13-12-2018, 11:31 AM
(13-12-2018, 10:07 AM)Reckless Rat Wrote: As most of you know my RP does get about a bit. Whilst it is capable of running at 50-55mph on the flat, it's asking a heck of a lot of the car and keeping it straight and level is hard work.
Normal "tootling" I find is best done at between 35 and 40mph when everything runs nice and smooth with no risk of my fillings falling out, and a fair chance of being able to stop if I need to.
I tend to limit the speed if hillclimbing in 3rd to 25mph so as to maintain engine longevity, even though she'd probably run at 30mph if I pushed it. Your right foot gets tired after a while mashing it into the floor.
Perhaps I'm getting a bit less reck.
I remember one summer nearly 30 years ago we ran down through France via Blois and Brive-la-Gaillarde to Andorra in my (pressure-fed) Ulster rep, cruising all the way at 60mph. Then left along the south coast - Perpignan, Montpellier, Marseilles, Nice; peach and nectarine orchards on our left, the sea on our right, mile after mile. An exquisite experience.
We pulled into a layby somewhere near Ventimiglia and I lay down on a wall in the sun and passed out. Val for ever maintained I woke up 2 minutes later a different person; we settled down into a slow, lolloping cruise at 40 mph or so which I have maintained ever since on long trips - the engine barely stressed, the scenery slowly drifting by, navigating as much by clouds and marks on the horizon as by our tattered maps.
I guess I simply saw the bigger picture, driving at that pace sooner or later something would go 'bang' in a big way. Touring abroad is something I wanted to continue doing for many, many years to come.
It has become difficult to enjoy (or even survive) driving on British main roads in any vehicle in recent years, but by obtaining a stack of obsolete OS maps I have re-discovered the joys of our B-roads, where you may still potter along largely unmolested. That's not to say I don't let her off her leash now and then of course...
Sorry if I digress! But yes Reckless, I think you're on the right track.