my car's gonna have a speedo that goes to light speed.

I wonder why the government hasn't enacted speed limiters yet though, sure enthusiasts will cry, but then they can just sign a release form to their insurance company for when they wrap it around a pole.

 

I remember in high school when people where getting their first car how high your spedometer went was viewed as directly proportional to how fast the car was.

 

Yep. Same people also seemed to believe that manuals were always faster than autos no matter what else... like a manual silverado would beat an automatic z28. Or at least be a very close race.

 

I think this goes with the redline argument. My car won't let me go over the redline, but there are still numbers past it.

Anyone think that a lower speedometer would really curtail speeding?

 

So an 85mph speedometer would made sense in my S-10

 

My '88 Fiero also has a bold tick mark at 55 mph. I don't know if that was part of this legislation.

 

I always thought the US cars were "underrated" by their speedometer and the European cars were overrated.

For example, my parents 1984 Audi 5000 turbo has a speedometer up to 260 km/h (or 160 mph). That car would never hope to see it.

My 1993 Audi 100 also had a speedometer up to 260 km/h or maybe even 280 km/h. Again, it would never see it with its puny 2.8L V6.

The current 2001 Audi has the same speedo, and I think is the only car capable of coming close. If I'm correct, its speed is limited to 255 km/h, meaning it should be capable of that speed.

Anyhow. Now on to the US cars.

My dad's 1985 Oldsmobile Calais had 140 km/h and I buried the needle.

My 1991 Beretta GTZ had 190 km/h speedo, and again, i buried the needle.

96 Z28 had 240 km/h, which I think it could do. I know I did 235 on it, then ran out of the road.

 

This brings up another question--with automotive performance and safety technology coming along as far as it has, why can't we raise speed limits?

One of the things I loved about my 2000 Z28 was that it had a 155mph speedometer, and you knew darn well the car could just about utilize all of it. I remember burying my foot in the carpet one day (on a closed track, of course) and just letting 'er rip. I stopped looking at the speedo at 130, but held my foot in it a little longer.

Conversely, when I hopped behind the wheel of my '97 S10 Blazer, and it only had a 100mph speedo, and going 75 looked like the speedo was in warp-drive...I always thought that was kind of lame.

 

How about a return to personal responsibility? If you choose the gigantic portions at McDonalds, it's your fault your *** gets fat. If you decide you have to try to max out a 160 MPH speedometer, it's your fault and you are responsible when you cause an accident. We need more will power and personal responsibility in this country, not more regulations that limit what is available to us in a lame attempt to psychologically influence human behavior.

 

The roadways and vehicles may be better, but driver training ain't that great. Anybody can get a license fairly easily.

In Germany a driver's license is much more difficult to get and they cost a lot more also.

 

So Chicago traffic will cruise at 100mph instead of 85mph.

 

Not to be too cynical here, but it's all about revenue, plain and simple.

Speed limits for the most part haven't changed since the 1950s, when cars handled and stopped about as well as ox carts. Most freeways even back then were designed for speeds of 70 mph, so there's no doubt 75 or 80 mph is easily within the range of safety nowadays. But then there'd be precious few speeding fines to fill government coffers, and a reduction in revenue of any kind is hugely unpalatable to any politician looking to spend his way into office. Since it's an 'avoidable' tax, and since since the media have been very successful in painting "speeding" as a danger all unto itself, there hasn't been the political will to make any further changes to speed limits.

 

its not our govn't job to tell them what to do.

"you know what grinds my nerves" - peter


EDIT: to the origional question, not whats above... someone needs to

 

Your going 160 mph, if a cop passes you at 160, and hes going 55 thats like you passing a cop on the side of the road at 215mph, hes not gonna catch you, or even come close. Just something to think about. lol

On topic, our ford ranger was registerd for 120mph, top speed was about 95~ downhill.

 

What if there's another cop right down the road that he radios to?

What if he's waiting way down the road, sees me coming and pulls out half a mile before I get to him to start building up speed?

Then there's the safety factor too... I think I'm just getting too old and too married to be doing stuff that unsafe/stupid.