Picking up on a question on one of my other forms what are your comments on enjoying your car without the need for speed. I've pretty much have moved from my youth to that of a cruiser now. We enjoy driving the country roads and scenic highways without the need to exceed the various speed limits. Also driving around various small villages and up into the mountain roads . Fun to visit local wineries and craft fairs. Maybe snap the throttle to go from 0 to 60 but usually within the local laws. So what's your style.

 

I am the same as you, I tend to tear it up from 0 to the speed limit. It is hard to let up prior to exceeding the posted limit. That is my style of driving 80% of the time. I tend to not speed all the time, it just invites a ticket.

 

Quite simple really, I cruise around in the safe knowledge that pretty much anything that comes across my path will see nothing but tail lights should the need arise.
Happens very rarely these days as I find a wry smile tends to put people off and lets face it, it's better to glide around and actually see something than it is to tear around with your *** on fire and see nothing.

 

In my youthful years I drove my fast cars to their max, doing banzai races over canyon roads as well as road-racing on the tracks. When I got to be mid 50s I quit track racing due to the typical signs of slowing brain activities that made race driving a risky proposition. (Yeah, too many major accidents observed where the older drivers "did not see other cars around them".

Still, have not lost my "need for speed" thus, continued with the ownership of high performance cars. Living in a very low density county,hilly environment letting the car fly on those deserted winding roads were/still possible. What has truly and dramatically slowed my driving routine is the very visible and very large numbers of wildlife hit by other cars. Living where I live, it seems, it is only a matter of time before one encounters an animal to vehicle accident. They simply and blindly charge out of the forests, making the accidents entirely unavoidable. The only caution one may consider is; if I hit a deer do I hit it at slower speeds or at, say 140 MPH, a speed I often touched on those roads. Needless to say, hitting a deer at high speed in a car with a low hood would likely result in the body coming through the windshield.

Thus, my driving have been greatly moderated. That however has not stopped me from just purchasing a set of the new "extreme performance" tires, the Bridgestone RE-71s, reputed to be providing near-slick racing tire performances. When my wife asked why I needed such tires over my regular "ultra high performance" tires I really did not have a logical answer. Just because...

 

I agree with Abert above.

I got my thrill racing my Formula race cars for many years, which in retrospect made me a much better and cautious driver on the road.

Today, I like the thrill of just getting into my sports cars and enjoying the different rides and brands. Speed is no longer an issue and if I want speed, I have a local road racing track to enjoy each car on. I usually never go over 5 to 7 MPH over the posted limits. I never get in trouble that way.

My XKR although supercharged delivers power when needed, but is our true luxury GT sports car. The Porsche remains the ulitmate for handling and the Corvette C7 is a great all-around sports car with many features packed into one vehicle.

Safety also remains an issue, as one can never tell about other drivers on the roads. I want to be safe and make sure my premium vehicles are not subject to any accidents of any kind.

I don't need speed to enjoy these vehicles.

..

 

I recently had a Subaru WRX next to me revving his engine and blowing off his turbo bypass valve. I had no interest in racing him, but had to laugh as he launched and immediately slammed on the breaks almost hitting the car in front of him... it was almost as if he didn't see it. I was a kid once too, but experience trumps exuberance. I sincerely hope the kid in the car doesn't wind up wrapped around a tree (or killing someone else) like some of the guys I knew growing up.

 

I have a special deal with a local kart track, I'm running laps at a track 2-5 days a week, as much as possible.

Speed is just relative. When it comes to public roads, the greater the speed differential to those around you, the more danger.

That said, the XK Coupe's very very long windows make for a lot of turbulence above 45MPH. I like windows down driving if the weather permits, so this causes me to seek out the lower speed limit back roads if the weather is nice.

For higher speed multi lane roads, its whatever gets me around efficiently and safe. To avoid being squashed, its good to be able to dart to a faster speed and change lanes without slowing traffic in the lane you just moved to. My Porsche is bad at this, the Jaguar is much better.

 

I sometimes drive out through a valley with a quite windy road, and steep hills and cutouts either side. It was the perfect place to pop the XKR into sport and use the paddles, holding it in second and third with the speed limit being 40 to 80kph.

The sound of the XKR (with the x pipe) bouncing off the hills was truly epic.

 

No need to speed just sit back and enjoy the view ...rear ends dont get much better than this

 

I always remember a quote that a friend's son was taught as he went through police academy training:
"Eight... you're safe. Nine... you're mine!"

