.

 RB> You'll also never see a highway with a max. speed limit of 60 km/h,
 RB> since that is a typical speed for inner-city traffic.

Two lane/two way country roads are limited to 100km/hr and also have a
lane wide enough on both sides of the road for slower vehicles to pull
over to allow faster vehicles to pass.

 RB> The speed limit on a normal highway here is 100 km/h, with short
 RB> stretches in dangerous areas 70 km/h. The only place you might see a
 RB> 60 km/h sign would be in a construction area, and even then 80 km/h
 RB> is more common. Naturally, there are no speed limits on the
 RB> Autobahns, but some sections near or in large cities do have a
 RB> restriction to 100 km/h or 120 km/h.

 RB>>> Roy, the vehicle isn't a racing car, but it is a normal road
 RB>>> vehicle and is used as such. I don't know why you keep harping on
 RB>>> the speed, given the low speed limits in the States.

 RW>> Because the vehicle cannot maintain enough speed to not obstruct the
 RW>> flow of traffic.

 RB> It certainly can here, and Germans are not known to be particularly
 RB> slow-moving drivers. You're talking about special circumstances.

If you call driving up a hill special.

 RW>> If and when it got to the hills on Interstate 10, west of here, the
 RW>> minimum speed is 100km/hr, which it couldn't maintain on any of the
 RW>> inclines required to get over the hill country into west Texas.

 RB> _Minimum_ speed 100 km/h?? That would be roughly 60 mph, and more
 RB> likely a max. speed limit in the States.

Wrong. The max speed limit on I-10 west of San Antonio is 80mph. East of
SA it is 70mph and like I said, 60mph in San Antonio.

 RB>>> For such an extreme situation, quite probably. But you can't build
 RB>>> a car that will perform ideally under _all_ concieveable
 RB>>> conditions.

 RW>> Designing one that can climb a hill without losing speed isn't all
 RW>> that hard.

 RB> Let's just say that I've driven a bus and a Beetle in the Alps
 RB> without suffering any particular problems. Smaller cars with less
 RB> powerful motors were generally more of a problem, but could usually
 RB> be passed in a reasonable period of time.

I've driven through the Rockies several times and have found VW buses and
beetles to be a hinderance to the flow of traffic. Even 18 wheelers can
pass them going up-hill. A 7% or 9% grade will almost stop a VW in its
tracks.

 RB>>> Remember the Beetle and the bus were designed for Germany, and
 RB>>> although there are considerable grades in the mountains there too,
 RB>>> much of the country is relatively flat.

 RW>> Which is why they're no longer sold here.

 RB> No, they simply were outdated and were replaced by the VW Golf.

No, they're still being made, in Mexico. The Golf is even worse than the
bug.

 RB> They had disadvantages (the lousy heater, for example) that were no
 RB> longer tolerated even in a cult car. But before they ceased being
 RB> made, over 10,000,000 were sold - that's quite a record.

That's a lot of under powered cars putting others in danger.

 RW>> Although they're still being made in Mexico and you see them here
 RW>> every once in a while.

 RB> The Mexican production of Beetles ceased years ago, Roy.

Not. We see them coming across the border all the time. You can tell their
not old because they look brand new.

 RB> They were last made in Brazil, but that's also meanwhile history.
 RB> There was a "New Beetle" made for a while, but it had nothing to do
 RB> with the original except the name, wasn't sold much and has meanwhile
 RB> disappeared. I don't even know if it was ever sold in North America.

Yes, the 'new beetle is still being sold here.

 RB>>> Here, an American car of the pre-1970 variety would also have had
 RB>>> problems. It used far too much gas and was much too wide and
 RB>>> unmaneuverable for the narrow streets in many old towns, such as
 RB>>> Heidelberg.

 RW>> They didn't have that problem here.

 RB> I didn't claim they did. The reference was to Germany, not the
 RB> States.

 RW>> Even when driven thru Jerome, AZ, where the streets are probably as
 RW>> narrow as they are in Heidelberg.

 RB> You've never seen the streets in Heidelberg ;-)

You've never seen the streets in Jerome...

 RW>> The VW I drove over the grapevine belonged to a gal I met in Los
 RW>> Angeles, CA and I was driving her home to San Jose'...She wasn't
 RW>> very happy with it either, but it was all she had at the time.

 RB> If that was back in the days when so-called "full sized cars" were
 RB> standard in the States, I'm not really surprised she wasn't too happy
 RB> with the Beetle. It was cheap (originally US$ 1600 new), sporty and a
 RB> cult car - but if you liked lots of room, power this and power that,
 RB> it wasn't the right car for you.

She was a Buick Riveria fan. I never heard the end of how great her Buick
was.

 RB>>> At any rate, all this is history, as the cars built nowadays are
 RB>>> (at least for my way of thinking) more over- than underpowered
 RB>>> (little rollerskate-size cars with 70-100 HP), even in Germany.

 RW>> I don't own nor would I ever buy any rollerskates, mine are all
 RW>> medium to large vehicles with V8 power.

 RB> Fine, if you like that and can afford the price and upkeep.

I've never owned anything less. I did have a 57 VW for about a week...it
died.

 RW>> The Z28 (the smallest vehicle) has 305hp and with the .5:1
 RW>> overdrive, gets reasonably good mileage (26mpg) with plenty of power
 RW>> to pull those mountain grades in that gear.

 RB> I don't know if you realize how strange it looks to see you call 26
 RB> mpg "reasonably good mileage".

Take the same car, 20 years before and it got the same mileage, but didn't
have 305 horsepower. A 'have your cake and eat it too' situation.

 RB> You're lucky you live in the States, since you'd never be able to
 RB> afford driving such a car in Europe.

You're assuming that...

 RB> The road tax would be sky-high, the gas cost absolutely astronomical
 RB> and the insurance prohibitive.

That has never stopped me from driving what I drive. Even when my uncle
said now that you're married and have a little one, you need to be drivng
a car that gets better mileage. Not!

 RB> But of course you probably wouldn't drive anything like that in
 RB> Europe anyway, since there are not many day-long stretches of highway
 RB> (American translation: "short jaunts" <g>) here, and large cars for
 RB> short hauls just don't make economic sense. Nor is their comfort
 RB> advantage really a selling point for the relatively short driving
 RB> distances.

Which is another point of contention. I don't find any European cars
comfortable and they should be. The Japanese do a better job of
ergonomical design.

                R\%/itt

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