"AnthonyL" wrote in message
...
Back in the day it was an 848cc A35 van, then same size Mini. What a
waste in the days when the black diagonal really meant no speed limit.

It's scary to think that vehicles that were capable of well over 100 mph
could be sharing a lane with vehicles that were physically unable to reach
even 50 or 60, or drivers that were unwilling to drive any faster even if
the vehicle could do so.

At least nowadays just about all vehicles that are allowed to use a motorway
are physically capable of reaching at least 56 mph / 80 km/hr and all cars
capable of doing at least 70, so there's much less spread of speed than
there used to be on unrestricted motorways (or still are on modern German
autobahns *). I suppose on unrestricted roads, drivers are a lot more
disciplined in only entering that lane if they can see that there really
isn't anyone coming up behind them going a lot faster - which is not the
case on your average British motorway where it's common to be doing 70 and
find that someone doing 50 pulls out in front of you without caring.


(*) OK, I know it should be "autobahnen", but my rule is that if we borrow
or steal a foreign word, we have the right to form its plural the English
way ;-)