Why do cars have a max speed potential which is double the speed limit?

Question

If all cars were made with a max speed of 80mph this would stop speeding and possibly prevent accidents/loss of life. I mean what's the point in a car being able to travel 160mph?

Answer 1

For a car to have 'performance' it has to have room at the top. This means that a car with a top speed of 150 will perform far better at 70 than a car with a top speed of 80.

There is no point in limiting cars because then you are paying for engine you dont use and making smaller engines will be less fuel economical as they will have to rev harder / wear out quicker to produce the upper speeds.

As others have said speed limits vary also.

Most of the accidents around happen in towns and cities with idiots driving at 60 in 30 zones .. more focus should be put on this as relatively few accidents happen on the long motorway stretches.

Answer 2

Most accidents happen near the home, at much lower speeds than the maximum. Where there are high speed accidents there are also other issues like tiredness or drugs / alcohol. or poor skill that are more influential. Add to that, that for safety reasons, it is necessary to be able to use acceleration to be able to get out of situations (not necessarily of your own making) and you have part of the answer.

In, say, a 50 limit then a car must be able to do 70, to give a safety margin - slowing down isn't always the right response. Once it is recognised that you have to have cars with more capability that is legally allowed then you get a free-market arms race: yours must be "better" to sell. Speed is easily quantifiable, comfort and safety less so.

Finally, as other have said, there are some roads with higher limits, and some with no limits.

Actually, that wasn't the last thing. There is a principle in safety management called "risk maintenance". This is a psychological principle that each individual will have there own level of acceptable risk. If you make things safer in one way then driver behaviour will alter to bring the risk back up again. So, put ABS on cars and the drivers will go faster. If we force cars to go slower then the risk maintenance principle will mean that drivers will alter their driving to raise the risk again. This could mean more dangerous overtaking, driving too close, etc.

It is necessary to find a balance. One reason to bring more traffic police onto the roads is not to get people speeding, but to catch people who drive badly. It's bad driving that does the most damage, and the statistics show that most of that is well below the national speed limit. I accept that bad driving at speed will cause more bad driving that is slower - but the risk maintenance principle means that accidents wont go away.

Answer 3

Because there are some situations where there is simply no substitute for acceleration, A cars ability to quickly go from 60mph to 90 mph can be a lifesaver at times Case in point:You're driving on one of the high speed 2 lane roads of the US West such as US 89 or US 93 You're doing posted , you come up on an RV that is 10 mph below posted , you snap left and legally pull out into the oncoming traffic lane to pass the RV The name of the game is then simple ;the less time that you spend hanging-out in the oncoming traffic lane the safer you are The same situation happens on hills .If you can easily pass going uphill then life is good indeed

Answer 4

I agree, I can't see any point.

In some country's, there are no speed limits, (for example, on German motorways, any speeds are legal), but in my opinion, despite this, cars should not be given a top speed of 100mph, or even better yet, be limited per country, based on the maximum speed limit, (plus a percentage, in case the driver needs to accelerate to avoid a collision).

The only vehicles I should believe to be an exception to this are fire/rescue and paramedics, I believe police cars should be limited, though not as stricktly, (police cars cause 3x more RTA's whilst at speed than all of the other emergency services combined), also, in many cases, a speeding police car aggrivates the person they're persueing, and causes them to be even more reckless, thus increasing the chance of causing more fatalies on the road.

The problem is though, that any person could take the components out of an existing car and render the speed limiter helpless on any new vehicle, also, my father is a HGV driver, (lorry), and they are given a speed limit of 55mph, however, he has been able to jerry-rig the limiter and be able to break it, without the vehicles logs even showing this, (it will still show 55mph).
Because of these 2 reasons, I dubt a speed limiiter would be efficient or productive.

Answer 5

A car with a high top speed is working easily at a legal limit, say 70. I mean you wouldn't get a very efficient engine if it was flat out at that speed. Back in the 50s I had a firm's Ford van which had a limiter to make it go at 30 mph. There was a hill that I had to go up every day. This is the truth; the only way I could get up that hill, with the 3 speed gear box, was in reverse.

