A/B road overtakes are the reason I bought a 3.2. They got a bit scary in my 1.8 Laguna, and I imagine they would be much the same in a 4 pot Omega, even more so if auto.
The problem these days is that you don't just have to overtake slow vehicles, you also have to get past the 3 or 4 retards who are following it, bumper to bumper, so close that they have no view of the road ahead and no distance in which to accelerate for an overtake. Of course, they leave no space for anyone to pull in either, so it's sh1t or bust. 
Thus, you need a car with a lot of poke in the midrange.
Taking the A283 Steyning bypass as an example (fast gentle sweep about a mile long), in my first car, a manual 2.3 Granada with 2.8 carb, overtaking was a doddle.
18 years later the Omega struggles sometimes
I think there are three possible reasons for this, in no particular order...
1. With the improvements to turbo diesels, and car safety/comfort traffic speeds are generally higher.
2. My plums have been misplaced and replaced with a tempremental self preservation module.
3. My car is broken.
Whichever it is
comfortable effective overtaking speeds do seem to alot closer to 80+ than the 50-60 of 18 years ago. The net result being that unless the obstruction speed is below 45 or the road ahead is plainly straight and clear for at least 1/4 mile, the only real option is to feel the tyres go cold and watch time go backwards
That said, when everything comes together, even a rattly old estate can be an absolute joy to drive hard
which makes all the perceived maintenance grumbles worth every single second
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Topic: Got a problem (Read 6207 times)