View Full Version : Best country in the world to go driving?
As we have so many board members from other nations it got me to wondering where the best roads, and the most lenient coppers were? If you had the car of your dreams, which country would you take it to in order to have the most fun, and have the least chance of getting nicked?
I'm guessing maybe an Eastern European country, Arab country or maybe somewhere in South America? Australia seems a nice idea but I hear they are very strict on speeding :( Perhaps we should also limit suggestions to places where you are not too likely to get shot at (i.e. no suggestions of racing around Iraq for fun :D )
I know Germany and the Isle of Man have some derestricted roads, does anywhere else?
Suggestions please, as I must have these plans in place before I win the lottery tonight! ;)
I worked in the Czech Republic for a year, some very long dead straight roads (some up to the 5 mile mark), a few twisties, and then back straight again. The police aren't above being bribed, I got caught doing 119 in a 30 (it was out of town) and got away with 1000 crowns (£25) and NO receipt (i.e. they put it in their pocket as it equalled one weeks wages for them). I caught speeding countless times, and never paid the asking price.
Downsides:
The police drive around in unmarked cars (with plenty of tuning stickers on), goad you into racing and then do you for speeding. Always picking on foriegn cars. However see above.
It snows all winter, and they throw gravel down into the snow to aid grip. When it melts the roads are covered in gravel.
They have a strange approach to road repairs. They strip off about 3-4 inches of the surface for about 100 yards, then leave it for a few days before resurfacing. Apparently the cars help bed the sub surface. The problem is that you travelling along a badly lit road at about a 80 mph, suddenly the car drops four inches. You now know that you have about 100 yards (if lucky) to scrub a load of speed off on a gravelly surface before you hit the four rise in ther road coming up. They don't slope the edges either, they are vertical drops and rises.
Albania !! ..... the roads would wreck a rally car ... but even the cheapest hire car can out run the police :D .... and if you do get caught ... a few dollers bribe or recharge there pre-pay mobiles and they let you go :D :D :D
Without doubt the best place i have ever driven on roads wise has to be South Africa :D but since thats to far away the roads around Monaco are just something else to witness, very twisty perfect tarmac - awesome.Cops in SA are far easier to bribe lol
If it wasn't for the police... England. I grew up in Lincolnshire and some of the roads in that county are right from a circuit.
Start here...
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=500460&Y=377940&A=Y&Z=3 to
End here...
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=497400&Y=378120&A=Y&Z=3
Fantastic corners, not that i've ever broken the speed limit on them, ever!
Supraman1
23-04-2003, 11:45
It's gotta be Italy hasn't it? They're genetically obsessed with fast cars!
Yeah .... Monarco .......... The police just shake there heads, when you stop on the pole position grid and launch from 5000 rpm ..... they must get that everyday !!!!
Originally posted by Supraman
It's gotta be Italy hasn't it? They're genetically obsessed with fast cars!
But they also gave the world the Fiat ....... so I think in all fairness we should beat them all to death !!!!
SpeedyPete
23-04-2003, 12:01
France is uspposed to be wicked. The racing biker seem to like it...
Some guys in the highlands of France actually drive around with full racing slicks :eek: So if you want to get away with stuff go there...
... Also, its great asking the cops where the "your a penis head museum" is :D :D
Lol i saw one conversaton go something like
" Your mum, she sucka la dicka?"
"eh?"
"your muma is bigga whora?"
"eh??"
"where can I find the French bitches?"
"err aa doo nut understaand"
"y-o-u g-o w-i-t-h m-e and I bend your bitch over"
*policeman grins cos he doesnt know what were on about*
*guy grins back* "Merci madam... er missure" drives off...
I know its childish, but I love it when its done well...
France has draconian laws as regard engine tuning though. So does Italy.
>Arab country or maybe somewhere in South America?
Hell no!
South american roads are naff and you're likely to hit a donkey :)
Arab countries... well... I had 22 staff, and we averaged a write-off each month.
