German vs Australian car culture
May 4, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
I’m moving to Germany. There is no questioning it now. I can’t work out how I am going to survive in Australia when I come back, so the best option is to stay here. Let me tell you why.
I just came back from the Nurburgring, the home of modern motorsports. The track is a sight that has to be seen. M3, M3, M5, M3, Porsche GT3, GT2, GT3 RS, M3, M3 CSL, Nissan GT-R, M3, M3, McLaren SLR, F430 Scuderia, EVO IX, EVO X, STI, Lotus Exige, and all on a normal Sunday morning.
You pay about A$50 and you can do as many laps as your car can take. Depending on how good you are, each lap can take around 10 minutes, anything under that is a reasonable time.
We also met Sabine Schmidt (the Nurburgring girl – you may remember her from TopGear with the van) who was taking tourists around in the Ring-Taxis (M5). She would get it sideways around a few corners and then scream past.
The ‘ring alone is reason enough to move to Germany, but that’s just the icing on the cake. The main reason to move here is the car culture.
“Oh you’re in an M5, I’m in a Volvo. Sorry sir, let me move over and let you pass” – “Oh, you indicated left because I am going slow in the fast lane, sorry, let me move over instantly and not give you the finger as you go past”.
We even met a few car lovers, one of them invited us back to his house, where he had a collection of old but very quick BMWs.
Unlike Australia, the faster your car is in Germany, the more respect you get on the road.
Everyone from little children to grandmothers love cars. In fact while we were at ABT, we saw an old Audi S2 tuned to over 450bhp, owned by a 74-year-old grandmother, no joke. If someone can find me a 74-year-old Australian grandmother with a 450bhp+ car, I might reconsider my decision.
We drove 503km from ABT, at Kempten, to Brabham Racing, 20km away from the Nurburgring, in about three hours, and didn’t run out of fuel this time.
Anthony was competing with a Porsche Panamera whilst George and I were listening to Sunshine 106.1 (Armin Van Buuren was playing – music would be another reason to move here) and maintaining an average speed of 180km/h, in our Focus stationwagon.
I am trying to imagine the look on an Australian police officer’s face if they pulled me over for doing 180km/h in a Focus. I’d be on front page of the newspaper the next day “Idiot Hoon does 80km/h more than the speed limit”.
What about in the ABT R8? 320km/h? Can you imagine the headline? I’d be a national celebrity overnight. “Madman goes 320km/h, sentenced to five years in jail”.
Anthony came up with a good analogy, it feels like we’ve been let out of jail for a month.
Whilst I was driving the ABT tuned AS5R at a cruisy 200km/h I saw a cop in the right lane (slow lane). My instant reaction was “Oh god, ticket!”. I hit the brakes, pulled in behind him and followed at about 130km/h.
Thirty seconds later an M3 went past us at about 190km/h. The cop didn’t even look. 20 more seconds went by and and an M6 came screaming past at around 250km/h. Cop stayed still. Then I realised, oh, yes, I forgot, this is legal.
Can you believe going 250km/h past a police car on a public road can be legal? Can you imagine what an Australian police highway patrol car would do to you if you did this on an Australian highway?
It almost makes you depressed thinking about the difference in car culture. The last time I got pulled over for speeding (18km/h over) in Brisbane, the kind Cop gave me a grilling as if I was responsible for every death on the road.
Can we please bring every single person that has anything to do with setting up speed limits and transport guidelines to Germany? Just for one week?
At this point some of you are thinking, sure it may work in Germany but the autobahns are far better highways than what we have in Australia. Not entirely true.
The M1 Pacific Highway, from Brisbane to Gold Coast, for example, is actually larger than any autobahn I’ve encountered to date. Our lanes are wider and our main roads are just as smooth. So why can’t we go past 110km/h?
Is it the cars? Perhaps, but there are just as many old cars here as there are in Australia, guess what? They stay in the slow lanes, they go 110km/h, the fast cars go 250km/h+ past them, no one complains. The slow go slow, the fast go fast, everyone is happy. Why is this so hard to comprehend?
We were filming the Brabham BT92 today at the Nurburgring and just witnessing the difference in attitude to speed and cars was amazing.
At one moment whilst we were filming the ‘ring, a few German’s started playing AC/DC (Thunderstruck) and it reminded us of Bathurst, but a Ferrari F430 followed by a Porsche GT3 RS and an EVO X went past quickly, oh yes, not Bathurst.
As if the cars aren’t enough, I witnessed with my own eyes, gorgeous beautiful women standing around admiring the cars. I don’t need to die to go to heaven, I found it at the Nurburgring.
