Andy gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

You seem to miss the subtle detail that the distances are massively
long for any even remotely competent and roadworthy vaguely modern
vehicle.

I don't think that they're massively long. If you look at the table in
the highway code, it gives the distances in terms of car lengths (being
4m):

20mph = 3 car lengths, 50mph = 13 car lengths, 70mph = 24 car lengths
(=96m) with the other speeds in between.

75m, actually - we're talking about the stopping distance. Whether the
average driver's reactions accord to the guesstimates in the HC is
another question entirely.

And, yes, they are - hugely so.

A quick google tends to bury actual road test information under swathes
of HC related stuff, but here's one...

http://www.insideline.com/subaru/imp...t-2002-subaru-
impreza-outback-sport.html

So that's a roughly 8yo test of a fairly heavy non-performance-oriented
car, with drum brakes on the rear and "all-season" tyres (virtually
unknown in the UK, being a compromise between the tyres we see (known as
"summer" elsewhere) and winter tyres).

127ft from 60 to a stop. 38m. HC quotes 55m. 45% further.