Bigpower

found this video - it is obvious that they are breaking the speed limit on public roads - so why / how do they get away without being prosecuted?

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Im sure these companies contact the police and have the roads shut between point to point like they do on topgear

Ben wrote:found this video - it is obvious that they are breaking the speed limit on public roads - so why / how do they get away without being prosecuted?

Is it obvious? They, to my eye, don't appear to be going that quickly and they certainly aren't taking enormous risks with overtakes or cornering.

Daniel wrote:Im sure these companies contact the police and have the roads shut between point to point like they do on topgear

Whilst I am confident that the people concerned would contact the local authorities to seek permission/consent, I am pretty sure that they don't shut the roads. As far as I know, traffic as sparse enough that they would not need to close the roads.

I think someone like Phil or Dave from Opentrack could be more useful in answering Ben's question. Both of the guys have been around road tests for years. Matt Woods may also be able to shed some light but I bet there is a good deal of clever photography involved.

When we had Clarkson filming his Christmas DVD at Snetterton a few years back, everything was filmed at a fairly timid speed...

They then edit together all the good parts, and speed up certain frames to make it look quicker.. The Mclaren SLR 722 lap he did for the dvd, where he was going "race pace" was about 40-50mph as he wouldn't wear a helmet, so legally couldn't go any faster.

Most of the speed it added on post production, they then went off circuit and we followed with a fire truck incase of problems onto the main roads around East Harling, Larling & Snetterton Village, didn't have anything shut off, stuck to the speed limits within reason and again, it was all altered after the filming. Post production wizardry.

Dont know if that may help your thoughts...

Interesting james - it was more my thoughts on the stories of people being prosecuted for filming themselves going quick on the roads and being tracked down by the police - where as it is blatant in these media companies.

I think the blatant "Ghost rider" types who clearly show speedos with cartoon speeds depicted are fair game, but these two seem to be going slower than I did with my family round the Lake District
I would nt say with any certainty they exceeded 60mph in this film, and there's no speedo footage to corroborate it. I reckon they have corporate lawyers coming out of their ears, and would nt dare release footage in such a public arena, but I dare say there are more extreme examples on the net.
As an aside that Focus looked good fun!

The difference between professionals and dicks.

TG use the IOM for some of their testing. Or so they say.

Latest TG challenge testing Middle eastern "parking assist" technology with mixed results
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1315901274

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzC6yU6DhkY

when we did our feature for Practical Performance Car magazine, the cover shot which shows us being chased by a 205 GTi at speed, was actually done at walking pace. The car wasn't even running it was just rolling down the hill with Alans foot on the brake.

that's a good point Ben, but i don't care as i enjoyed the video lol. and was interesting in what matey said!