I’m quite often annoyed by specs that I see for cars, or indeed cars that I see when I am out and about. If something booms past me, inevitably it’ll be going in excess of the speed limit. Now emergency aside, why?
Let’s look at this from another angle. Plenty of cars that go quite fast have a limiter set at 155mph. Why? That is more than double the legal speed on any UK road. Frankly, you’ll probably never even use that speed on a track (they tend to have corners too y’see). You could go to an aerodrome and fly away. Would you though?
That leaves fast acceleration. Now, that can and is used by lots of people. Races at the lights for instance. I don’t go in for that anymore and a lot of people don’t once they’ve been driving a while. If you’re in that much of a hurry, then be my guest.
This brings us to why people REALLY buy fast cars. Status. Plain and simple. It’s the ‘mine’s faster than yours’ that does it. More to the point, it’s a truism. It probably is faster. But you know what, it’s only you that’s bothered, because on a track I could probably beat you anyway.
You know how to press the ‘loud’ pedal hard but you DON’T know where an apex of a turn is, what your max torque and power outputs or or probably even how to change your oil and check your pressures without using your in-car gauge. So, sod off. Whilst you’re at it, go get caught doing 110mph down the A1.
sammy says
February 12, 2009 at 4:26 pmi think u are right
Mr Butterscotch says
February 12, 2009 at 8:30 pmHi Sammy,
Thanks for the comment. I’d like to think I’m right, but my next car is likely to be faster than my current one, so perhaps that makes me a bit of a hypocrite?!!
Ian says
February 14, 2009 at 1:38 pmThis reminded me of a Sunday Times article a while back (I can’t find the link) about whether you save any time from speeding.
2 reporters drove from London to Strasbourg – one driving at the speed limit, the other speeding.
The guy who sped got there about 30 minutes before the non-speeder. Which represented about a 5% gain in time… but he also got a hefty speeding ticket from the French police.
Mr Butterscotch says
February 14, 2009 at 6:49 pmHi Ian,
Any idea of how much the ticket was? Of course, if you’re in a genuine hurry and you have the cash to spare (and it doesn’t cost you any license points) then you could probably do a calculation to find out how valuable those 30 minutes were to you…
Then again, 5% is not very much.
Ian says
February 15, 2009 at 1:52 pmSorry, Mr Butterscotch, I’ve tried again but still can’t find the link to the article.
I’m afraid I can’t remember how much the fine was but he was caught doing over 100mph so I imagine it was fairly hefty – picked up by the Times no doubt.
The whole article was based around research done by the University of Jerusalem that found it was all but impossible to gain more than 4-5% in time if you sped because of traffic conditions, red lights, twisty A roads etc.
If I find it, I’ll post the link here – and probably have to correct all the facts about it I’ve remember incorrectly 😉