Express-Way Updates

[Le Sabre]

Havent heard much news on the southern expressway, colombo-katu , colombo -kandy and outer circular road projects.

Anybody has any updates on these projects so far.

Edited July 7, 2010 by Le Sabre

[The Stig]

the problem i have is how someone do 100kmph on that road

they say its 120kmph not 100, which makes it even worse

[The Stig]

Ah yes, other older vehicles will struggle to maintain that speed, but as there seems to be no minimum speed limit imposed yet, they can very well do 40km/h and annoy other drivers to death

Scary yes, wouldn't have even thought of it if the road wasn't totally empty. As no one seems to know, was wondering what the max the car could do, safely. Have seen many cars run off at high speed corners.

More than a maruti (doubt they'll be doin a 100 as its quite hard on maruti's to do a 100), but imagine coming up in a normal jap car like a belta or yaris (light rears and non independent rear suspension), doin a 100 km/h, over the turn with the frigging dip! tail steps out abit, how many % of sri lankan drivers will be able to correct it and keep it on the road?

@blu3haze- i think the top speed is around 120, i once did around 120 on A9 amazingly and annoyingly the maruti 800 behind me kept up.Well the wheels were barley touching the ground, scared the crap out of me cause i know if i need to stop i got ABS but that guy ugggghhh the last thing i wanted was a maruti rear ending me. pulled over and let the bugger go

@viren- yeah those thing are just bouncing around like balloons at high speeds, an add to that the whole high speed driving concept is new here and most people dont know how to properly control a car at high speeds.

i say we have to introduce some sort of license certificate for highway driving so we can filter out the untrained drivers and the old farts who cant see properly, what do you say ?

[heavyD]

i say we have to introduce some sort of license certificate for highway driving so we can filter out the untrained drivers and the old farts who cant see properly, what do you say ?

Ain't never gonna happen, so don't get your hopes up...

In any case, if all these incidents do take place as you guys have said, well then, there's always the comparatively safer older route. Hopefully, that'll be empty with everyone using the highway.

[BLu3HaZe]

@blu3haze- i think the top speed is around 120, i once did around 120 on A9 amazingly and annoyingly the maruti 800 behind me kept up.Well the wheels were barley touching the ground, scared the crap out of me cause i know if i need to stop i got ABS but that guy ugggghhh the last thing i wanted was a maruti rear ending me. pulled over and let the bugger go

@viren- yeah those thing are just bouncing around like balloons at high speeds, an add to that the whole high speed driving concept is new here and most people dont know how to properly control a car at high speeds.

Didn't want to check top speed and don't wanna find out either, don't even want to drive a load of crap like that ever again, I'd much rather go on a mountain bike instead, no still not an Indian/Chinese one

As for it nearly flying, very true as that boxy shape seems to make the car very unstable, after all it's a design from the 80s. Good you let him go cuz yes, the brakes in it are so useless at that speeds you don't really get any sense of slowing down, and would obviously have rear ended you. What were you driving, the E46 or March?

@virensti - The rear has semi independent suspension on the Yaris/Belta, but you're right the tail does step out at high speeds with a very light rear end, also think the shape is generating some amount of lift. Not very safe or easy to control at high speeds, and a functional spoiler would be a good addition even though it's a FWD.

[SpeedyAsA]

Our dumbass ministers need to get out of their chair once in a while and let their brains breathe.

They don't have any brain ne machan.

[nexus]

they say its 120kmph not 100, which makes it even worse

damn demolition derby SL

[nexus]

Ain't never gonna happen, so don't get your hopes up...

