came across this by accident - he's lucky to be alive the way he can't drive - but a good example of the "empty the tank and melt the brakes" style of driving you often have to employ trying to go fast on their unlimited speed highways

quick heads up
140 on his speedo is 87mph
200 on his speedo it 124mph
255 on his speedo is 158 mph

 

Germany has significantly fewer per capita fatal highway accidents than the USA despite the unlimited Autobahn sections. You may notice that German drivers actually have lane discipline and stay to the right or quickly get out of the fast lanes if another car approaches fast. Nothing here is luck. It's skill and discipline. What you see in this video is very normal. I've driven in Germany for many years at the same kind of speeds. Never had an accident or was in danger. To get a driver license in Germany, you have to demonstrate that you can drive on the Autobahn at these kinds of speeds. They don't just give driver licenses to every moron walking into a DMV like in the USA, and that's not just in Germany, but most of Western Europe in general. It's a very different level of driving over there. If you don't live this life and compare the road situation to the chaos on the roads in North America then I can understand your take, but you don't really understand the situation in Germany.

It is appallingly easy to get and keep a drivers license in North America. I'd venture 75% of drivers at least are not properly trained to even drive safely at the highway speeds around here and wouldn't know what to do in an emergency, because nobody ever told them. Admittedly, you can travel to Germany as an American and let loose on the Autobahn with your American driver license, but perhaps that's not the best idea if you've never done it.

Lastly, there's the roadworthiness of the cars. In the USA you see all kinds of crap driving on the roads. Vehicles that are clearly not safe anymore. In Germany and the rest of Europe for that matter, cars have to undergo regular inspection to make sure they are roadworthy. You may have heard of the TÜV in Germany. They have very strict standards as to what constitutes roadworthiness. You are not gonna see rust buckets cruising around on the German Autobahn. You also barely see American cars on the road. Guess why?

 

he's an idiot, about 5 times he gets it seriously wrong - he's in a 2.3t tank that doesn't like stopping from 150mph - closing speeds of 70mph more than an asleep halfwit is a right mess we don't need

I'm also not of the persuasion they (Europeans that drive on the wrong side of the road) have good lane discipline at all - Yes, they believe if they indicate that's half of what matters. The other one they love, is swerving in and out of lanes like crazy for no reason whatsoever. When pressing on you need consistent responses and people that understand and consider closing speeds of other road users (thus have a bit of consideration) What I mostly find in Continental Europe is wild maneuvers where clearly the only thing going on in their head is "I indicated so its my right to swerve in to a lane - I don't care if they were clearly going much faster than I was".

I worked in a european team and we rented cars and thrashed around much of europe quite often for years - NL guy used to complain about UK lane discipline being appalling - and yes we have a huge problem - but I've always felt much safer with UK halfwits than foreign ones.... Germany and France clearly have serious issues giving a toss about other people who are getting on with it - tick tock, tick tock - serve.

 

I'm not much for generalizations or anecdotal evidence. I'm a data guy. So much of what you say doesn't really track with actual data. You can look up the stats. Some of the recent data has Germany at 3.7 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. That's admittedly behind the 2.9 per 100,000 for the UK, but ahead of countries such as NL and other Western European countries. That's pretty good considering that Germany has an actual racetrack that's officially part of the German Autobahn system and as said has many sections of the Autobahn w/o speed limits. I invite you to come drive in the USA with its 12.9 road deaths per 100,000. You might get a heart attack ;-).

I will give you this. Over the years I have observed a decline in Germany. Especially younger drivers don't seem to know anymore what they are doing on the roads. It tracks with the general decline in intelligence and education around the world. People are not only becoming dumber, but also less skilled in general. My generation still cares about merits and we pride ourselves in honing our skills.

 

fully agree on your last paragraph

in Britain today youngsters only experience of judging speed and distance is in the fake world of computer games...
when you walked crossing roads, and rode bicycles to school, then jumped about afterwards in trees you honed vital lifelong skills - now mummy takes you in an air con monster truck as you destroy your brain playing with a tracking device - then at 18 you crash coz a PlayStation could do the bend at 200mph

 

ah just read the comment on the SL that didn't get round a bend at 150mph and slid upside down for about 2 miles scraping along the crash barrier ... (now I get why its age related)

 

All of the commuter cars, roads, and other drivers set the stage for amateur driving styles. Get one guy going twice the speed limit, in a big obese car, and it just can’t stop, when someone going 70mph pulls in front of you, and people are gonna get severely injured or killed. It doesn’t matter what country your in.

Fast forward over to a race track, where all of the drivers are equal in skill, the cars have roll cages, plastic windows, safety gas tanks, fire suppression, romex suits, five point harness, racing helmet, racing tires, racing brakes, clean track, safety barriers, and five ambulances standing by.

All of the cars are moving along at close to the same insane speeds.

But if there is a horrific accident, you’ll most likely walk away in ok shape.

Big difference from adrenaline safe racing to an immature fool behind the wheel of 5000 pound killing machine.

Some of the recent data has Germany at 3.7 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. It would really suck if you were one of the 3.7/100,00!

Johnny

 

That'd be bad luck. Given that around 200 per 100,000 die of heart disease in the USA, I take the odds. Things need to be put in perspective.

 

A diesel "superduty"/superdoofus pickup truck that has been modified to spew clouds of black soot is a much greater hazard.

https://www.epa.gov/air-research/air...disease-basics