No one is doing the ‘pinky’ in Germany. The people here love cars because they love cars, no one does random burnouts in the street, when the autobahn does have a speed limit (road works for example), EVERYONE obeys.
What’s so different in our two cultures that all of this seems so strange? Why is going 320km/h a jail worthy crime in Australia and perfectly legal in Germany?
Why do people get so frightened when we go 20km/h over the speed limit in Australia?
“Slow down stupid”?. No, I don’t think so. “Learn to drive, Stupid”.
Print it: 
Millatime, in the past has admitted to “Double D” cup holders?
I’d really love to see the M1 between Brisbane and Gold Coast to be uprated to 140ish (or more in the far-right lane). It is such a loooong straight drive with plenty of lanes. The road certainly could handle it, but it is our childish, conservative demonising of speed used as political leverage that prevents this from occurring.
Us like-minded motorists should band together to have our voices heard.
Mega, really? I thought that it’s such a short drive why bother. Queenslanders are too stupid on the road to have an elevated speed limit.
Last year they had a reduced speedlimit through some roadworks on one of the exit roads, cop with a laser gun, flashing red/blue lights, no shortage of willing customers, day after day. Slow learners these Queenslanders.
Idiots who speed through raodworks deserve all they get.
hahaha Bret you pop up when needed dont you ;)
Millatime , Cougar babe, Angelina is a MILF in training hehehe.
I did have pics on the CA forum of the cars ,they updated it all and all got lost.I went over to Facebook and chatted with CA guys over there ,you can see I made a comment on this thread over there,to see more youll have to be a facebook friend and become one of mine :) Would love to catch up over there with you ……cheers Lisa…
http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....amp;ref=mf
Another top article. I drove around Germany, Netherlands and France a few years ago and found driving there awesome. When there are no speed limits it _forces_ you to concentrate when driving unlike Australia where people get into their cars and switch into zombie mode.
Nice read, great choice in music though.
Bret
God bless lovely big cup holders, imagine how terrible life would be without them…
Bavarian Missile (.)(.)
I’m a late adopter, ie am not yet on facebook, but I’ll remedy that and catch up, about those wonderful Fords, did you ever have an XC Cobra? :-)
If I could take home an XC Cobra “Bathurst” with the 4 speed 351 and the extra scoop on the bonnet, or Angelina Jolie, what would I choose??? Oh the heartbreak of seeing Angelina standing sobbing on the street corner as she get’s smaller in the rear view mirror…!
In Germany’s favour.
Pedestrian zones in all towns.
Bike paths and no helmet rule.
Fewer speed cameras.
Fair or non-existent speed limits.
Manual transmission.
Superior service station food.
In Australia’s favour.
Unsealed roads.
Cricket on the radio.
Lower fines and overtaking on either side.
No salt on the road (no ice) and lax/no roadworthy tests.
No intercity traffic jams.
Simpler driving test.
Ooooh how I love driving in Europe. Much more fun. I’ve often driven 8-900k’s in a day and seen no police at all. Love it.
Prefer Australian weather, life style though. (He said trying to make up)!!!
I agree, I moved back here for the weather, and even though the UK has speed limits similar to our own, the motorways, in particular the M23 is a great road to speed along, not get caught and not endanger any other drivers. Now I’m back in Oz I do stick to the speed limit, but find it frustrating because our drivers are so crap and our cops are a bit over the top.
There is such a thing as safe speeding, Germany is proof of this, we just need to be more sensible on the road, more courteous and have some roads designated higher speed limits.
Great Article.
Cool Millatime,you know where to find me then. Not a 351 version the poverty 302 ……….still looked the part though! So cars and women,in that order……… sounds very Australian ;)
Cupid …..nice recovery.
Germany is the world’s great hope. I also hear that in the Middle East (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and others) there is no speed limit on freeways.
The East-Link tollway in Melbourne has 6 lanes all the way through. It was recently built. The surface is good. We must abolish the speed limit on the right most lane when the weather is dry. If its raining, bring it down to 150km/h.
We MUST TALK TO THE LIBERAL PARTY ABOUT THIS and MAKE IT AN ELECTION PROMISE!
“Speed doesn’t kill – rapidly deccelerating to zero kills…”
Agreed there are plenty of bad drivers in the UK, but when I moved to Oz a few year ago I couldn’t believe how bad the standard of driving was – sooooo many drivers don’t understand how a roundabout works, hog the right lane for no reason, and have very poor all round road awareness.
So, it’s no surprise the laws are dumbed down to accomodate all the cr@p drivers.
One final comment on speed – I’m all for restrictions & cameras in urban areas where EVERYBODYS safety is at stake, but the use of them on freeways is just a revenue raising exercise….
