why do cars go up to 140 mph when you cannot legally go that fast on any street???

Question

Makes no sense

Answer 1

THE ACTUAL ANSWER:
any car can have the speed governing chip removed and it can be run on a dragstrip, race track or other closed course. 90% of the cars will go faster than the governing chips allow. and you can choose to take the chip out to race. or to tempt fate on the highway. my vw will do 174.

Answer 2

I do not know what nation you live in Mister, but automobiles are sold for people in many nations, and states within nations, where the rules are different. Germany has autobahns where you can do 200 mph or higher, if your auto is capable of it. Brazil has speed limits way higher than those in USA. Canada has a few that are a little higher than USA. Inside USA, the different states have rules under the guidelines of the US federal system, with one exception. Oklahoma has refused to accept any federal funds for its highways and thus is not bound by the federal strings attached, so they have speed limits of 80 and above on some highways. Most of the USA has 65 mph top speed on major highways, 55 on minor ones. The issue is not what the speedometer goes up to, but what the car is capable of going up to. Let's suppose it was like you said ... buy a car whose speedometer goes up to 60 mph. A person could still drive the car at 100 mph. The speedometer woulld go up to 60 then hang there, stuck as high as it can go, while the car actually much faster. Once upon a time I was in a hiway warriers situation where I was the chicken trying to get away from people who were attacking other drivers with their cars. I put car in reverse to try to get away from them ... at one point I was driving, I would estimate 40 mph backwards. I noticed that the odometer did not move backwards or forwards, and the speedometer read zero. I don't know if this would be true for all cars. My point is that the speedometer is not a governor that says you can't go over the limit shown on the guage, it is just a system for measuring what you are doing. It can be inaccurate, and it has limitations.

Answer 3

Because this is what sells.

It they were to place a governor on cars to limit their speed, it would only create a market to disable them.

Most production cars already have speed limiters on them. The manufacturers generally limit the speed to the speed rating of the tires installed at the factory. Most American cars are limited to 115 MPH. But there are aftermarket devices to remove this limit.
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If they made a car that only went 55 MPH, no one would buy it. Face it, the manufacturers build cars to make money. If they didn't, they wouldn't be in business for long. So they build what sells for the most profit.

They also need to allow enough reserve power to make the car drivable. You need to allow for different loads, hills, towing, on ramps, etc. You wouldn't want the engine to be running at maximum capacity all the time. The engine would only last a short time. Race cars run at maximum speed and the engine only lasts for 500 - 600 miles. Not acceptable for a production car. Instead they have the engines running at about 20% of their capacity so they last over 100,000 miles.

Answer 4

Just because your spedometer says 140 doesn't mean it can actually go 140. Most cars whose spedometers say 140 can probably actually only go about 110 at most. Lots of cars can't even go that fast, I know my buddy has a Ford Taurus that tops out at about 85. As for why cars go faster than the speed limit, speed limits in different places are different. BMW makes cars different for the U.S. and Europe in terms of what side the driver is on, however the engine is still the same and on the Autobon in Europe there's no speed limit. It would cost more money to make two different types of cars.

Answer 5

speed sells.people like having loads of extra power.some people drag race at night on the highway.people like speed and power.dodge has built a car with over 700 HP and no one will ever need that but it is a major selling point.cars today make the 1970 chevelle ss with 450 HP look like a turtle and that car had a top speed of 138 mph and todays cars can hit 170 and plus mph.people like having crazy horse power and if you have enough money you can get a car with 1500+ HP.

Answer 6

How Fast Do Cars Go

Answer 7

1. Because there are streets you can go that fast (Autobahn)
2. Because there are non-streets you can go that fast (race tracks)
3. Because people feel that it is safer to be able to go faster to escape problems and no body can agree on what is the right amount of faster.
4. Because Congress had problems enforcing the 55 mph limit and lacks the guts to require that cars be limited to 80 or 90.
5. Because if cars were limited to 80 or 90, the auto industry would go berserk and those people most dangerous on the road would quickly know how to bypass the governor.

Answer 8

Same reason you can buy a set of eight steak knives and either eat a steak or kill someone. You can also buy a bow and arrow and either shoot at a paper target or kill your neighbor's barking dog. You can buy a shotgun and either fire at a clay pidgeon, or you can kill a bank teller and take the money. You can also go to Home Depot and buy some gopher poison and either pour it down the gopher hole or mix it with your nagging wife's coffee. Life is full of choices. Not all of them are legal or healthy. But since it's a free country, you can make them. Until you get caught, at least.

Answer 9

Excellent point! This is because the automobile market is driven by the consumer, and the vast majority of people would rather have a powerful personal automobile than worry about environmental concerns. We humans are very spoiled and self-centered and tend to satisfy our own vanities rather than seriously consider the future of all mankind. And since consumers are also voters - no politician is going to get very far passing laws to 'power-down' our cars and trucks.

Answer 10

If all cars were equipped with the same horsepower, engine size, and the inability to go over 70mph, we'd all be driving Kia Rios or Hyundai Accents.

Travis and Mad Jack pretty much summed it up.

Answer 11

If you legally drag race or in Germany on the auto bond they are allowed to go as fast as they want and we do sell American cars to the Germans. Besides that I'd say population control.