Speeding GM LAV

[Tony Smith]

From a recent edition of New Zealand's Dominion Post:


"LAV DRIVER FINED FOR SPEEDING
The Army's powerful new armoured vehicles have proved they are fast - one has been given a ticket for doing 109km/h on State Highway 1.
The 15 tonne eight wheel drive LAV was pulled up just south of Taihape about two weeks ago. Nathan Mazara, a Canadian Test Driver and customer support officer for LAV manufacturer General Dynamics, said a police patrol going the other way caught him on radar.
Mr Manzara was snapped at 109km/h, 19km/h over the open road speed for heavy vehicles like the LAV. It cost him $120.
The LAV's top speed is governed (Electronically controlled) at 110km/h.
Police Road Safety National Adviser, Inspector John McClelleand said he had heard of the occaisional military vehicle being pulled up for thing like axle weight checks, but there were no records of tickets being issued.
Until now, speed had not been an issue for the Army's heavy vehicles, He said - the old ones were were not so fast.
As for dispensations for the Military, "They've got no defence". There were no exemptions for the Military like those covering Police Officers in an emergency.
Defence spokesman Ric Cullinane said any breach of the law was not condoned, and people caught speeding had to pay their own fines. He said he said he had no idea how many Army vehicles might have been caught for speeding over the years, but this was definately the first time a tactical armoured vehicle had been issued an infringement.
Mr Mazura, who has been in New Zealand since January and is due to return to Canada soon, said he had paid the fine but feared he might lose his job now that news of the incident had got out.
In the past four years, he has spent thousands of hours testing LAVs."

Personally, I think it's a pretty low blow to accuse the New Zealand Military of Having No Defence. C'mon, they're trying to do the best they can with what they've got.

[chris vickery]

Stuart L , where are you on this one? Surely it must've come up at the coffee table at the General Dynamics works in London, ON.

[Stewart Loy]

Chris,

It certainly did.

The lads whole family works at the General - so I ran it by the old man.

He wispered that it was a source of some embarrassment ( for the boy, not the LAV ) and that a general circulation would not be appreciated.

However, ( and those that know me will understand ) that only served to bolster my spirits of blabbing the whole gory story to my friends South of the border. They report that speeding tickets are not uncommon down beneath the 49th line.

Just how many speeding tickets the M1 has recieved would hover near zero, I suspect.

So chalk another one up for the latest in a long line of CMP achievements!



Stewart
Your Man Inside

[Tony Smith]

So chalk another one up for the latest in a long line of CMP achievements!

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
From a recent edition of New Zealand's Dominion Post:


"LAV DRIVER FINED FOR SPEEDING

The only CMP I know that is capable of being booked for speeding is Euan's LP9 CGT

I was once driving the F60L up a hill with a cop waiting at the top with radar - I watched him point it at me then start to laugh... I started to beat the outside of the door and he leaped in the air and cheered as I made it to the top of the hill.
Good to see some of them have a sense of humour.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
I was once driving the F60L up a hill with a cop waiting at the top with radar - I watched him point it at me then start to laugh...

Keith,
A similar occurence happened to me many years ago, I was riding my 1941 BSA WM20 motorcycle to a rally and giving it some throttle to get up a hill, I saw to my horror, a cop with a radar gun, I knew that I was over the limit, in an effort to crest the hill. His mate was up further waiting to pull offenders in, but he just watched me pass. I reckon they went straight back to the station to get the gun checked out, thinking it was faulty !!

On the subject of speeding AFV's, when the CVR(W) Fox was new, I went as commander, out on test with one which I had been repairing. The vehicle inspector who was driving had it at 95 MPH.
These vehicles were not governed and I heard later that a unit had acheived over 100 mph on a motorway. A CVR(T) Scorpion got caught for speeding on the motorway, cannot remember at what speed, but an impressive figure for a tracked vehicle.

Richard