According to the question sheet, 240 feet is "equivalent to 73 metres or 24 car lengths, where a car length is four metres." This can't be right; if a car length is 4 metres, 24 lengths is 96 metres.
The latest copy of the Highway Code in our house is currently the Revised 2007 edition, which confirms that the stopping distance is 73 metres or 240 feet, but correctly (given that a car length is indeed assumed to be four metres) translates this to 18 car lengths. (24 car lengths – 96 metres, or 315 feet – is the stopping distance at 70 mph.)
This can be checked in several places online, e.g. The Driving Tests (.co.uk).
Questions about car stopping distances are more popular with setters than with contestants – even though those of us who drive (which is most of us) should probably, in all fairness, have some idea of the figures.
You can actually work it out, if you can remember the formula. The stopping distance is made up of thinking distance and braking distance. The thinking distance is equal to your speed in miles per hour; the braking distance is the speed in miles per hour, divided by 10, squared, and multiplied by 5. So at 60 mph, the thinking distance is 60 feet and the braking distance is 6 x 6 x 5, which is 180 feet. Total: 240 feet.
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