Most of you guys, AlborZ included, seem to be teenage, always-look-for-adventure, guys.
1. The Autobahn in Germany are far better built than most motorways and highways in Australia. You cannot comment just by seeing ‘oh the road looks shiny and black enough’. The design of the road here is far below quality. You have to know the turning and inclination, frictional quality of the tar used, and so on. And look, it is only limited number of roads in germany where you have no speed limit. Other roads, just like ours.
2. Majority of cars here are not built for that sort of speed. If you have less than 0.2 % of the cars capable of dafely cruising >130 Km/hr, it’s just too dangerous for those cars to fly right and left of the slower cars.
3. It costs much more and it is far more environment detrimental to drive a performance car just for the sake of fulfilling mad desires. You have race tracks to do it as sports. Speeding as a need is never justified.
4. Those who are whinging for being fined for speeding 2+ k over the limit …. well, any figure will have a cutoff limit. Sure, the government has lucrative revenue out of these fines – and perhaps the speed limit is one of their revenue fronts, but there are good reasons why we should be restrained.
There are too many other reasons
Alborz, I totally sympathise. When I returned from Europe (particularly Germany) it took me weeks to recover.
The stupidity of our overtaking rules (not allowed to overtake over the limit at all), the lack of proper road infrastructure (too many winding, single-lane highways), the ridiculous speed limits (some smooth, dual-carriageway roads are sign-posted much slower than some of our most dangerous roads) and the lack of general courtesy from our drivers was infuriating for a long time.
I managed to suppress the anger and frustration, eventually.
Now, however, re-living my trip vicariously, I feel the frustration returning.
It is a sweet memory tainted by the harsh reality of our anti-car culture.
Its all about maturity, a teenager at 16 can go into a pub in Germany and order a beer. They don`t have the same binge drinking problem. Train and teach people instead of dumbing them down by enforcing stupid laws.
There is a fairly intensive driver training process involved in getting your licence, a drivers licence is a privilege, not a right.
In Australia, instead of training the drivers properly, we make laws to cover everyone and treat them like idiots. Maybe not everyone should have a licence and people need to be trained and act as skilled drivers. Too many drivers aren`t competent enough or respect other drivers enough to drive at any speed.
Driving in Australia is better overall, the traffic congestion hasn`t ruined it yet.
A lot of comments on this story. An interesting topic.
Having lived in Sweden for a few years, I definitely noticed a difference with the licencing procedures which is a large contributing factor to the traust police have in drivers.
Getting your licence over there really is getting a certification that you can actually drive (not just permission to do so, like here). The theory AND practice tests include everything from ice-driving tests, slide control, and high speed avoidance maneouvers before a licence is issued. Not just reverse parking. (which my gf, despite having passed her licence, still cannot do).
Its because Astralia is so bckwards when it comes to education. I just got my L’s and the only education i got was a book that tells me to “SLOW DOWN”. Come on, i drove at 80kmh on the M7 2day and it felt like i was going backwards.
In Australia the government would rather utilise their police force for revenue raising than cleaning up drunken idiots who are taking a pi$$ in open daylight in a bus stand.
Don’t believe this happens in Oz? Take a walk down Murray street in Perth on a Sunday morning. Being a Sydneysider I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And these aren’t one offs – it’s almost every weekend.
Some of you talk about lifestyle being great here in Oz – yet it’s strange how the Aussie diaspora (consisting of predominantly high income well educated Aussies) was increasing yearly, until the downturn…
I have a conspiracy theory that the main roads department in Queensland poorly design and maintain roads to cause drivers to become increasingly frustrated and more likely to disobey roads rules and therefore provide more revenue for the police department to become an evermore comunist and controling department.
We have speed limits in Saudi Arabia
but we still drive like it’s Germany, cuz it’s the right way to drive xD
accidents happen cuz of stupid driving, not fast driving
I drive +200kmph everyday, and I even got clocked doing +250kmph …. the cop didn’t bother to try to follow ;P
Would someone please Knight the writer of this article?
I drive a Gold R32 and am frustrated that I have to be labeled a criminal if I want to drive it even mildly spirited.
What a perfect article. I had the pleasure of living in Germany for a year and regularly marveled at how well drivers behaved, courteous and skilled they were in all aspects of driving. Unfortunately, raising speed limits in OZ would lead to great carnage unless there was a mass education and retraining program. I was so depressed upon coming home that I sold my sports car(s), super bike etc. and replaced them with a jet ski which I can still use (for now)in an non speed limited environment.
first i have to say im from germany and drive the autobahn almost every day.
i have to disagree a bit with your article. i dont know where you have been, but the car culture you’re talking about we had maybe 10-20 years ago. sure there are a few enthusiasts, but the majority pf people is now entirely focused on fuel economy and carbon footprint. havent you noticed, that there are almost only small or very small cars on tge road that can barely hit 120kmh?
its kind of sad that we live here with a speed-limit-free autobahn but noone seems to be interested in cars anymore. i predict that we have a speedlimit here in less than 7 years, especially if germans continue to buy small crappy cars.