In any case, if all these incidents do take place as you guys have said, well then, there's always the comparatively safer older route. Hopefully, that'll be empty with everyone using the highway.

after seeing the pictures of new expressway i 100% agree with you

Edited March 18, 2011 by nexus

[nexus]

Didn't want to check top speed and don't wanna find out either, don't even want to drive a load of crap like that ever again, I'd much rather go on a mountain bike instead, no still not an Indian/Chinese one

:lol:

[NPP]

i thot i saw a 30km/h limit board somewhere in a pic some time back and we talked abt wt tht's doing in a 100km/h highway

[k9master]

Guys Guys, just forget for a moment that this is a highway, forget about the 120km/h speed limit, just look at those photos. Even if its a B road, Imagine going around those corners in a well sorted car... It would be like driving heaven...

Of course, the indian / chinise bikes, indian / chinese cars, three wheellers, buses, lorries, should stay away...

Then again thats not gonna happen ryt? It will be the same nightmare we experience in any other roads here...

Dreams shatter...

Depression...

suicide...

[SeanD]

This doesn't look like an expressway to me after all. It's just another road Hope they are not, in their own way, trying to compete with the Bolivian Road of Death : http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27b.htm

Edited March 18, 2011 by SeanD

[The Stig]

Ain't never gonna happen, so don't get your hopes up...

In any case, if all these incidents do take place as you guys have said, well then, there's always the comparatively safer older route. Hopefully, that'll be empty with everyone using the highway.

Didn't want to check top speed and don't wanna find out either, don't even want to drive a load of crap like that ever again, I'd much rather go on a mountain bike instead, no still not an Indian/Chinese one

As for it nearly flying, very true as that boxy shape seems to make the car very unstable, after all it's a design from the 80s. Good you let him go cuz yes, the brakes in it are so useless at that speeds you don't really get any sense of slowing down, and would obviously have rear ended you. What were you driving, the E46 or March?

@virensti - The rear has semi independent suspension on the Yaris/Belta, but you're right the tail does step out at high speeds with a very light rear end, also think the shape is generating some amount of lift. Not very safe or easy to control at high speeds, and a functional spoiler would be a good addition even though it's a FWD.

@Blu3haze- Obviously the E46, march wouldn't have been any different from the maruti lol ( i dont think there is any other guy in this forum who hates the car he drives as much as i do )

BTW i have driven a yaris a couple of time, didnt seem that bad just a little underpowered though

Japan has a lot of rules regarding speeding dont they, but then again they do have high speed highways. Im wondering why they would make a car thats almost un-drivable in a highway, japan being a country that had highways from 1950's.

@Big D -

[The Stig]

They don't have any brain ne machan.

damn demolition derby SL

@speedy- lol my bad, totaly forgot about that

@nexus- like i said mate "Death race 3: southern highway"

[nexus]

@nexus- like i said mate "Death race 3: southern highway"

oh damn i forget about it

[Californikan]

The Southern Expressway is not comparable to a proper 3 or more lane 'Highway' (U.S and Canada), 'Motorway' (U.K), or Autobahn (Germany) such as something like this

It's more like a 'parkway' in the U.S. or 'dual carriageway' in Europe

parkway in U.S.

dual carriageway, europe

southern expressway, sri lanka

Edited March 19, 2011 by Californikan

[BLu3HaZe]

@Blu3haze- Obviously the E46, march wouldn't have been any different from the maruti lol ( i dont think there is any other guy in this forum who hates the car he drives as much as i do )

BTW i have driven a yaris a couple of time, didnt seem that bad just a little underpowered though

Japan has a lot of rules regarding speeding dont they, but then again they do have high speed highways. Im wondering why they would make a car thats almost un-drivable in a highway, japan being a country that had highways from 1950's.

Ah ok, that'd have been a very costly repair if so as you can't find used parts for the E46. As for the March, didn't mention that the most number of accidents I've seen on the Gannoruwa road were of K11/12 thinking owners would be upset and think I'm bashing them, but seems it doesn't matter

Underpowered on the 1300cc? Haven't really felt that but it does truly max out at around 165km/h (AT+2NZ-FE) like the owners manual states. As for handling, it's got a heavy front end, usually a front stabilizer, front McPherson struts so it seems as they've only engineered the front and fitted an inflated balloon to the rear riding on torsion beam suspension. Cornering at 80+ slides the rear and hard to correct with the understeer present due to drive layout. Found out properly in an emergency drive (thieves at a relatives house) in the Gampola-Kandy road at around 100.

