Next time you drive, spare a thought for the road surface, says DickieMeaden...
reader it’s fair to assume you pay special attention to the details of driving. Obviously, that starts with your choice of car magazine and is swiftly followed by your choice of car. That pernicketyness almost certainly extends to the brand and specification of tyre you fit to it and the grade of fuel you put in the tank. Because such differences make the difference, you’ll make sure the car is well maintained, most likely at a specialist who looks after your car as though it is their own.
True, the jeopardy of misreading the road on a superbike is far greater than in a supercar, yet it’s those four contact patches that connect our car – and therefore us – to the action.There are roughly 250,000 miles of road in the UK. Of these, less than one per cent are classed as motorways and 12 per cent are A-roads. The remaining 87 per cent are classed as minor roads. Of these the mythical British B-road accounts for a little under 9 per cent , with the rest C-roads or Unclassified.
Conversely, German cars are traditionally firmer and more authoritarian in their set-up, because German roads are smoother with fewer sharp-edged impacts to absorb, and because the 8000-mile autobahn network informs the need for high-speed stability. In addition, the surface dressing of German roads is generally finer than here in the UK so road noise is less of a challenge.
Thanks to local council policy, the UK’s minor roads are a cratered mess – I think Northamptonshire last attended to its potholes when Emperor Claudius announced the completion of Watling Street – but at a national level the UK has a proud heritage of boffins who have advanced the engineering and safety of the world’s roads.
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