Anyways, its still fun to drive as fast as you want here and i hope you had a good time.
Stefan
Whoah there,whats this about educating Queensland drivers,please dont try to get that happening.
I drive between Brisbane and the gold coast in the left lane,some times giving quizzical looks to the lovely masses in the right lanes.I usually have MY lane all to myself.Occasionaly there may be another car or two there,so then I have to indicate,use my mirrors,look over my shoulder and then move my steering wheel so as to use the second lane,what a pain,this uses up too much energy.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOH thats why everyone else uses those other two lanes to the right,because they’re lazy effin cooonts.
When I grow up I will buy a monster truck and squash all of those cooonts in the right lanes.
Peace and love L.L.L.
What’s with semi drivers staying in the 3rd lane for the whole journey ?
For gods sake when are the cops going to start doing something about the real menace’s on OUR roads.
All comercial vehicles should have contact numbers displayed.
All professional drivers should be given double fines if and when the cops start to police OUR roads properly.Maybe the message will get through then.To all drivers who’s job it is to drive,for all our sakes can you please learn and adhere to the rules that are set out for your job.
Plenty of unmarked cop cars around the M1 these days,stop picking on the wrong type of driver,just because its easier than pulling over the real problem drivers.
Saw a cop in 1 of those colourful red commodores last week talking on his mobile whilst speeding in the outside lane,I should have done a citizens arrest on him.
I got told by a policeman just south of Brisbane once ( after he had pulled me for tailgating a wall of 3 cars in all 3 lanes )that “anyone can drive at whatever speed they like in any lane ”
Gives one faith in the law doesn’t it.
A few years ago the outgoing cop in the UK that had been responsible for introducing speed cameras admitted that it was a huge mistake.
Alienating every car owner is a silly thing to do.
I am from Germany and i read your interesting article. It is astonishing to see how people from other countries experience our great highways. Im not really proud of my country, but i promise you i know how to appreciate the Autobahn. I couldnt really imagine to live in a country with no no-speed-limit.
Have a nice evening *highbeam*
The problem, here in America, is that it is far too easy to obtain driving privileges. In Germany, people are taught to drive before strapping themselves into 2 tons of glass and steel.
Thats completely true! One really has to bear your point in mind.
As i said, i couldnt imagine living in a country without deristricted highways, but i couldnt imagine to live in a country with people who did not learn proper driving allowed driving on highways, either.
So i think proper driving is the main assumption.
Greeting from Germany,
Hans
S,A,R
Dear “Confused”
1. Australian motorways vs german. Yes you are right to some extent but it is a chicken and egg problem. If the original design spec of the highway is always 110k/h then that’s all they will build it to. Australia needs to get out of the stone age and start building mega highways spec’d to 250k/h. This is what Germany did with the Autobahn network 70 years ago, and look what it has done for their car industry
2. Cars are not built for that speed? Are you an automotive engineer? Modern cars are more than capable of cruising at 130k/hr (if they weren’t they would fall apart just from normal everyday slow driving!) The point people are trying to make here is driver maturity and knowing your car. If you were to drive at an obviously excessive speed for your car and conditions on an unrestricted highway, cops would have every right to pull you over and fine you massively. This is the difference in paradigms. People think it is just about the car, but it is more about the driver than the car. As technology improves, the safety, speed, power and reliability of cars increases. Cars today are so much more powerful, more safe, stop and turn incredibly well compared to 50 years ago yet people still manage to crash them at the same rate even though the speed limits have not changed in those 50 years!
3. Speeding is never justified? In a place like Australia where there are massive massive distances to cover, high speeds are justified. Taking twice as long to cover a distance at a crawling pace causes driver fatigue, which can have fatal consequences. Australia needs an interstate unrestricted megahighway system (the Australian autobahn!) We need to push the limits of road and car design for technology to continuously improve, currently we are nearly going backwards. Northern Territory was a good example of unrestricted highways working effectively in Australia. Despite being a less than ideal network, two lane highways with huge road trains everywhere, it worked. Drivers maintained their own speed, were curteous to others and covered the massive distances in an efficient time. Recently NT caved in to the beurocracy and implemented a 130k/h limit
4. You should catch the train, your thinking disqualifies you from driving a car.
LOL, point four is way to relevant to many drivers, I applaud your post for ingenuity and entertainment.