Mike's driving in the Gulf rant:
They... can't... drive. Mixed nationalities on the roads gives an interesting mix of asian drivers (totally clapped out cars, driven too slowly, more rust than bodywork, no situational awareness), Filipino drivers (learned to drive a month ago and thrash around at breakneck speed with no idea of how a car handles and with no situational awareness) and locals (no patience, cut you up dangerously, make a London mini-cab driver look polite and careful. And no situational awareness)
The driving test consists of 100m forwards in a straight line and then reversing into a parking bay made for US cars. You can do it in an automatic. There is a written test which can be circumvented by a bottle of Jonny Walker black label (80 quid on the black market).
It brings a whole new feeling to defensive driving, but if you leave more than a 5 foot gap between you and another car at 70mph, someone tries to ease into it, at which point the car behind you tail-ends you as you ease off! If you're not in front of someone, they won't see you. Side mirrors are either knocked off or pointing somewhere random. Drivers mirror is used for checking hair and straightness of headwear... which is of course a tea-towel which totally blocks all periperal vision.
Roads are covered in sand and the words 'bike-aware' don't exist in Arabic. The roads are wide and usually 4 or 6 lane, but with not a great surface. There are no good corners. There is no drainage, so when it does finally rain, you get 2 feet of standing water in places... meaning on the highways. Also, nobody puts the lights on in torrential rain, except merc drivers, who also put on the rear fogs and leave them on for 11 more months. It's legal to perform a U-turn on a dual carrageway. Streetlamps designed to fold over have steel or concrete barriers around them to stop them getting folded over.
If you have an accident, you can't repair any damage without a sign-off form from the police. When the police turn up, they won't speak English, so it's down the station with you. If there is no translator around, then it's a night in the cells until one turns up the next day, unless you can get hold of your 'fixer' (who will invariably turn off his mobile). 'cells'... I mean 'cell' - traditionally shared with about 20 rapists, murderers and the like.
Nobody wears seatbelts because it's God's will if you die or not. Average of 7 children per family means lots of US SUVs and lots of cars with... 9 people in them. Kids on rear parcel shelves is common, and I even saw one on the front shelf thing laid out once. Small child always drive's on dad's lap (even when there are spare seats).. who is driving. These are known as 'Saudi airbags' and invariably die in the case of an accident.
I was there 6 hours before seeing my first dead body thrown through a windscreen. If you crash, nobody will be willing to give first aid and an ambulance will take an hour to turn up.
Another interesting phenomenon (da-da-dadada!) is hard shoulders on both sides of the the freeway, which are used as an extra slow lane and an extra fast lane respectivly. The central reservation is a concrete barrier. Bridges of course are wider than the barrier, so the 'fast lane' hard shoulder is obstructed by bridge supports. I was interested to once see a merc on the 'fastlane hard shoulder' totally fail to notice an upcoming bridge and plough straight into a concrete bridge support at about 120.
If it rains, it's traditional to either drive at 10mph with hazard lights on, or 100mph with no lights on. In the latter case it's tradition to stamp on the brakes as hard as possible when hitting standing water and to try to bounce off the road-enclosing barriers as many times as possible while spinning. Upon sitting by the pool and hearing a prolonged skid, it's traditional to shout 'yes!', pour another illegal beer and punch the air when it ends in a loud bang.
It's perfectly safe to smash into an old car, but you're in serious trouble if hit by a shiney new merc owned by someone who is connected.
The garages have no idea what different grades of oil are, nor have they ever even seen a workshow manual. Turbos would be naff due to 50C+ summer temperatures and most cas are automatics. This doesn't matter though because the most important parts of your car are the air con and the horn. If you forget to leave a window undone, all your tapes and bank cards will melt. If you forget to put a towel over the steering wheel and gearstick, you will blister your hands when touching them.
