How long is a long drive?

Rsipad

Rsipad

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 Sacramento, CA
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Wondering what those across the world deem a long drive. I know us Americans love to laugh at those across the pond who think a two hour drive is a lot. Is that a myth or true?

For me personally, I think anything over 6 hours is long. Anything under 2 hours is short.
 
I guess it depends on where / how etc

On a NC500 200 miles over 5 hours is pretty intense especially 4 or 5 days in a row..

Many business people here do 400 miles as part of just getting to meetings

I try to keep to less than 6 hours if I can avoid it..

Having breaks every 2 hours is a huge help
 
I did 439 miles from Surrey to Dumbarton last August to take part in one of B21s adventures!

IIRC it took 8 hours or so - it was a Sunday.
 
I do 300 to 400 mile drives regularly (not in the Z4) for work and don't consider them very long, yet colleagues wonder how i do it!
To me, 500 miles or more is a long drive, and when I lived in Canada that was considered not unusual 🤔

All a question of what you are accustomed to and especially what you are driving on the journey.
 
SV8Predator said:
Sydney to Adelaide? That was fairly long.
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Seems long... rivals my longest single day record of 16 hours. Hopefully it wasn't it the Z4 :ROFLMAO:

Mr Tidy said:
I did 439 miles from Surrey to Dumbarton last August to take part in one of B21s adventures!

IIRC it took 8 hours or so - it was a Sunday.
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Wish we had a community of zedders like this in the US. Super jealous!
 
Last year used to do West Wales to East Sussex and back in a day with a break in the middle for about 6 hrs of client meetings once or twice a month. Did it in the Z a few times which was ok but harder than the Volvo / Audi. Tomorrow doing West Wales to N. London and then Somerset. Definitely a friend of the M4 club...
 
I think with context most of the states is straight roads so covering long distances is easy. Europe isnt quite as easy as there are a lot of older roads with more twisties.

I travelled the states for 3 months and covered about 10k miles its a lot easier in the US. Also work in the states and drove from Boise to Monterey last year for an event and its pretty normal and an easy journey.
 
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2 hours is probably just a long commute...although my average commute from Liverpool to London (220 miles door-to-door) took 3.5h to 7.5h - and the 3.5h felt 'quick'. The 7.5h definitely felt long!

To me, a 'long drive' depends on the driving conditions, as 2 hours of stop start traffic feels much longer than 6 hours of steady motorway/autobahn/autostrada/autoroute. So I've done Liverpool to Inverness in one jaunt, and Liverpool to Cornwall to Folkestone in one trip - albeit I had to stop in Cornwall to pick up my passenger and his approx. 500 empty weissbier bottles for his refund at the Rewe Getrankmarkt.

I have no problem doing long, non-stop stints, if the roads/conditions/fuel tank allows.

Whilst we've been touring German car museums, we've done a 6 hour drive each way in a day. We didn't stop on the way there, nor on the way back, although we did spend most of the afternoon in the BMW museum and then had dinner in Munich before our return. Luckily it was in the 320D/335D, as the Z4MC would have needed an extra fuel stop each way (instead of just the one tank each way).
 
A long drive for me is anything over 2 hours. Certainly having cruise control and interstate highways helps a lot.

Recently did 5500 miles in 5 weeks around western USA... still fairly tiring even when its just you on a road as far as the eye can see.
 
In my Z4 or TTS anything over 20 miles on Norfolk roads!🤣 I need to purchase a comfy car. I'll still keep the other two.
 
Mr Tidy said:
I did 439 miles from Surrey to Dumbarton last August to take part in one of B21s adventures!

IIRC it took 8 hours or so - it was a Sunday.
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In my youth, I drove 400 miles from South London to Edinburgh in 4h 20mins in a 225 TT. I left at 2300h on a Saturday night, so there was no traffic and no traffic police. Fixed speed cameras were less common back then.

I’ve driven from Monaco to London in one hit in my Zed resting only on the ferry, and the last leg back to London was pretty exhausting.

I have a 700km round trip tomorrow to see some patients in a rural area of Australia. I’m expecting to spend around 7h on the road (punctuated halfway with 4h spent consulting), and use most of a tank of diesel.
 
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I'm with mmm-five, a long drive is not necessarily defined by distance or time, rather how busy the road is at the time. My bi-weekly commute from home in East Yorkshire to Bristol is just over 200 miles, but last Thursdays journey of five and a half hours was more exhausting than the journey from San Fransisco to Salt Lake City (750 miles) which my daughter and I did in a mustang convertible for my 50th birthday.
 
I'm always surprised when someone says "oh that's a long journey" when it's an hour or two.

I'm used to driving a couple of hours for unimportant things and it's never felt like a long way for me, but other people wouldn't drive for two hours without treating it like a major adventure.

Depends on your mood at the time, the conditions and what you're doing it for. Bath to York and back a few times last year for work could be really quite miserable on motorways for 4-6 hours, when tired, bored and in endless rain. On the other hand, 8am in the Ardenne to 2am the next day in the Alps was the best day of my life on twisty mountain roads in an MR2 with the roof down.
 
I used to drive around 25k a year for decades. Never thought twice about jumping in the car, or van, and driving 200 miles to go to work.
Not anymore. More than 10 miles is a struggle for me nowadays.

I drove to Stansted and back yesterday. 170 mile round trip. I was knackered when I got home! And I'm only 58! o_O
 
Pondy said:
I used to drive around 25k a year for decades. Never thought twice about jumping in the car, or van, and driving 200 miles to go to work.
Not anymore. More than 10 miles is a struggle for me nowadays.

I drove to Stansted and back yesterday. 170 mile round trip. I was knackered when I got home! And I'm only 58! o_O
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Still a spring chicken, compared to most of us on here :rofl:
 
Driving for me these days is not about pleasure, its about getting to where i need to be in the shortest possible time. My commute to work is fifteen minutes, I'd think twice about a trip longer than two hours or so.
 
Did Nashville to New Orleans in December, long drive in a day that (over 500miles) and we were nearly taken out by a wagon..but all good
 
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