Is fast driving no longer in keeping with the times?
08/09/2021
The discussion about speed limits is in full swing again these days. Cities are considering introducing 30 km/h speed limits across the board, and the days of unlimited German highways seem to be numbered.
An article under the title "Fast driving no longer in keeping with the times?" would fit the bill. However, the report in question dates back to 1967, a time when most cars were still traveling at just over 120 km/h and drivers at the time didn't even dare to dream of 200, 400 or even 600 hp.
Nevertheless, "auto motor und sport" magazine devoted almost a dozen pages to the subject of speeding. And of course, as a serious car magazine, they also wanted to provide data and evidence. One of the reasons for the article was an experiment conducted by the magazine Stern, which involved driving once tamely and once wildly from Hamburg to Rimini. Over the 1450 km, just 31 minutes could be gained by driving fast, instead of 20 hours 12 minutes, the "tame" driver arrived at his destination in Italy after 20 hours and 43 minutes. However, he consumed 2.7 liters less per 100 km and only had to brake 652 times instead of 1334. Despite driving more slowly, the "tame" driver still overtook 645 times, while the "wild" driver overtook 2004 times. So driving fast seemed to achieve almost nothing.
However, "auto motor und sport" wanted to counter this example with its own test drives and had teams drive in two modes from Hamburg to Rimini, from Stuttgart to Lake Constance and from Stuttgart to Basel and back. In the ams tests, the time differences were significantly greater, but so were the fuel consumption differences.
How much better a faster driving style performed in terms of time savings also depended on the journey planning and travel time. Back then, author Reinhard Seiffert spoke of a "good and bad average".
Today, things look very different, traffic has become heavier and highways more continuous. Speed limits further level out the different driving styles.
So why are there SUVs with over 500 hp or hyper sports cars with more than 1000 hp today? These types of vehicles certainly have very little to do with getting around faster ... This might be worth another experiment ...
