[jambutty]

It’s not the engine capacity that makes a car powerful Silver but the brake horsepower the engine develops.

“Refresher Training every 10/15 years” – now that’s an interesting notion but sadly not practical. There are just too many drivers. As for re-tests after gaining 6 points – that too is unlikely to be practical – too many drivers.

The only people who should have to take a re-test are those who lose their license be it an outright ban or an accumulation of 12 points. After all they got the points for breaches in the driving rules and thus are a proven hazard on the road.

Yes you will come across some idiot (of any age and sex not just old people) hogging the outside lane at less than 70 mph BLACKBURN RAVER but it doesn’t happen very often. In fact the only vehicles in the offside lane should be those who are actually overtaking cars in the other lanes. Once the overtaking manoeuvre has been completed they should ease into the next lane inwards thus leaving the outside lane clear for others to use to overtake. At times the congestion on the motorway is such that the overtaking lane (outside lane) has to be used as a normal travelling lane. Sadly you get someone driving at the legal motorway limit with some idiot a couple of yards behind them flashing his lights. Now THAT is dangerous driving. And who are the flashers? Well it ain’t the old guys.

Why shouldn’t a pensioner buy a car that has some grunt jackyalex? After all they have been driving for more years than many people have lived and are probably replacing their old high grunt car with a newer model. Why shouldn’t anyone drive at 50 mph on a motorway? Providing of course that they keep to the nearside lane. Just because the motorway maximum speed limit is 70 mph it doesn’t mean that is the speed that every one should travel at. In any case driving at about 56 mph in top gear uses the least amount of petrol and causes least pollution.

A catalytic converter will work properly when it has to reach a particular running temperature and that can be achieved by the engine ticking over for a period of time. The MOT station doesn’t take a car for a high speed spin before testing the cat. It has absolutely nothing to do with speed so if some mechanic told your granddad to dash up and down a motorway he was talking a load of old rot.