In Finland they are strictly illegal. You get a hefty fine which is based on your last years taxable income. The fine can be easily anything between 1-10 k?! Every police car has online access to the taxation records, so you cannot cheat. And the device will be confiscated as well. I think this might also be considered as serious road offence leading to the suspension of your driver's license for 3-6 months...

 

Thank you all for your input. To allay some of your fears, I've lived, worked and driven extensively in Europe. I'm a pretty responsible guy, but when it come to cars, there's still a 17 year-old lurking in my 40-something body!

Oyster, are there any particular autobahns in southern Germany that you could recommend to have the best chance of full speed driving? Also, I totally agree about driving over the mountains in Switzerland. Are the chances pretty good that the pass roads will be open by the first week of May?

 

Almost certainly. These roads serve local communities, a lot of resources are put into keeping most of them open.

 

A good stretch of autobahn for driving fast, with few speed limits and lighter traffic, is the A7 between Wuerzburg and Ulm, or the A 92 from Munich to Deggendorf (passing Dingolfing by the way).
The normal route from Munich to Switzerland will take You over the A96, which has some good parts, too.
Leaving Munich, avoid the A8 and A9 to Nuremberg and Stuttgart, those are always pretty crowded.

During the first week of May, the North-South pass roads in Switzerland (Gotthard, San Bernadino and others) could be still closed for winter or open, but with a snow-covered road, so You would have to get info on short notice from the internet, radio, automobile club or local sources.

 

Autobahn A9 from Berlin to N?rnberg has some very nice places where you can drive really fast !

Even the Autobahn A7 and A9 in the southern part of Germany are excellent for high-speed driving. Do it at night, when all the Germans are at home! I remember one summer when we drove through Germany when Germany played a important football match, and the Autobahn was empty that night!

I really like the Autobahn A24 from Berlin to Hamburg, it's only a 2-lane autobahn, but it's so straight at some places and when it's night or early morning speeds bewteen 200-250 km/h isn't a problem I was driving there a couple of weeks ago and did 210 km/h in the right lane, when a X3 overtook me, he was doing at least 240 km/h....

When you want to drive fast, do it in Germany. The speedlimits on highways in Europe is here for a reason!

Enjoy your ED! Drive safe - it's better to be five minutes late, than never arrive !

 

I went from Munich to Garmisch last weekend on A95 and it was EMPTY. Drove at top speed for kilometers on end. An overall short distance between the two points but ample opportunity to drive fast.

 

how do you know? did you actually try them in EU??????
because I'm not so sure.... the frequencies vary

 

I was in Belgium last weekend and was doing about 150kmph. A police van lit up behind me, but passed me. Then he pulled off to the side as I passed him. Then he passed me again, with lights still on before he finally got off the highway at the next exit. In Belgium, there aren't any speed limit signs along E40-not that I saw anyway- but the speed limit is 120kmph as I found out later. My theory is he saw my USA plates and didn't want to bother.