Club Arnage

I'll start (unless otherwise directed)!

ME 750€ outside Sees 184kmh, 11.15hrs. Was I shown evidance "non". Pay or Prison !!!!!

Bellend,

Which road, which date?  I was lucky to have some unfortunate in a 355 save me from a pull around 6pm on the A28.

the  :police:s were making a nice little earner for their Christmas fund yesterday afternoon on the A28 - Gendarme hidden at the side of the road a few kms shy of the toll booths, then a couple of his buddies standing by the booths waving cars into the layby on the other side, to be apprehended. Saw a couple of 911s and Fezzas get pulled but fortunately my own little convoy went unmolested...

Our man in his M6 got flashed by a camera on the peage north of Paris, waiting to see what comes in the post.

Jem

I was flashed a total of 3 times over test weekend and last week. I still can't find out for sure whether these fines can now reach you at home...

A friend got fined €750 for doing 140mph, not told his wife yet

>Martini...

N138 (north of Alencon - just outside Sees), 11.15am.
There was a 355 captured in there too!
One bloke in a TVR got 1500€ fine, christ knows what speed he was doing.

Two of Team Gulp Racing on their motorbikes got pulled on the N138 south of Sees, at about 5pm on Sunday.

They were riding in close proximity.

One got a €90 fine. The other got €750 fine and his license confiscated. The Gendarme decided they were travelling at different speeds - they didn't know enough French to be able to argue their case.

Interesting comments above. Martini, if your friend got a 750€ fine (which is correct) but at 140 mph I am pretty sure that his licence was taken off him on the spot. Either that or his speed wasn't as high since up to about 100mph they are fairly tolerant. Perhaps he forgot to tell you his licence is missing?

Smokie, you are going, for the time being, to be lucky. The agreement between various european contries was signed several years back but it is a matter of getting the computers to talk to each other and it seems at the moment they are now going to wait for the European licence to settle the matter for once and for all.

Bellend, your mate, if he bothers to pursue the matter, will probably get a 50% rebate on his fine. Most courts here in France limit fines for speeding to 750€. I know - I paid 1,500€ on the spot but was finally fined 750€ in court but it took two years of fighting to get the overpayment back, so slow is the french system. Even then they deducted a 60€ admin fee!

Rich, the normal procedure if his licence was taken off him is to apply for it back from the British embassy in three months. However, perhaps he just "lost" it and should apply to the DVLA for a duplicate?

Yes, they took his licence as well, said they would post it back. I think he expects it to be a week or so!?

>Martini...

yeah my mate got his licence taken off him a couple of years back. But the DVLA were told it was lost and it has never reappeared since.  We did'nt see one single police car ont he way back on sunday, but then the conditions were pretty atrocious, so they porobably stayed in waiting for you lot on the monday.

Odds on that she knows now. It was reported in The Sun yesterday

Only saw a few police around on the run back this year, although we did have leave a tad earlier than normal.  Still didn't stop me setting off one of the fixed cameras that I had forgotten adorn the approaches to the single lane bridges on the A28.  Given what has been posted above about computers not talking to each other and that I could only have been about 10mph over the 90kph limit there, fingers crossed it will not come to anything. 

MG Mark

so how many people alter their plates when they get to france????

I passed a 355 that had been pulled,was that you sat in the van filling out forms just after the short stretch of dual cariageway?

Me 'n a mate were pinged just up the road by an unmarked car with a laser, €135 each and a world of pisstaking from my dad, regardless of his fatherly advice I still maintain that it is infact both big and clever.

Dave

The French Dick Turpins tried to get me Monday morning on the N138 as I was over taking anything less than 70mph on the single carriageways, not really caning it but well over the speed limit.
I got the early messages from lorry drivers or other bikers coming in the opposite direction.
Just luck of the draw.

Just on that stretch where we got bored and opened the old girl up, there they were, three of the little bu**ers, standing on to of the bridge. Try as they might they couldn't get their nasty little contraption to bounce a signal of the car!   So the motto of the story is.....if you want to appear like a stealth bomber to their radar...buy a Countach! ;D

Did hear a story about a chap who got his licence taken off him last year for speeding and was not allowed to hire a car this year when he flew into Tours as there was a record of it on their computer.

Same as Andy; our rather nice French hosts giving lots of flashes to warn me of the hidden cost to driving in France....

Did get flashed last year in Rouen but no ticket....

Tis amazing on the quality of the roads though, I am about an hour from the chunnel and the amount of dicks who cannot drive or even do simple lane control amazes me every year; it is always a pleasure to drive on the A or N roads in France (towns exepted!)

 

[/quote]
Yes, they took his licence as well, said they would post it back. I think he expects it to be a week or so!?

>Martini...
[/quote]

Not a chance. Like I mentioned above, he'll be lucky to see it for three months minimum.

So what happens if "one" gets a producer?

