Sprung!

[bs888]

After driving nearly 5000klm's in 11 days I got caught about one hour from Home :banghead:

We left Canberra at 4am on Sunday the 28th of Sept in our one week old XR8 SSS and headed to Central QLD with the intention of purchasing an investment property somewhere between Yeppoon and Brisbane.

After 14 hrs of driving we arrived at a friends Farm at Goovigen(about 1 1/2 hours inland from Rockhampton) with the Trip Computer showing an average speed of 104kph and fuel at 13.2l per/100k.

After a couple of days looking at houses we headed off to Maroochydore for a couple of days (looking at more bloody houses) and then to Nerang(86kph & 14.8per/100klm).

When we left Nerang to head home it was raining so it was a fairly leisurely cruise from there to Warwick via Beaudesert, by the time we reached Goondiwindi the rain was clearing and the pace quickened(it is 110 limit )

Fuel consumption was in the low 13's at this stage so I decided to try and get it into the 12's before Narrabri by not speeding unless I was overtaking trucks etc, GUESS WHAT!!!!? The bloody consumption increased to high 13's.

After Narrabri I set the cruise on 115 and averaged 12.9.

By the time we got to Cowra the 5 & 11 yr olds in the back had watched all the DVD's and were starting to get a bit annoying so being the silly bugger I am I set the cruise on 112 (100k limit) and kept going.

Just north of Boorowa I saw the HWP coming towards me but didn't even think of backing off as I was still in a 110kph limit mindframe and thought I was quite safe.

The Officer said he clocked me at 118kph which I politely disagreed with and in the end I was given a ticket in the >15kph over range ($127 and 2 points) and sent on my way to the sound of SWMBO lecturing me about speeding.

If the ticket had been issued in the higher range I probably would fight it in court as there is no way I was doing 118kph,

Back to the car, BLOODY FANTASTIC!! Comfortable, great for overtaking and it performed faultlessly the whole trip

If I could change anything it would be to have stuck with the Manual gearbox like I had in the 5.4 XT, but overall it is the best Ford I have owned by a long shot(and you won't beleive how many I have owned)

Cheers, Bazza.

(sorry about the long post but I have left a lot out)

ps; does anyone know how long it takes to get my points back?

[Guest Darey]

Bad luck on getting booked, don't let it get you down. :(

In NSW I believe you get the points back 2 years from the time you paid the fine, thereby accepting the charge. I don't know if it is the same in Canberra.

Anyway keep your chin up and keep on enjoying driving one of the best cars on the road.

Cheers

Darey

[Turbo6man]

3 years isn't it? I think all states are sharing the point system now so it doesn't matter where you get booked you will still get the points on your licence - ??? - plonky might enlighten us on this one.

[XRSICKT]

bad luck on the ticket mate, lucky it wasn't for more

[plonky]

Bassa

I hope you haven't paid it yet. It was obviously someone from Young HWP that got you.

If you haven't had a ticket in the last 10 years, write a letter away to the RTA, outlione your good driving record and get them to consider a Caution.

If you haven't had a ticket in that time period you will get a Caution. This will be noted on your Traffic Record.

As far as the speed goes, setting cruise control will not prevent your car going over the speed that is set. Natural inertia when descending slight dips will push you past the speed that has been set.

The radar instrument is 100% accurate. If the radar detected you at 118, that is the speed the vehicle was doing.

Please be reminded by the fact that your speedo only 5kmh increments as opposed to the 2kmh increments on Police speedometers.

There are a number of factors to take into account. Firstly the speedo only has 5km increments so it is very hard to judge how fast you are going unless it is in whole numbers: 120, 125 etc

There is parallex error. That is looking at the needle layed over the digits at an angle, so the true representation of where the actual speedo needle is if fooled by your eyes and mind.

You may have been doing a set speed (not realising that you are speeding) The first reaction to seeing a Police car, the driver instinctively takes his foot of the accelerator and looks down at the speedo. The speed they see is the speed they believe that they were doing (because the car is now decelerating)

The speed has already been detected by the radar before the oncoming driver realises.

I'm certainly not accusing you of lying, but you may have been travelling at 118, not the 112 that you thought you were doing. Those 6kms equates to about an extra 1.2 metres per second, so therefore that how much extra you were travelling.

Broken down into metres per second, there is not much difference between 112 and 118.

Write the letter. As a man with a good driving record, a Caution such as you should be entitled to is better off with you, than the $127.00 in addition to the Govt.s coffers (Consolidated Revenue) which will be wasted on some peasant that abuses the taxpayer (XFWANNABE this is NOT directed to you)

Regards

Grant

[Guest 56Mainline]

But it is three years isn't it before you get your points back?

ANd if Bazza writes the letter & he gets a Caution, does he still loose the points but just not the fine?

[KrasH]

I can almost garrentee that if you set the cruise control on 112km/h you were actually going around 109km/h, not 118km/h. At 110km/h actual speed the speedo's needle is about 4-5 km/h higher than the actual speed. Before people say "how do you know that?" I found one of those speedo checker markers and set cruise control, then reset the trip A thingo and after 5 km's the T was only about 15-20 metres past the 5km marker, so it is pretty accurate. I also set cruise control on a flat stretch of highway at about 120 on the speedo and avg speed was 116km/h.

[plonky]

A Caution is just that - no points lost no fine to pay.

[bs888]

Thanks Grant,

This is the first Infringment of any kind that I have recieved for almost 20 years, (since my GT Falcon/single days) I will write to the RTA and see what happens, I'll let you know.

Having said that, I admit that I was speeding, just not as fast as he said.

It was the first time I have ever felt that a police officer was baiting me, but when I didn't react as he might have expected/hoped he was quite reasonable, just not very friendly.

You may have a point about the speed discrepency though as that bit of road whilst quite good does rise and fall a bit and we all know how our speed can vary under those conditions (just not that much)

Thanks Guys,

Bazza.

[OwnaXR6T]

So how many years does it take to get your points back? 2 years ago I got booked in Qld and I payed the fine and I didn't lose points on my NSW licence, does this still happen? and I thought doing less that 15km/h was only one point, or was it double demerit points when you got booked?