Took it past 70 today - 1st time

Even in Switzerland, with its fairly heavy-handed enforcement, 140kph (85mph) is the standard cruising speed for my Focus wagon (turbodiesel) and it quite happily spends several hours at 150 - 170 on trips to Italy or Germany.

Over here, it's a rather big car! :-)

Stephen

Not that our law allows it but Foci in the UK are quite at home sitting at

Tim..

"Stephen F." wrote

Interestingly, in one dimension it is big even in North America. Most of the vehicles I've bought in the past 4 1/2 decades I've had to modify the seat tracks to give me enough leg room to get comfortable. That includes some much bigger than the Focus. But the first time I sat in a Focus in a showroom, pushed the seat back and grabbed the controls, I knew I was home.

Yep, speedo stops at about 220 km/h, but the revs climb up a little bit more.;) The summer tires on my Focus are labeled with a "V", meaning they are at least good for 240 km/h, so that shouldn't be a problem. Taking into account that the speedo always shows a little bit more. If you have a GPS you can easily check this out, it shows about 5% too much on my Focus.

Depends were you are, at least the wagon isn't a really small car here.

My Focus speedo reads 94mph when true ground speed is 90. Not sure wot that is in percentage....?

Tim..

Assuming true ground speed as 100%:

4.44% difference, even more accurate then mine. Never had a Ford where the speedo was this good!

You can calculate the speed from the complete gear transmission ratio in addition. The 2.0l manual has 3.1262:

(0.06*(revs/min)*(admeasurement of tire in meter) V = ------------------------------------------------ (complete gear transmission ratio)

(0.06*5800*1.876)/3.1262

The same as GPS shows, looks like the rev meter is pretty accurate, even if we have to take into account that tire admeasurement might not be that definite just calculated from the tire size "195/60 R15V".

My speedo shows over by 4 to 5 mph according to GPS. Interestingly enough, my brothers Zetec is only about 2mph over.

My Focus TDCi allegedly cruises quite happily at 110mph in the middle of the night on a completely empty motorway with no speed cameras :-) Little wind and road noise, and a one-off event!

G.

Yep, but at which speed, without the speed it doesn't say much.

Sadly not all highway have no speed limit at all here and even on those it's often rather full and you are happy if the left lane allows about

On the other hand fuel isn't really cheap, if it's free enough to push the Focus to its limits, you can see the fuel gauge fall.;(

Well we tried from 30 to 90, and both cars were consistent at all speeds. Mine, a TDCi LX was 4 to 5 over and my brothers, a 1.6 Petrol Zetec was about 2mph over.

If it makes any difference, his is a 2001 model and mine is a 2002.

Hope this helps.

G.

I don't suppose by any change you've been driving on the M40? :)

No, not in the last 8 months or so. Aren't there afew speed traps on the m40 now anyway??

Why, did I zoom past you??

Tim..

I take it past 70 everyday!

It's the only road I drive often where the inside lane is driving at speed limit + 20%:) No speed traps that I'm aware of unless there are some right at the very top.

No objection to people zooming past unless they're Mercedes or BMWs on full beam:)

Had heard they were more down warwick / oxford area, but sounds like that info was wrong...

Tim..

There are a couple where the M40 merges into the M42 looking at traffic works. Driving very carefull to oxford & back from warwick I didn't see any cameras on Saturday. Though there is a motorway police center near one of the Warwick junctions.

I would too if there wasn't always someone in my goddamn way! Rush hour sux, always. Anyway, I finally happened upon one of those unmanned speed traps that tell you your speed as you approach. People probably though I was weird 'cause I turned around and went past it two more times. My speedo reads 1 to 2 mph higher than the thing reads out. John

Skallywag wrote

90/94 = 0.95745 => 90 is 95.745% of 94

This is at junction 14 on the leamington spa roundabout.