Should cars be designed to do 100mph+

[turkster]

Do people actually do anything close to 155mph on the autobahns?
I would have thought you'd get lots of pile ups if some people were doing 155mph in the fast lane and others doing 80mph

[Fox]

Yes, we should.

Drive two cars at 70mph on the Motorway. One with a top speed of 90, and one with a top speed of 155mph.

Which is going to be the nicest, smoothest, most comfortable car? The car that isn't running within 20mph of its maximum capability, screaming away.

[Jiff Lemon]

make me a rear wheel drive car with top speed of 80 ish and reasonably supple suspension (yeah softish.....soft springs, hard shocks) and you're in business...

oh hang on...

the Cappucino is JUST THAT

Marry me!!

[Richie]

Yes, we should.

Drive two cars at 70mph on the Motorway. One with a top speed of 90, and one with a top speed of 155mph.

Which is going to be the nicest, smoothest, most comfortable car? The car that isn't running within 20mph of its maximum capability, screaming away.

Exactly. My own car has just turned 125,500 miles. Its a 4.4 litre V8 limited (supposedly) to 155MPH. At 70MPH on the M-Way its turning over at around 2000RPM as opposed to a 1 litre car running around 4500RPM.

Which engine is theoretically going to last longer ?? I wouldnt even have contemplated buying the car I have (113,000 miles when I bought it) if it was a 2 litre lump or less. Where most engines quite worn at 100,000 miles, this one is just run in.



I know I'd rather be in my 155+MPH 4.4litre "barge" than in a 90MPH 1.2litre screamer for the simple fact is that, in the event of any possible accident, I will at least have a fighting chance of planting the throttle and pulling me out of the way in time.


Its a well known fact that powerful cars are safer cars. They need to upgrade suspension, brakes and a whole host of other things to cope with the power. 330mm discs on the front as standard anyone ??

[Allen]

They should limit cars to about 90-100mph (even though I'm against speeders, you may still want to overtake on the motorway) and have a system where it can be delimited by authorities if you are going abroad where they have different speed limits and where you may want to drive at speeds where you can kill yourself and others...

[Fox]

Given that a fraction of motoring accidents are caused by speeds of over 100mph, is it really worth upsetting people on principle by doing something like limiting cars?

[Richie]

Speed doesnt cause any accidents. Speed merely aggravates the outcome of an accident caused by things like careless drivers or even careless pedestrians (yes YOU ppl that insist on walking on the road or across a busy carpark and look at us drivers as if we are mad because we dont stop.... Do we drive on the pavement ?? No so get your asses off the tarmac )

*ahem*

[TiG]

Richie, i think you'll find that humans cause the accidents, because we are fallable creatures. I raised the question should cars be designed to do more than 100mph, the discussion point was much more than current cars.

I tried to highlight that the design was the aspect i was most focused on, The interesting thing for me is that a common argument is that higher speeds are possible and i quite agree, what i don't agree is that humans are capable of doing these higher speeds.

Yes I am living in a dream world with this arguement, but the weak point in car design is us. Remove us from the design of cars and you get much more efficent, much faster safer cars.

No need for speed regulators on cars, no need for restrictive speed limits - remove the whole nature of stereotyping cars, road rage, stress from road rage, remove the need for car insurance as there is no more human frailty?.

What we tend to do with imotive topics like i raise is defend our right to speed or do what we want rather than think round the topic and considure other options.

But as i say, just dreaming

TiG

[Devilbod]

I know it's bad but personally I don't like the idea. I've gone over the speed limit to get out of danger more than once in my life (usually caused by an over aggressive driver).

If this is down to saving lives I'm of the mind if you forced that type of restriction on drivers then you shouldn't stop there, stereos, vanity mirrors, anything to do with a mobile phone, ash trays.... anything that can cause a distraction or loss of concentration at a wheel of a car should be made 100% illegal.
The test should be 10 times harder, and they should be very tight restrictions on who can carry passenger’s i.e. lower speed limits, age of driver and stuff like that.
And the sentencing should be more severe - instant 6-12 month ban and re-test for anything other than a parking ticket.

Speeding causes less than 20% of rta's most are caused by lack of concentration so you can see my point , you can't just point at one then do nothing about the other.

And you have to remember that when they put down that speeding was the cause of the accident, that it could mean that someone was trying to corner too fast, took a roundabout at 60mph and clipped a curb, it not all that clear cut and how do you regulate that?

Don't get me wrong you shouldn't break the law, but it's like saying that no one should be allowed to carry a knife of any sort even a pen-knife incase they go on a frenzied stabbing fest.

[sdp]

Exactly. My own car has just turned 125,500 miles. Its a 4.4 litre V8 limited (supposedly) to 155MPH. At 70MPH on the M-Way its turning over at around 2000RPM as opposed to a 1 litre car running around 4500RPM.

3,500-4,000rpm in 4th gear maybe, but all that 1litre engine needs is a fith gear really and it'd be fine.

I drive a 90mph 1litre thing btw, it'll do 70-80 comfortabley (if you don't mind the noise that is) but the problem is there's no acceleration left at all so I couldn't get out of the way of anything if I needed to quickly.

I don't like the obsession with speed though, people cant be driving around constantly staring at their speedo in case they go 2mph over the limit.

[phil1965]

Whoaaaaaa dude

[BUFF]

Do people actually do anything close to 155mph on the autobahns?
I would have thought you'd get lots of pile ups if some people were doing 155mph in the fast lane and others doing 80mph

Yes they do, I've been driven at that on the Autobahn ( & btw not all Autobahns are derestricted).
German motorway lane discipline is better than in the UK (not surprising when you've got people doing those speeds) & people move back into the slower lanes after they have overtaken.

I don't think that the Germans have more pile ups it's just that when they do have them they tend to have massive ones. A lot of them are weather related with people driving too fast for the conditions - rain, mist etc.

& no, the average car shouldn't be designed to do 100+ but with an aerodynamically efficient body & power train an average modern car is going to be capable of it.
Personally, I like having the option of being able to either brake or accelerate out of trouble.

[G4Z]

would like to make the point on fuel efficency... If your driving a huge 4.4litre engine round town it is going to be a hell of a lot less efficent than a small one litre. I would be intereted to know if you get more MPG than I do in my 1.4 pug 306. (get around 35 myself, mostly drive round a city).