New proposed EU speeding law?

Retrogamer

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It would be perfectly possible to have a fixed 70 mph limiter on all cars.

How do you limit the speed on cars which don't have an ECU on board? i.e older diesels and petrols.

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

Because you wouldn't be able to put your foot down for a speed increase when needed.
.

What type of scenario would you need to increase your speed over 70mph for safety reasons? The 0-70mph acceleration would be unaffected

wba31

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

I once had a Renault Megane hire car, it was completely awful, but it did have a governor on it which was actually a really nice feature. Set it to 30 in the town and you never had to worry about going to fast.

Only redeeming feature about the car tbh.

I had a 307 company car with that on...

when the car was in my posession and not having some electrical fault sorted, i ONLY ever used it through average speed camera areas on motorways...

wba31

another flaw with this, how boring would police chase programs become? the BBC would never allow it...

Joe_Horner

Retrogamer wrote: »

How do you limit the speed on cars which don't have an ECU on board? i.e older diesels and petrols.

You don't - at least not without creating dangerous driving characteristics as the limiter activates because any system can only be done using an "on / off" approach to either ignition or fuel supply (with mechanical injection).

You also risk causing lots of damage to the engine in fairly short time, not to mention pumping raw fuel out the tailpipe and exploding silencers as ignition restarts on carburetted cars.

Ahhh, those youthful days of intentional backfires....... :rotfl:

Joe_Horner

alastairq wrote: »

Many ways to do that....as many racing formulae use?

Ie, restrictions on carburettor size, inlet manifold diameter, amount of timing advance, final drive gear ratios [ for example, I have a 'special', which used a 1300cc engine....but with gearing of 5.5:1, it would barely do 65 mph at around 5000 revs]............or..simply, a self-imposed limiter attached to the driver's right foot?

The problem is, apart from the self-imposed limiter (which could be applied to all cars and would obviate the need for any regulations) all those require relatively large mechanical changes to the car, which would need to be properly engineered for every obscure engine out there. Try finding a suitable alternative carb / manifold / distributor curve off the shelf for a Daf aircooled twin for example :rotfl:

My biggest problem with suggestions like this are that they reinforce completely the idea that below X speed is safe, above that speed you're killing nuns & polar bears. That is entirely counter-productive in terms of road safety and limiting the crashes that will happen to "only" 70mph isn't really going to improve the outcome much!

Remove all limits so drivers have to think, investigate all crashes like they do with aircraft accidents, and permanently remove the licence of anyone found guilty of driver error. Then jail anyone driving without a licence on first offence. It works in the aviation industry

Iceweasel

This is complete garbage scare-mongering.

Since last Thursday I have driven through 10 European countries - with many different limits on their motorways - including none in some parts of Germany.

Whilst I think it might be possible to fit a speed-limiter to any vehicle - I think that to have one that would be able to differentiate between all the different limits would be far too expensive and complicated.

OddballJamie

Fitting a black box that fines you everytime you creep over the speed limit would be a more viable option. Would also enable them to charge for road use as they wanted to do years ago.

Hopefully I'm long dead when this stuff finally happens as I enjoy driving too much for now.

Lum

My car had a speed limiter at the factory, it was limited to 112mph. It recently turned 20 years old.

Keyword: had.

I've only ever tested to see if the removal actually worked once, on a track.

I realise this article is fake (The fact that 70mph was stated is a dead give away as the motorway speed limit is higher in many parts of Europe, such as 80mph in France) but if it ever did happen, people would find a way to defeat it.

And there are plenty of legit reasons to exceed the 70 limit even on UK roads. If you're overtaking someone on a motorway and you realise the plonker is about to merge into your rear quarter, it is more effective to put your foot down and accelerate out of danger than to brake and let them in front.

alastairq

Of course the 'article' is a fake...but the issues surrounding speed limiters still remain.

I don't have issues with such technologies...however, I did spend a fair proportion of my life driving vehicles which, although not 'speed-limited' y additional technology...had a limit on their speed, set by the engine's governor..which was intended to prevent over-revving.

This wouldn't have been an electronic device......

Thus I learnt the necessary skills to make good progress, within the limitations of the vehicle.

Today, too many drivers haven't even remotely investigated their vehicle's top speed..and for them, the idea of a limiter represents a restriction of their [apparent?] freedoms....thus all sorts of excuses arise, usually trying to justify why someone would need to exceed the posted limit?

reinstate the solid steering column....the prospect of being speared through the chest might at least deter the tailgaters?

Retrogamer

If you intent to limit the speed of an older car which has no ECU, you either need to limit the revs of the vehicle, the power output of the vehicle or the gear ratios of the vehicle. The two latter ones aren't really feasible for retrofitting (i.e you'd need custom gear ratios and a rebuilt gearbox costing a few grand)
If they limit the power to prevent it going over 70mph then the power will be reduced in all the gears as well. Meaning towing caravans or hills starts with passengers won't be very good.
If you restrict the revs then that restricts the power as well. For example my old Corsa B (1999) 1.5 turbo diesel would do 70mph at 2800rpm in 5th
if they restrict the engine rpm to 2800 it would be crap since the turbo starts spooling around there