No idea how they intended it to work on highways in Japan.

[nexus]

dual carriageway, europe

southern expressway, sri lanka

so what we get for expressway is a dual carriageway.

[nexus]

Ah ok, that'd have been a very costly repair if so as you can't find used parts for the E46. As for the March, didn't mention that the most number of accidents I've seen on the Gannoruwa road were of K11/12 thinking owners would be upset and think I'm bashing them, but seems it doesn't matter

and thinking about it i to see few march accident on that road

[The Stig]

Ah ok, that'd have been a very costly repair if so as you can't find used parts for the E46. As for the March, didn't mention that the most number of accidents I've seen on the Gannoruwa road were of K11/12 thinking owners would be upset and think I'm bashing them, but seems it doesn't matter

Underpowered on the 1300cc? Haven't really felt that but it does truly max out at around 165km/h (AT+2NZ-FE) like the owners manual states. As for handling, it's got a heavy front end, usually a front stabilizer, front McPherson struts so it seems as they've only engineered the front and fitted an inflated balloon to the rear riding on torsion beam suspension. Cornering at 80+ slides the rear and hard to correct with the understeer present due to drive layout. Found out properly in an emergency drive (thieves at a relatives house) in the Gampola-Kandy road at around 100.

No idea how they intended it to work on highways in Japan.

LOL no offense taken, bash it as much as you want

Also to add to what you said the brakes on the march are really bad and most of the time they to bind.And there is this weird problem with my braking system that im confused about, sometimes when i floor the brake the car comes to a stop and then jumps forward a little bit (no i do know that i have to press the clutch when braking ).This problem is very annoying and nobody can figure it out, not to mention the damn accidents cause by this cause even thought i brake with out hitting the rear end of other cars most of the time during emergencies this damn thing jumps forward and i have to pay the bugger in front cause they start complaining that i rear ended them

[The Don]

Stig, I know I am going to be shot for saying this, but I occasionally drive a K11 1000cc and I have no issues getting to 70MPH and keeping the car under control at those speeds. To be honest I'm not sure how the steering and suspension is like on the Japanese model but the British built K11 with standard power steering, the car actually handles quite well considering what it is !

[heavyD]

Stig, I know I am going to be shot for saying this, but I occasionally drive a K11 1000cc and I have no issues getting to 70MPH and keeping the car under control at those speeds. To be honest I'm not sure how the steering and suspension is like on the Japanese model but the British built K11 with standard power steering, the car actually handles quite well considering what it is !

112 kmph seems quite reasonable for a March... I figure in the end, it all comes down to the driver, driving responsibly is a given when at the wheel imo.

Edited March 19, 2011 by Big_D

[The Stig]

Stig, I know I am going to be shot for saying this, but I occasionally drive a K11 1000cc and I have no issues getting to 70MPH and keeping the car under control at those speeds. To be honest I'm not sure how the steering and suspension is like on the Japanese model but the British built K11 with standard power steering, the car actually handles quite well considering what it is !

Actually thats true, handling in this car isn't bad. im more disappointing in the total experience and especially the brakes

[Californikan]

Japanese repair this destroyed expressway in just 6 days

story: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/24/japanese-repair-quake-ravaged-road-in-just-six-days/

and how long would it take us to do the same thing?

[Californikan]

sorry double post

Edited March 25, 2011 by Californikan

[MrCat]

And your point is? We all know that at present, SL does not have the expertise nor the funds to be compared with how the Japanese build roads. They didn't start doing these stuff all of a sudden isn`t it? They have loads of experience after going though two world wars and re-building the nation.