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Comment by dvdbloc | Hacker News Reader

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

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On highways in Europe it is illegal to pass on the right, meaning that the fastest-going vehicles are supposed to be in the leftmost lane. On top of that you're supposed to switch back into the right-hand lanes if they're empty.

Taken together this means that you can generally go pretty fast in the leftmost lane.

After moving to the USA from Europe I was quite shocked at the free-for-all on American freeways. The European model is followed very well in Switzerland, and it's extremely pleasant and practical to have the ability to cleanly overtake, overall reducing traffic and allowing different vehicles to go at their optimal speed without being stuck behind the lowest common denominators (trucks, busses, etc. clogging everything up)

Illegal ≠ does not happen, and actually from my experience of driving in Italy, passes on the right are almost as common as the one on the left

It’s illegal in much of the US and Canada as well. It’s just rarely enforced.

That’s the theory perhaps. The practice OTOH would disappoint.

I would invite the downvoters to try driving in southern France at their next opportunity. People pass on the right, drive slowly in the middle lane and tailgate dangerously in the left lane.

Then you also have the special letter of the law crazies who zig zag every minute across multiple lanes to pass people in the middle.

In some countries I know it generally works, in others it maybe doesn't. I can't speak for italy.

Yeah, having driven on Italian motorways - my experience is the exact-opposite of what the law supposedly encourages.

You are wrong. In the U.K., which drives on the left and is in Europe, it is not expressly forbidden to undertake (pass on the left) anywhere, including motorways. This is independent from the legal requirement to remain in the left-most lane if possible.

On designated one-way streets, and thus not on motorways, passing on either side is expressly allowed. Of course, reckless undertaking at high relative speed on the motorway may be interpreted as illegal under other more widely encompassing laws.

That is only in the UK. In the rest of the continent it is illegal.

>Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough.

This isn't the US. People aren't driving on the left lane just because they can.

I wouldn’t exactly hold up Italy as a paragon of courteous good driving.

Exactly, but this proves the point: if you are staying in the leftmost lane and going slow people would be up your a$$ or honking.

If you know the rules of the game it's pretty courteous, if you swim against the current it's a mess.

From experience driving in Italy, people also watch out for traffic coming up behind them at speed and move over to let them past

Because most of the time, when you're driving already 150 km/h (= 20 km/h over the limit), there will be an asshole that comes at 180 km/h and that will headlight you until you move.

Source: speaking from experience

I imagine there's some exaggeration here, but someone drove across the US in 25 hours averaging 110 MPH [1]. Given that, 143MPH for 2 hours doesn't seem that crazy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

> 1143MPH for 2 hours doesn't seem that crazy

It does to me.

Edit: typo corrected.

I've been in a car doing 140mph+ for over 30 mins in Wyoming, not that hard on empty roads in broad daylight.

"How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads?"

Seems you've never driven in Italy. Let me assure it's very possible. In fact it's just matter of fact!

The actual average driving speed was even higher, the car must have refueled at least once ( no way they get a reach of 460km at that speed with one filling) and also the non highway parts of start/end drag the average down quickly. My guess is at +280kmh (175mph) driving speed most of the time on the highway to make up for that. In times of covid and partial lockdowns it's not unusual to have empty highways (depending on the time window this happened). In germany you can definitely average 230km/h (140mph) when the Autobahn is empty, eg. at night. Conditions need to be perfect though (almost no traffic, weather, powerful car and a fit driver). Maybe they changed seats after refilling.

This seems like a reasonable estimate. I’ve done fairly long sections on the Autobahn at 230-250km/h, and this was in a slower car (Audi A6), without a siren, and without a kidney to deliver.

Even when going “just” 200-220 I often get passed by cars that are going much faster. With three lanes this is not a problem.

In Italy the speed limit is 130 kmh. I believe the Autobahn has no speed limits.

I can assure you 130km/h is treated as merely advisory. That is, you are advised to go at least 130.

Huum. I'm italian and no, does't work that way anymore. Maybe 20 years ago. Now aside from Autovelox for instant speed readings, they even have checkpoints and they average your speed. So yes, you can go superfast between two checkpoints but then you have to stop to lower your average speed before passing the next checkpoint. They call the system "Tutor". you can see the list of checkpoints here: http://www.autostrade.it/documents/10279/13188512/TUTOR_2016... and there are plenty of said checkpoints on the path took by the police car.

German Autobahn do have speed limits, the no speed limit stretches are limited.

>How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads?

It's national highways (kinda like "interstates") from Padua to Rome (something like Portland, Maine to New York), not some city roads.

Unlike in the US, in some European countries like Italy and Germany you have very high or unlimited (Autobahn) speed limits, and roads good enough to maintain them.

In italy the highest speed is 130,no other road allows you to go faster than that.

In 90% of the US the highest is 70mph in perfectly fine straight-for-miles interstates. Many are less.

In Italy the autostrada legal limit is already higher at 80/130 (and supercar drivers frequently go much over it).

And of course this is the police, they can make an exception for themselves :-)

I'm aware, i was just suggesting that there is no highway with no speed limit in Italy

Even if it was running at something like 12mpg it would have made it on a single tank, and it was probably running at something like 15.

If they were closing the roads ahead, or if the driver was like a racecar driver it's totally doable with a bit of luck. If they did both it's even like, reproducible.

I doubt that, the official mileage for that car is 16.7mpg only (and this is measured with much lower speeds). Going at 150+mph consumes a lot more gas, probably ending below 10mpg. They probably had to refill halfway in between.

Edit: the Huracan seems to have a 90L gas tank, divided by 480km they must not have exceeded 18.75L/100km in one go (= 17.33mpg). I.e. they must have refueled at least once, if not twice

About 1 L per 5 km doesn't seem that much of a stretch... it's rather extremely gas-guzzling.

> Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough.

You're going to have a bad time on the Autobahn if you think like that (which is not in Italy, sure, but "highway" etiquette should apply to both cases)

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