On the bright side: women can't drive and the police don't pull people over unless it's a speedtrap, in which case it's luck of the draw if you get a ticket, regardless of the speed you were doing. You can outdrive EVERYONE on the road, yet easily get a race if you want one, by the most gentle of provocation. The highways outside town are traffic free. Getting the car washed consists of getting someone to wash it in the carpark for about 3 quid. You never need lock your car and you can fill up even an SUV for under ten quid.
BanjoMaster
23-04-2003, 13:03
Oddly enough, Japan is where I'd go if the funds allowed. The police more or less leave you alone up the incredible mountain roads during the night, the roads themselves are of excellent quality, and you can get all your go faster bits and pieces a lot cheaper over there than here :D Not to mention the highway battles during the night as well. I'd like to see any police car in the world keep up with the Skylines, NSXs, Supras etc that race each other at about 200mph. You've all seen the videos, right?
gaz.thomas
23-04-2003, 13:06
But leave the country sharpish if you hit a camel :D
Gaz
-x-
SpeedyPete
23-04-2003, 13:07
Yeah, but what do they do about helicopters and stuff like that?
Were so scared here of getting our number plates recorded, but ive seen vids of cars out running police cars in japan and get away with it?
Do they just use primative methods of traffic control??
BanjoMaster
23-04-2003, 13:10
They don't really seem to mind the street racing in Japan, mainly because the racers only do it when there's no one else around and its relatively safe to do so. The mountains are basically given over to racers and drifters at night because no one else use them.
shadow21
23-04-2003, 13:11
Originally posted by siranui
On the bright side: women can't drive ...
Nice !:D :D
SpeedyPete
23-04-2003, 13:18
Originally posted by BanjoMaster
They don't really seem to mind the street racing in Japan, mainly because the racers only do it when there's no one else around and its relatively safe to do so. The mountains are basically given over to racers and drifters at night because no one else use them.
I wish our government was more like that - I wish officals would just THINK sometimes instead of just applying red tape all the time....
Just got back from Malaysia where the roads are pretty good, not too much traffic, no speed cameras and petrol costs about 20p a litre.
You do have to watch out for water buffalo at night though - had one scare the shit out of me one night as it wandered across the road right in front of me.
SpeedyPete
23-04-2003, 13:32
Originally posted by Lewis
Just got back from Malaysia where the roads are pretty good, not too much traffic, no speed cameras and petrol costs about 20p a litre.
You do have to watch out for water buffalo at night though - had one scare the shit out of me one night as it wandered across the road right in front of me.
LOL it justa totally other world isnt it!
It amuses me how different we are to other countries... the ammount of people that go over to places in the world and get treated badly then wonder why its not like Britain is brilliant. somepoeple think all countries have human rights aswell, they dont know how lucky they are!!
>Yeah, but what do they do about helicopters and stuff like that?
Police helecopters can't do 200mph. They'd get left behind on a straight bit of road.
>Were so scared here of getting our number plates recorded, but >ive seen vids of cars out running police cars in japan and get >away with it?
>Do they just use primative methods of traffic control??
They probably do get caught, or they race without plates on (like some motorcyclists do here.). We only see the good side.
On the bad side, look at general daytime Japanese traffic congestion! I wouldn't want to have to deal with that each day.
>somepoeple think all countries have human rights aswell, they >dont know how lucky they are!!
*nod* Any time I hear someone whine about rascism, lack of rights, sexism or religious intolerance in this country, I want to tell them to naff off and go live in Saudi, where payscale is directly tied to nationality, nobody gets to vote or a trial by jury, women have to have a letter from their father or husband to leave town, jews aren't allowed in and neither are bibles and St Christophers
siranui, enjoy driving in the Middle East then? :D
On the plus side there are many long stretches of highway.
Funny you should mention the Filipinos. I got, or rather bought, my first licence there. Its amazing how driving in Manila can develop your spatial awareness.
Worst place however has to be Turkey. Never been to a country where they will honk at you if you do not cross a red light, even when there is incoming traffic.
France has some nice roads. On the highway 150kph should not get you into trouble. And on the mountain roads at night should present you with a crazy young Frenchman in a 10-year-old hatchback trying to race you.
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