Any of you 'F' boys thinking of going on AutoBahn?

Texas · January 22, 2019

If any of you F boys are thinking of taking your pride & joy for an airing in Germany then you might want to book up sooner rather than later!

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/derestricted-autobahns-could-be-axed-because-of-emissions-laws/

Emissions...Phaaat!

Paul m.

Linas.P · January 22, 2019

Knowing Germany history I don't think it would happen. The reason Germans have unrestricted motorways is because Hitler has introduced strict peed limits to reduce fuel consumption - this time around it is exactly the same, just because of emissions (but fuel consumption and emissions goes hand in hand). I am sure it won't take long before same parallels will be made and who ever is behind report will be branded Nazi and all thing about restrictions forgotten.

Most important thing - does majority of Germans actually care about emissions or this is draconian government imposing "green tax" on people? I think it is latter, so decision to restrict speeds or add additional tax are simply undemocratic - government deciding themselves instead of representing the people.

January 22, 2019

Makes me laugh - restrict this restrict that, ban this, can't say that, can't say this. Always a tax or restriction or cost to the normal people. How about saying to manufacturers - you can't make a car with more than xBHP/Tonne ? Lets say 100BHP per metric tonne? Restricted to 99mph. Oh wait - they are called cheaper EV's 😉

How about banning Bacon?

75g, equivalent to three bacon rashers, per serving Over an entire year your consumption of pork is contributing 656kg to your annual greenhouse gas emissions.

That's 5800km in a prius - just to have bacon for breakfast.

Linas.P · January 22, 2019

@Comedian that is great comparison - thought I would rather eat my bacon rather then spend 5800km in Prius 😄

As well I often point out, that transportation as a whole is about 10% of annual pollution (personal vehicles forms little part of that) - this tells me that we have 90% of other things to focus on, like unhealthy consumption of food, electrical goods, clothes etc. Somehow, that is not an issue, but transportation is - quite clearly motorists are convenient scapegoats to extract extra revenue from...

January 22, 2019

Partly that - also wonder if they want to preserve a finite resource and stop us normal people using it all up? Also stimulate sale of new cars with "green technology" or "safety systems". I saw the USA advert for the ford edge the other day while watching the playoffs - apparently it's terrifying to be overtaken by a motorbike unless you have a warning beep, and it is now impossible to park or steer a car without a sophisticated radar

dutchie01 · January 22, 2019

Whatever your personal opinion, it is coming our way and faster than we think.

Today in the press the Chinese province of Hainan announced a ban of selling all combustion engined cars per March 01. This year. As from 2030 cars with diesel/petrol engines will be illegal and not allowed to drive. And what about Europe? In Norway sales of diesel/petrolcars will be forbidden as from 2025 ( in 6 years ). Thesame in Holland, Ireland, Sweden 2030, France 2040. In the meantime innercities will be more and more restricted.

The future is electric and a nice little v8 in the garage to use in the weekend.

bernieeccles · January 22, 2019

They had better start building new power stations now as current capacity is not enough and with Hitachi deciding not to build the new nuclear power station, a spanner has definitely been

thrown in the works.

The-Acre · January 22, 2019

To be honest I don't think the German autobahns are that great. When we were driving through Germany last year I put my foot right down but it never seemed to be more than just a couple of miles before everyone going fast slammed their brakes on because a Nissan Micra had pulled out, I gave up in the end and just kept to 80 tops.

Twellsie · January 22, 2019

I am pretty sure it will happen, driving on the Autobahns is not the same anymore, there are a lot more cars than there used to be and with many of the Autobahn essentially being dual carriage ways the volume of traffic kills speed, when I was last in Austria the motorway speeds were governed by the air quality and are proven to work and are accepted and German and Austrian laws pretty much go hand in hand (eg you don't even have to show your passport in Austria if flying in from Germany).

its no different to our "smart" motorways, only we are 10 years behind our European friends as usual in terms of transport technology, eg HS1 & HS2 are not planned to be as fast as the French trains from 20 years ago!

The-Acre · January 22, 2019

1 hour ago, Twellsie said:

I am pretty sure it will happen, driving on the Autobahns is not the same anymore, there are a lot more cars than there used to be and with many of the Autobahn essentially being dual carriage ways the volume of traffic kills speed, when I was last in Austria the motorway speeds were governed by the air quality and are proven to work and are accepted and German and Austrian laws pretty much go hand in hand (eg you don't even have to show your passport in Austria if flying in from Germany).

its no different to our "smart" motorways, only we are 10 years behind our European friends as usual in terms of transport technology, eg HS1 & HS2 are not planned to be as fast as the French trains from 20 years ago!

