I'm based in the UK and drove in California and MN a few years ago on an extended family tour. I didn't find that Americans drove that fast. Dumb sometimes but no more than they do here.
In California we did trips to the woods just north of San Francisco on the windy roads there and even in an American "soft whale type car" we were still being held up by locals even in European models (mostly German).
In MN we did a trip from the airport to a town about ~200-250 miles from the twin cities to stay with friends and I did normal UK Motorway speeds. I found I was passing more people than passed me. What seemed odd and slightly stupid was the way I would encounter an SUV sitting in the outside lane of a completely empty road forcing me to pass on the inside, obviously driven by special people.
When we arrived we were asked how long it had taken and when we looked at our watches and told them there was a lot of teeth sucking, and wondering how we hadn't been stopped for speeding. Even the guy in the house "over the road" with a brand new Corvette in the drive wondered how we got away with it. I can't answer that, we did pass police cars parked every now and again and even passed a few people who had been stopped.
I can only assume that it was my naturally cool and calm approach as an Englishman that impressed the colonial authorities that this was someone who knew what they were doing...
