Why not ban high performance cars?

C

Captain_Crunch

Club Ninja
Valued Senior Member
You cant use your car to drive faster than 70mph legally, given that not many car owners take their high performance cars to track days and the government's hard line on speed with all their cameras and what not, why on earth do they sell high performance cars that can go in excess of 120mph?

Its like their banking on you to go faster than the speed limit so they can fine you and tax your petrol guzzling monstrosity. Why not just put a speed restrictor on every car in Britain so it would be impossible to go faster than the limit?

Whats peoples views on this?
 
Well, I would gladly take one of those high performance cars. 120 mph is not that fast. You know, we don´t have speed limits everywhere here in Germany.
 
I agree schumacher would win.

At least they have sense in Germany, where you can take your performance cars to the limits on the autobahn. I heard that the limitless autobahn could become extinct in a few years, is there alot of crashes on them?
 
Not really, but most people think it is a waste of gas. And harmful for the ozone layer and all that. But I doubt that our government will install a speed limit. 120 mph... I drove that fast when I trained for my drivers licence, not really such a high velocity if you ask me.
There are more accidents on the other streets, especially in the cities and out in the country on the winding roads, but those have a speed limit :rolleyes:
But I think we can go on driving as fast as we can for a few decades yet.
 
Speed limits cause accidents. I would be so happy If i could drive to the maximum possible with my car on a motorway and not be scared of prosecution. Its your birthright to drive as fast as you can, I see it as that.
 
It´s fun to just step on the pedal and keep it down for some hundred kilometers. Of course, you need a high amount of gas for that...and it doesn´t come cheap :(
 
Oh; and by the way.... road accidents = Portugal's #1 cause of death...

any faster and we'll be a quickly extinct race [Probably a good thing...]
 
Captain_Crunch said:
Why not just put a speed restrictor on every car in Britain so it would be impossible to go faster than the limit?
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Why not just put thought restictors in everyones brain?
 
The irony about autobahns is that they have less deaths caused by accidents compared to the UK.

A scheme I thought up was to put sensors all over the country everywhere there is a speed limit imposed. These sensors would send a signal to any passing car and would restrict the cars speed. So if a car goes from a 40 zone to a 30 zone, the car loses a little power. Unless someone mods the car, it won't be breaking any limits. But this would be difficult to implement and costly.
 
A lower death rate on German roads than on UK roads isn't ironic. Irony: when the actual outcome is in opposition to, and in mockery of, the intended outcome.

Low death rates have always been foremost in the minds of German highway engineers, so it certainly isn't in opposition to the intended outcome.
More likely it is because German drivers training is rigorous, and they do not just issue a drivers license to anyone who registers a pulse at the German equivalent of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles the way they do here in the states.

I've not heard of any cases of German senior citizens mowing down pedestrians because they confused the brake pedal with the accelerator. It is a regular occurence here in the US.

Their way is better in my opinion.
 
Erm...it is ironic. Speed limits were imposed to lower accidents and deaths...so if autobahns have no speed limit and has a lower accident and death rate...isn't that ironic? Yes, yes it is.
 
Just as info, you train and study about 4 to 6 months (in average) until you can try to aquire your drivers licence. And from what I have heard, you get a drivers licence veeeeeery easy over in the US. (That´s why not all US drivers licences are acknowledged here in Germany. Depends on the state as far as I know.)
 
And from what I have heard, you get a drivers licence veeeeeery easy over in the US.
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Yup, just turn your head and cough. :p

Seriously, the last time I went in for a test, I basically read the tiny booklet the night before, then reread it while waiting for a test computer to open up. I got 100% correct. Hell, I think there were less than 30 questions even. It's ridiculously easy.
 
Thor said:
Erm...it is ironic. Speed limits were imposed to lower accidents and deaths...so if autobahns have no speed limit and has a lower accident and death rate...isn't that ironic? Yes, yes it is.
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Speed limits imposed on UK roads may have lowered traffic deaths. Without the accompanying culture/regulatory structure that Germany has, the likelyhood is that a no maximum speed law would only make things worse in the UK.
They (speed limits) certainly weren't omitted from certain German highways with the intent of increasing injuries and deaths, or indifference to same the way that some would imply.

So in my opinion, safety on German roads relative to other countries isn't ironic. It is the predictable outcome of a superior system.

If you had evidence that imposing speed limits (or lowering ones that were previously in place) had the effect of increasing accidents/fatalities, then yes, that would be precisely ironic.

Though I would like to see our regulatory agencies adopt policies more in line with the German ones here in the US, our attitudes are still too irresponsible.
 
Performance is not just high speed. The same things that make cars safer, also make them faster on the racetrack. Things like low center of gravity and firm shocks prevent rollovers, and increase handling to avoid accidents. Having lots of power can prevent an accident, it can accelerate you out of a dangerous zone. Sticky tires are also a safety measure. Speed restrictors work on the rpm's, I think, and in lower gear, you might need to rev high- often, that's where the power band is.
 
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