Overtaking was (and is) an adventure
05/14/2021
Accidents happen time and again when overtaking and this is usually because the overtaking distance has been misjudged. This was already the case over 50 years ago, which is why the magazine "auto motor und sport" had the overtaking distances of various cars of the time calculated. A fast computer was used, which had to calculate the entire overtaking distance from various parameters.
The overtaking distance was made up of a safety distance when pulling out, the length of the truck and the overtaking car, as well as the reeving distance and the sensible angle for turning in, and of course took into account the acceleration capacity of the car after it had previously been driving behind the truck at 80 km/h. The distance was calculated as follows
Depending on the vehicle, this resulted in an overtaking distance of 309 to 480 meters. The Porsche 911 completed the task best, while a VW 1300 or a Mercedes-Benz 220 D needed more than half the overtaking distance. It took 18 seconds for the Mercedes diesel driver to overtake! Here is the evaluation at the time:
And today, what has changed? Our classic cars have hardly become any faster than they were when they were new. But traffic has become much heavier. A clear stretch of 500 meters or more is now rare, and the VW Beetle simply needs this if it is to overtake a truck train ...
