"glemon" (glemon)
06/02/2019 at 15:42 • Filed to: None
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"glemon" (glemon)
06/02/2019 at 15:42 • Filed to: None | 3
| 9 |
So I drove on the Autostrade today for the first time. It was an interesting experience, speed limit is 130 kph, about 80 miles an hour. I was on two lanes the whole way. The good: Italians follow the pas on the left much better than US Americans, I think that is a pretty well known thing about Europe in general. The bad: There is a huge disparity in speed, a not insignificant number driving 20-30 kph under the limit (or more) and a fairly significant number (I am looking at you big Audi drivers) way over. So you can be tooling along at the limit in the right lane and have to stand on your brakes as someone in the right is going 85, and someone on the left is coming up at 145.
You have to pay attention, it wasn’t really to bad, but you have to pay attention. The Panda felt pretty good at speed, steady, but better shift down to 4th if you want to accelerate.
TL/DR on to the pictures.
Look, a lovely little Renault camper thing, I want to quit my job and use my not very substantial assets to buy one and live out of it!
Who says the USA has the market cornered on biggish SUVs, here is a Peugeot
Another tiny Fiat
IView from lunch, pics don’t do the Vistas justice.
Sightings—no pictures (sad face) I only noticed one Ford, a Fiesta, a Chevy, a Spark, two Porsches, one the zoomy kind, one the roomy kind, I saw more Porsches in 5 minutes in California than a week in Italy.
Lastly, also no pictures, a red Lancia Delta Integral e (super sad face).
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> glemon
06/02/2019 at 16:26 |
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That Renault van is very cool! Also, YAY! FIAT Seicento! :D Not a Seicento Sporting though, sadly!
Svend
> glemon
06/02/2019 at 16:35 |
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If you want to spot a good varied range of cars from small cars to large prestige cars, you should visit Germany.
Italy has the small interesting cars as does rural France.
duurtlang
> glemon
06/02/2019 at 16:41 |
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That you didn’t see any Chevies other than that Spark makes sense, as the main GM brand (until 2017) in continental Europe was Opel. Nowadays GM has retreated entirely. Ford however should be common. Only one Fiesta? The Fiesta is among the best selling cars in Europe.
That Renault used to be a common sight. Usually as work vans, but sometimes with rear windows as well. They were commonly used for people in wheelchairs, they would sit in the back, in their wheelchair.
T rucks (>3.5 tonnes) have a different maximum speed. I’m not sure about Italy, but it tends to be 80-90 kmh in Europe. Even on the ‘ unlimited' German Autobahn.
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glemon
> duurtlang
06/02/2019 at 17:02 |
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Interesting, it wasn’t necessarily trucks or old people going slow, generally smaller cars, but not always, maybe saving fuel or some deferred maintenance, or maybe people do whatever they please.
There may have been more Ford’s, I wasn’t particularly looking for them, and they kind of blend in as far as size and looks, did see a few Opels. And I forget to mention, lots of Jeeps (thanks FCA).
Not very many Japanese cars compared to the US. Saw a few Honda Jazz(es, pl. ??).
Cé hé sin
> duurtlang
06/02/2019 at 17:10 |
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Anything over 3.5 tonnes has a 90 kmh limiter, but in some countries you aren't allowed do even that: Germany has an 80 limit for trucks.
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Cé hé sin
> glemon
06/02/2019 at 17:12 |
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The scary thing about an autostrada is the short slip road - it’s not fun trying to get up to 90 before that oncoming Scania reaches you!
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glemon
> Cé hé sin
06/02/2019 at 17:18 |
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Yes, forgot to mention that, pull out of the petrol station or an “on ramp” and you have very little space to get to speed. The offs aren’t much better, often with a very sharp, immediate turn you have to brake for early. That is one thing US Interstate system definitely does better.
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duurtlang
> Svend
06/03/2019 at 01:55 |
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Germany has German and Germanic (Skoda, Mini,...) cars mostly. Makes it rather one sided, IMHO.
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Svend
> duurtlang
06/03/2019 at 02:30 |
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I don’t know. In Mannheim and Heidelberg it was mostly small city cars (mainly Renault Clio and Opel Corsa ) while Frankfurt had larger cars such as BMWs, Porsches, Audis, etc... where down in Freiburg they had some oddities . But ye’, you won’t find many really interesting cars though.