Exactly what I found, just far too much traffic to make it work, and as you say, some dual carriageways.

Linas.P · January 22, 2019

I agree, current state of Autobahn is almost annoying, by the time you find the gap to reach top speed - de-restricted area ends ... and by the time you manage to slowdown to 100-130kph it starts again. Too much traffic and too much roadworks. However, it is possible to set easy 110-120 MPH and just cruise - German lane discipline is great and I was able to go from one petrol station to another (for over 300miles) without a single time using the brakes, few times I just blinked and cancelled cruise control, but car moved over before I needed to brake. Fair point, it was either early or late hours... As well, average speed there is ~100MPH regardless of the posted limits and nobody cares if you going bit faster.

@Twellsie - that is so funny you mentioned that you don't need to show passport when going from Germany to Austria - did you know that is the case in entire Europe.. you can go without showing passport from Spain to Poland, to Germany from Latvia etc. It is called Schengen Area (an area comprising 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders) and has nothing to do German and Austrian laws being similar (which they are).

The difference is that speed limits (or lack off) are very historically important for Germans, but not for Austrians...

@dutchie01 - it will come sooner if we do nothing about it and may be latter if we revolt like french and take it to the streets..

C.B · January 23, 2019

6 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

Whatever your personal opinion, it is coming our way and faster than we think.

Today in the press the Chinese province of Hainan announced a ban of selling all combustion engined cars per March 01. This year. As from 2030 cars with diesel/petrol engines will be illegal and not allowed to drive. And what about Europe? In Norway sales of diesel/petrolcars will be forbidden as from 2025 ( in 6 years ). Thesame in Holland, Ireland, Sweden 2030, France 2040. In the meantime innercities will be more and more restricted.

The future is electric and a nice little v8 in the garage to use in the weekend.

Arnt they just banning pure combustion engine cars? A hybrid with a combustion engine will still be ok. Plenty of manufacturers are showing you can still produce a monster hybrid, and when you are sat in traffic the hybrid is pretty useful. I lose almost a mile a minute from my distance to empty sat in traffic in the cold mornings at the moment, so I use more fuel sat still than on the 7 miles I actually cover 😕

January 23, 2019

15 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

Whatever your personal opinion, it is coming our way and faster than we think.

Today in the press the Chinese province of Hainan announced a ban of selling all combustion engined cars per March 01. This year. As from 2030 cars with diesel/petrol engines will be illegal and not allowed to drive. And what about Europe? In Norway sales of diesel/petrolcars will be forbidden as from 2025 ( in 6 years ). Thesame in Holland, Ireland, Sweden 2030, France 2040. In the meantime innercities will be more and more restricted.

The future is electric and a nice little v8 in the garage to use in the weekend.

I would say it's an obvious way forward and a good thing over-all. The atmosphere is the most important thing we have. However, I want to see the strategies for flying and shipping and agriculture to go along side.

My RCF will be 15 years old in 2030 if I keep it, so will either be a small financial loss if scrapped (maybe will get a scrappage scheme) or a nice return if it becomes desirable (haha who am I fooling?).

Did you also know there are a few companies converting normal cars to electric? So some quite cool classic cars about running on batteries.

Linas.P · January 23, 2019

1 hour ago, Comedian said:

Did you also know there are a few companies converting normal cars to electric? So some quite cool classic cars about running on batteries.

I actually have looked into it in the past and it is quite interesting, Electric power gives an option to make it "A-WD" (for any-wheel drive) and it really changes perspective on some FWD cars e.g. Toyota Celica, Mitsubishi GTO, Honda Civic Coupe, Honda Prelude... all good cars, but FWD just killed desirability of them e.g. compared with any similar age RWD car they are worthless, whereas RWD are becoming classics. Obviously, now all above are considered old junk cars today, but by 2030 some of them will 40 years old classics and whilst being converting to electric it makes no difference which wheels to drive to choose, in fact RWD is probably easier.

Don't want to fuel another RWD vs. FWD discussion - my point electrification can really change perspective and can put some interesting twists into the cars.

NothernDan · January 23, 2019

On 1/22/2019 at 3:28 PM, Comedian said:

Partly that - also wonder if they want to preserve a finite resource and stop us normal people using it all up? Also stimulate sale of new cars with "green technology" or "safety systems". I saw the USA advert for the ford edge the other day while watching the playoffs - apparently it's terrifying to be overtaken by a motorbike unless you have a warning beep, and it is now impossible to park or steer a car without a sophisticated radar

What MPG are you getting out of your bacon these days? And I’m not talking about that plug-in-hybrid stuff 🐷🐷