Answer 6

Its a good question. But from the beginning of time guys have been racing horses and or cars and trucks etc. Cars are all governed to a limit of MPH like in my 06 Dodge Magnum SRT 8 it cuts off at 166 or something.

But ur right the only cars that should be allowed to go over 80 is like police cars and or govt cars. However everyone who bought a car would always take that limit out and make it so there car would go faster than 80 MPH. Just look at the billion dollar industry with after market parts. I know I would want my car to be able to go faster than 80. If I didn't care then I would of bought a cheep *** Honda and not a 425 hp Hemi.

Answer 7

1. Some cars do have limiters, eg BMWs are limited to 155mph even though some (note, only SOME) autobahns are unrestricted
2. Acceleration not outright speed is the issue, quicker accelerating cars allow drivers to overtake more quickly, eg lorries, learners, bikes, slow old people, people who worry about car maximum speeds
3. Rates of death on German (unrestricted) autobahns per mile travelled are no higher than in UK, it's down to driver skills, training, weather condition, etc.
4. Faster cars tend to have better brakes to slow them from high velocities, therefore when driven at 'normal' UK speeds, they actually stop quicker. They also handle better so are less likely to be involved in an accident at 'normal' speeds
5. Yes I do have speeding convictions, yes I do have kids and no I don't drive a fast car (although I have owned them)
6. But yes, there is a macho thing here too. Note that manufacturers are not allowed to advertise top speeds in the UK.
7. What happens in the event of an emergency, eg a crash next to you on the motorway, and you want to accelerate away from it to avoid being hit? If speed's restricted...you can't
8. I do see your point

Answer 8

Dear ˈaɪɚn bru.Because of importation and exportation it would make the cars more expensive to buy if they all had different speed limits. Germany has no real speed limits on it's auto bar. French has speed limits of 130Klm's on there auto route. and England has a 70mph on the motorways. It would not be in the interest of the manufactures to develop cars with different speed limits. Just because you by a car that can do 160 doesn't mean you have to be a fool and drive so fast. Good Luck....David

Answer 9

Car engines are most efficent, work easier and last longer if they are designed to cruise in the middle of their power range.
So designing a car that can do 160 will not be redlining at 80, whereas a car designed for an absolute maximum speed of 80 will be doing 7000rpm in 5th. That will trash the engine very quickly.

As you get faster, acceleration also suffers, with a car designed to do just 80 it might take more then a minute to get to 80 and you dont want that when you are trying to join a motorway on short slip road.

A more sensible option is to introduce electronic limiters on current engine standards to limit speed to 80 with no loss in acceleration or no excessive engine wear from high revs.
This limiter could possibly have an option of being able to be disabled for track days or something so that if you buy a performance car, it doesnt affect you enjoying it in a safe environment.

Answer 10

Creating Powerful cars are not much different from creating any other man made technologies of the 21st century. We Humans are making our lives complicated by making things that we do not need. The logic of making everyday lives easier by creating all the machines that take over the hard tasks is just as dumb as creating all the machines & technologies or even medicines to remove fat from people who loafed their arses pressing the remote or driving instead of standing to switch the TV or Walking to short destinations. Not trying to be righteous, of course there are good uses to different things. Its how its being used. Finally the answer to the question about cars is that, these are all marketing & financial gain reasons. Car Manufacturers would want to come up with a status symbol to proove that their product is better than the other. Depending on what suits the purchasing power of a population. So is the same with any other product. Now someone driving a Ferrari would have a really bloated ego than the one driving a Fiat Punto. All the same, will take them to the same destination, considering your speed limits. Now if this is not really the reason. I would say VANITY is next in line.

Answer 11

The main reason is to sell cars. There really is no reason they can't limit the speed on any car made today. With the computer technology in today's cars they could all be limmited. However the guy that's out for gas milage is always going to buy a small low horse power car. The guy that just wants to go fast is always going to buy a high horse power car.

If all cars were limitted to 80 MPH, the American car manufacturers would go out of business very quickly. Everyone knows that the quality in a Japanese made car that will do 100 MPH is much better than an American made car that will only do 100mph. Just as the quality and performance of a European sports car, far exedes anything made in America. Bottom line is it's all about the allmighty dollar, not safety or performance or anything else.