I think the big thing is acceleration, if you've ever tried a motorcycle you'll understand.
Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#22To sell them to people who want to go fast or want to have the possibility to go fast, but it also used to be for technical reasons.
Most cars have a gaz engine and the efficiency of a gaz engine is not linear. To simplify, an engine often has its best efficiency around 2000rpm and can rotate as fast as 6500rpm but it will then waste a lot of energy, mostly in heat. You want the engine to operate at its best efficiency when you drive normally. So you design the gearbox accordingly, to get 2000rpm at 130km/h for example. But the engine can rotate faster, and therefore you can drive faster than the speed limit.
You can limit how fast the engines rotates, most engines do have a limit around 6500rpm, but if you limit the rotation speed, the cars will lack a lot of power. The power is the torque of the engine (how strong it can rotate) multiplied by the rotation speed. So limiting the rotation speed is quite a problem. Many people prefer to buy powerful cars. They don't even know about the torque.
You could limit how fast the engine rotates once you reach the speed limit, but for a long time this kind of technology was quite complex and expensive. Nowadays, since maybe 25 years, it's totally fine and cheap to do so. Some German brands put an electronic at 250km/h on their fast cars for example.
With electric cars it's another story and while most don't go very fast, mine goes up to 150km/h for example, some are fast only to sell them to people who want fast cars.
Today we could definitely put a limit at the legal speed limit, based on GPS and map data and for example, but many people would complain and some would buy a car without the limit. I think the only solution is to force all the constructors to do implement a speed limit at the same time.
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#23Can't remember where I read this but IIRC it's not a healthy for a machine to constantly run at 100%, hence you make an engine with a peak performance of 200mph which constantly runs at a cosy speed of 100mph.
Good point.
Fossil cars are also more efficient at lower RPMs. Designing the gears such that they can cruise at highway speeds with low RPMs incidentally allows the cars to go way past speed limits as well, if they have enough extra power.
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#24It isn't illegal everywhere.
Acceleration is a big part of the enjoyment of fast cars. That's not usually illegal.
Also, having better acceleration can help reduce the 'time exposed to danger' when overtaking, which may still be below the local speed limit. Faster cars can be safer, see...
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#25Why do they make keyboards that can type hate crime? Why do they make cameras that can shoot child porn? This is possibly the worst question I've seen in this site.
Your answer is wrong and insulting, Since you probably know most new cars have optional speed limit and GPS then it is very logical to ask why not make them opt-out then opt-in.
Now you could attempt to give a fair answer why you think this is hard to implement correctly or why is a bad idea.
Also we could theoretically install something that can detect if the driver is tired,drunk or not paying attention. There is no requirement that police or government must be involved , maybe in some countries you can implement and solve this with free market , insurance and all that good capitalistic/freedom stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#26Is it? I can legally drive at any speed on most highways around me, and yes I do drive 260 km/h daily (fifth year without any accident btw).
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#271) There are different speed limits on different roads. If you put an artificial limit on how fast your car could go, it would still go illegally fast on slower roads.
2) Speed limits change. It would be a hassle (understatement of the week) to update every single car.
3) As others have said, you can always drive legally on private tracks.
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#28Can't remember where I read this but IIRC it's not a healthy for a machine to constantly run at 100%, hence you make an engine with a peak performance of 200mph which constantly runs at a cosy speed of 100mph.
Though for a diesel engine, at least, it's also not healthy always to run at 50% - there's been a significant problem in recent years with boat-owners on UK waterways over-specifying the engine they need for low-speed cruising, and suffering glazed bores as a result. http://coxeng.co.uk/engine/bore-glazing-and-polishing-in-die...
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#29Tracks, private roads, autobahns, dynos, plenty of places to go fast legally. Not to mention the extra power goes towards faster acceleration, not just top speed. The same force that gets you an extra 10mph top speed also works to get you from from 0-60mph that much faster.
Of course, street-legal automobiles could simply be governed with a top speed of the fastest legal speed limit in a given region.
How do you imagine this working for someone who drives across Europe frequently, including sections of unrestricted Autobahn? Or someone who takes their street legal car onto (private) tracks from time to time?
Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?
#30Tracks, private roads, autobahns, dynos, plenty of places to go fast legally. Not to mention the extra power goes towards faster acceleration, not just top speed. The same force that gets you an extra 10mph top speed also works to get you from from 0-60mph that much faster.
Especially Autobahn in Germany is interesting. Generally there is no speed limit, but something called "Richtgeschwindigkeit" (the advised speed you should go, which is 130km/h). But there ARE speed limits on most parts of the Autobahn (construction sites are generally limited to 60 or 80km/h, dangerous sections, etc. so it's often limited to 100-140 km/h). Sections without speed limit are a lot of fun and created a…
As someone living near a luxury car rental place (but in a country with a national speed limit), I want to point out that the main target audience for renting Lamborghinis and Ferraris isn't passionate drivers.
It's 28 year old males with money and no sense of self-worth. There are regularly reports of people doing nothing but driving up and down a nice street downtown. Flooring it from red light to red light, dropping the clutch on every gear change. All. Day.
The completely unrelated question I would like to ask is "Why is it allowed to show your middle finger to random people on the street, but as soon as they're in a car, it's a crime?"