Should cars be designed to do 100mph+

[TiG]

Playing devils advocate here for a minute, but I read an article recently looking at how much fun you could buy for £30k.

They took a number of different cars and had fun with them on the open roads and on a track. One of the conclusions that suprised me from one of the reviewers was the car that was most fun to drive, quick as anything round the track and ultimate fun to drive didn't win.

Reason because you couldn't enjoy but 10% of the cars potential legally on normal roads, so i look at this and wondered, should we really be producing cars that are that much ahead of the legalities of the road?.

I know that building bigger engines has improvements in efficency etc but there is a balance to be struck here anyway?, and with all the new safety regs coming in the next few years we are unlikely to see the sort of relative performance with cars getting much heavier again to meet these regulations.

Should manufacturers be looking to improve efficency of engines rather than getting them to race suspension, turbo'd monsters like the evo fq320 are

TiG

[Angus]

There's always the Autobahn...

[spazman]

Yes they should.

[TiG]

Want to justify it Spaz?

TiG

[Angus]

You said yourself that cars will get heavier due to safety standards - isn't that justification that engines should be more powerful?

setting the suspension on the car so that it's race like just makes it handle better for the people that like stiff handling.

[Shad]

Having a high ceiling means you can go slower with less fuss.

And you can go faster when no-one's looking

[TiG]

As i said i'm playing devils advocate, cars engines can get more powerful yep no problem with that, but thats to counter act the weight increase, if anything the power to weight ratio over the last 5 years has increased dramatically.

Question i'm trying to make is that do manufacturers build cars to do 100mph+ in their design spec?, personally i don't think they generally do, they accept what speed they get out once they've done their design build.

its obvious that people demand quick cars, it was one of my criteria when i purchased my new one. Does having a car that can do 0-60mph in 4.2 and do 180mph top speed essential? compared to one that can do 0-60mph in 4.2 and a top speed of 100mph with the top gears being setup to be incredibly efficent?.

TiG

[Zak33]

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

[Angus]

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

I'm sure you've said that before

Or is that de ja vu?

[Rave]

compared to one that can do 0-60mph in 4.2 and a top speed of 100mph with the top gears being setup to be incredibly efficent?.

That doesn't work. For fast acceleration you need lots of power. For efficient cruising you need tall gearing. Lots of power + tall gearing = high top speed, in general. The only way to stop a car that can do 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and cruise efficiently from going well over 100mph is to electronically limit it.

Whether the government should introduce those electronic limits is the question. It all comes down to how much we should be regulated by the nanny state vs. how much should be personal responsibility. There are reasons to have a high performance car; for a start you can drive them to a track and then drive fast legally. In general a high performance car will handle and stop better so you could potentially avoid more accidents in normal driving; and in the unlikely circumstances that you're in the middle of the scottish highlands with someone who's just accidentally cut their femoral artery and is bleeding to death, you could probably get them to hospital quicker than a helicopter could.

There aren't that many things a big hunting knife can do that a swiss army knife can't but it's still legal to own the hunting knife (although not to carry it around in the street for no reason, just as it's not legal to speed). My car is capable of 120mph or more, and although I do occasionally drive faster than the speed limit, I consider myself a safe and responsible driver.

Rich :¬)

[BenW]

why has nobody mentioned electronic speed limiting like what mercedes and bmw do?

All the devices can be disabled for trackdays etc but it doesn't limit aceleration or crusing speeds/rpms

[Stoo]

yeah, they're limited to 155mph.. so that's.. useful

[Moby-Dick]

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

I think Jiff is about to ask for you hand in marriage

I'd be happy with a car that went like stink up to 90 ( ok so I'm pushig the limilts here )

but was FUN to drive - modern cars feel so sterile

[turkster]

What about something like a Caterham 7. They accelerate like hell but they dont go fast very well because of dubious aerodynamics.
For general use a car that accelerates quick and makes you feel the power (like a Caterham) is what you want. Speeding is all very well but it is hardly something that most of us do on a regular basis and it is very unlikely that we will ever get anywhere near the potential speeds of most sports cars etc on a public road unless one is very foolhardy . TBH I would be in favour of an electronic speed limiter that would limit you to 70-80mph and could be dissabled on track days etc. I dont know how feasible that would be though.

Incidentally what is the purpose of the speed limiters on BMWs etc?

[Angus]

What about something like a Caterham 7. They accelerate like hell but they dont go fast very well because of dubious aerodynamics.
For general use a car that accelerates quick and makes you feel the power (like a Caterham) is what you want. Speeding is all very well but it is hardly something that most of us do on a regular basis and it is very unlikely that we will ever get anywhere near the potential speeds of most sports cars etc on a public road unless one is very foolhardy . TBH I would be in favour of an electronic speed limiter that would limit you to 70-80mph and could be dissabled on track days etc. I dont know how feasible that would be though.

Incidentally what is the purpose of the speed limiters on BMWs etc?

I presume the purpose of the limiters is so that cars can't do stupid speeds on the autobahns.

Stops people being REALLY stupid elsewhere as well.

[dkmech]

To stop you doing silly speed that you are unlikely to be able to handle? To show to the government that you are not selling the car on speed alone.

My 106 is quite fun to drive when light, and it will only do 99mph. But i have to say that with 3 people + luggage going up a hill in north wales - 2nd gear is the highest you can go But its nippy and fun round town.

On an unrelated note - Craig Charles looks really annoying in this ****ty program. Best switch tv over.