 

In the mountains of North Carolina we have curvy roads and we have really curvy roads so just doing the speed limit is a challenge for most cars and/or drivers. So that presents a nice balance of being able to have fun with my XK while not exceeding the posted limit or just enjoying the fantastic views. (although, currently those views have been ruined by the smoke)

 

As I get older, the enjoyment of driving is to get off the busy highways, put the top down, and enjoying my surroundings. Yes, it is still nice to give it some gas once in a while and hear the sound of the exhaust or drive down a winding road imagining yourself on a road course, but now I do it at a pace that is more relaxing. This car is not a sports car, it is a GT, comfortable and fun to drive.

 

I have owned and continue to own a bunch of fast hot rods. they were fun in the day. I also spent lots of time chasing my racing dreams on both two and four wheels...those days are loving memories I cherish.


now I like to leave a bit earlier and enjoy the ride. the jag is a car that has checked boxes I never even knew needed checking I have enjoyed this car and she stays without a spot of dirt or fingerprint wherever she takes me))

 

Yesterday I posted on this thread that the main reason for slowing down over my otherwise gorgeous, mostly deserted, winding county/canyon roads were the risks of hitting wildlife.

No more than a couple of hours after posting I was driving my wife's XF as we were heading out for lunch. I was doing around 68MPH in the typical 55MPH speed limited local road. Just got about half way down one of the rare straight sections where I previously repeatedly hit 140MPH before having to stand on the brakes for the next corner. A UPS delivery truck was actually pushing me from the back as I was not willing to go much faster.

Suddenly, as if appearing out of nowhere, I spotted a large buck with a gorgeous set of racks standing absolutely still in the middle of my lane. In a perfectly clear, sunny day, the deer blended in perfectly with its environment, the gray road surface and the various colored trees surrounding the road. By the time I actually spotted it, it was no more than about 100 yards ahead of us. My wife did not see it and, obviously, the UPS driver did not see it either. I hit the brakes hard and the Jag responded by stopping with room to spare. The UPS truck, however, was growing suddenly very large in my mirror, obviously unable to match the braking powers of the Jag. I actually had to ease up on my breaking to make sure that we would not get rear ended.

Had I been doing 140, or likely even 90 MPH, I think we would have had a rather violent collision. We had a good number of close calls with animals, including my wife actually hitting a very large black bear in her XF. Both the car and the bear survived. I joke that the encounter was a draw between the big black bear and the big black cat :-). Still, this was the first time that I experienced a situation where a very large animal almost completely blended-in with its environment where all 3 people involved only spotted him at the very last moments.

 

great save!!!

 

Luckily the only racks that affect my driving in our area are on the human females....

Animals and vehicles are a tough mix, I have a 1000rr sport bike and we tend to ride our bikes hard up in the rural areas. Fortunately no encounters with wildlife, but a guy at my gym had a friend crash his bike at a high rate of speed due to collision with a dear. He did not come away very well at all.

Good you were alert and smart even if the UPS guy was not!

 

[QUOTE=tampamark;1572314]Luckily the only racks that affect my driving in our area are on the human females....



Would this be considered locker room talk. Just checkin

 

Ha, the locker rooms I was in would consider that tame. But I do live in a state that created Hooters, Mugs&Jugs, and various other family restaurants featuring chesty women. My perspective may be off kilter

 

I live surrounded by growing town's/developments, its pushed the deer population to the limits in the undeveloped woods around. As I leave the last town, at night, its time to slow down. This time of year its near 100% to see deer within the head lights.

I can walk outside at night, sit quietly on the porch, and watch them move through the tree line some nights.

The gearing in the XK is such I try to keep it over 35MPH for fuel economy reasons. The big engine needs work to do compared to my little 944.

 

Sad to say, I can't. Not smart, I know, but there you have it.

Road-tripped from LA to the Grand Canyon this weekend. Good news: hit 140 in a couple of clear, deserted stretches of highway early on, felt solid. Felt like the car could've done more but that was as much as I wanted to push it.
Bad news: Was clocked doing 116 in a 65 in AZ. I was in one of those passing lanes of a two-lane highway and, honestly, wasn't even paying attention to oncoming traffic. The spirit-killing slow car was six cars up and I was just in the front and about to slow and pull back over when I saw the cop in the opposite lane approaching. He had me. First thing he said was: "you just had to try to run the table, didn't ya?"
Fortunately (and a long and fun story) he ended up writing me for 75 in a 65, and I can take traffic school on it. Two hundred bucks and a story to tell.
But you can bet your *** I was on the speed limit the whole way back.