A copper was about to pull me over near Paris as I entered the orange "T" lane and saw the 2 metre warning sign too late. Had to pull over to the truck lane to get through the Peage section. The look on the face of the copper was kinda surprised as I went through with my Dutch van, but still had the "tele peage"-thingy behind the windshield ;D

Never got pulled for speeding going to Le Mans, but then again I've always been either by lorry or overweighted trailer :-\

Would have loved the oportunity to get pulled however our 17 seater minibus was limited to 100kph. Added over an hour to our journey time of last year when we had a taco and could do the 130kph allowed.  :(

Don't tell me you dunno how to dissable a limiter  ?????

Anyone know the "penalty" structure for speeding ,,,, 10kph over €? 20kph over ,,,, €?
When is one Banned  from driving in France, for how long and how much over the limit?

Saw a few skulking filth on the wednesday morning near Argentan and Alencon but due to being in a diesel VW caddy and in convoy with a seriously overladen Midget (Perdu!) we escaped. Not a swine in site on monday after lunch but as I was laden with our 2 new found American friends, not alot of scope for limit breaking was available!

Who holds the public road speed record from the ferry to Le Mans??? Have seen a vid from 2000 ish of some dude in a diabolo with 212 mph on the speedo, lose 10% accuracy... thats still gotta be up there!

Any contenders??

Pig-Pen

Travelling back on the Monday afternoon, on non-peage roads, and I didn't see one policeman.

As a group we were not travelling as quick as I might have been on my own, but still made quick progress.

Rather enjoyed the drive there and back as it seemed we were not on the preferred quick routes at the most populated times.

Oh we tried, however it was getting to the stage where we were seriously worried about the thing running at all if we tried anything else.  ???

Probally because they were all on a jolly celebrating the amount of €uros they collected in the morning for the Christmas drink fund!  >:(

I'm glad you didnt make out that she were a seriously underpowered Midget  milord! ;D

Great meeting up with you and Andy this year

(despite the "getting worserer threads" LM just gets better and better for me!)

Right then!

Mr Postman came Saturday morning. I was not available, it appears he required a signature for a "Recorded Delivery"!
Anybody else had this in the past?  ??? Was it good or bad news, were points added via DVLA link to the frogs ???
Come on lads, how'd it go, last year & this.  :o

Got ambushed on dual cariageway south of Caen about 5k past fixed speed cam 90euros fine :- 144.4 km phr looks like I got off lightly !

It was alledged (????) that I was 54K over the 110K limit. No proof was provided.
PC Garlic is now promoted to Sargent and will give a long speech at the Christmas pissup giving instructions to all on how to "feck" the English.

Maybe we should all go to France with a sticker on the window stating Napolion Sucks!

I know that this may not be in the spirit of adventure that we are all supposed to demonstrate when gracing Johnny Foreigner with our presence but for the past couple of years the French authorities have both announced and demonstrated their intention to clamp down on speeding. This is countrywide and all year round. Is it entirely surprising then that the major roads from the Channel ports to La Sarthe are teeming with radar guns, particularly in light of previous years experiences where a significant minority of English visitors both announce and demonstrate their intention to drive as quickly as possible.
The answer to avoiding eye watering fines is to either keep to the limits or keep off the major routes, unless of course paying a fine is seen as either demonstrating that you have huge cojones or that the frogs are out to stuff the English. Me, I prefer to spend the money on something more enjoyable (beer, vin, more beer, more vin etc. etc.)

JT

Thing is with a sticker like that the French Gendarmes would not only know that you are a potential violator of the speed limit, but also that you are immensly stupid because it's "Napoleon"  ;D

and JT agree very much, it's hardly surpising anymore that the cops are out in force before and after the LM weekend. Nothing to do with pestering foreigners but with a policy that the French authorities adopted some 3-4 years ago to improve road safety.

I know it's fuse nr. 14 in a Scania lorry, just see which one you need for a van by pulling them out one by one ;D

We have been lettering some Dutch equivilant for the Gumball Ralley (www.race2raise.nl), and I saw a driver today who had been banned from diving in France (his licence was conviscated). He was pulled doing 204 Kph, which is nearly 130 mph :-\
Dunno for how long though...

Currently in the UK the law requires that proof (photographic or collaborative from a Dibble) be provided and the appropriate notice to prosecute be given to the driver - at that point one can just accept it and take a fixed penalty or go to court and fight it. The opening up of the databases between EU countries can only currently provide the French (or other countries) plod with the offenders address for them to send the fine and if not paid prosecute for non payment through the court systems in their own country - there is no structure to apply points onto foreign licences (until 2013 when the EU wide driving licence comes into effect!).

If the local pold do confiscate the licence of a foreign driver the best thing to do is to immediately report it as stolen in France by pold to the DVLA (or your local equivilent if not in the UK) and request a replacement licence as there is no mandate for them to deprive you of it (in France, things like this are at the descresion of the local Police chief and not the courts). They have been know to insist on the licence being exchanged for a French one with a ban (or points deducted) already in place - in this case, just throw it in a drawer for three years and drive on your replaced local licence.

IMHO, if you get a notice to pay a fine I'd just pay up and put it down to experiance, cheaper and less hassle in the long run.

What like Seat ?   :D