It is not unusual. This is the same in most other countries,
As some of you may recall, my motor vehicle is a silver Hyundai i20 called Clint. When driving him along, I stick strictly to the speed limits in built-up areas. However, when out on the motorways I confess that I will sometimes push Clint's speed up to 80mph. Thousands of drivers do the same. This is also not unusual.
As it happens, a Hyundai i20 is very capable of travelling at 116mph. That is its official top speed even though Clint's speedometer suggests a maximum of 220mph.
Clint is an ordinary, economical car manufactured for the mass market like all of his siblings. However, many car models are souped-up and styled like racing cars. At the top of this page you can see the fastest road car in the world. It is produced in Sweden. It is the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut which has a top speed of 310mph and incidentally will set you back £2.3 million.
310mph is well over four times Britain's maximum speed limit so I simply ask, what the hell is the point of owning such a car? Legally, you will never be able to test the car's capacity for speed.
On the one hand you have governments, the police and road safety organisations urging drivers to stick to the speed limits. On the other hand, you have car makers producing cars that possess the ability to totally smash designated speed restrictions.
What is going on? Surely manufacturers should be warned in no uncertain terms not to make cars that tempt fate with regard to speed. It is very easy to blame drivers but surely car makers are largely to blame for selling cars that encourage drivers to go fast - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi, Porsche, Bugatti. McLaren - but also the mass market producers - Ford, Kia, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Toyota and the rest.
If "they" were really serious about addressing speed on our roads, "they" would ban the production of souped-up racing cars and even common cars like Clint would not have the ability to go beyond 100mph.
There are men and women who go all starry-eyed about speedy motor cars and for some, owning such a vehicle is perhaps their prime goal in life. - their dream. I am not one of those people. Usually, I do not think about cars very much at all and I am not even slightly interested in the Formula One circus nor car programmes like "Top Gear".
To me, cars should be all about getting people efficiently from point A to point B, preferably burning as little fuel as possible, not speeding along like a racing driver. There - I have said my bit. What do you think?
I agree with your bit. Following speed limits would also help with climate change.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. Speedy cars burn up more than their fair share of fossil fuels.
DeleteI once got my car up to 100 mph, but in reality I am a speed limit guy, or maybe up to five miles over that!
ReplyDeleteOh you devil!
DeleteI am not a fan of super fast cars and can certainly think of a better use for the $2.3 milion.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Like building a luxury mansion for Elsie River?
DeleteOf course not! A smaller home with a yard for vegetables and education allowances for the twins.
DeleteYou know what I think of cars. Useful but dangerous and bad for the environment. Whenever I can, I walk or use public transport, but I know that my mountain hiking holidays with O.K. would not be possible (at least not in such a convenient way) if he didn't own a car, and our long-distance relationship would probably not have come about without his car, either.
ReplyDeleteSo often in urban traffic jams there will be just one person in each car. This seems so wrong and so wasteful of fossil fuels too.
DeleteI agree with you about limiting speed, but I am not sure people really buy cars to travel at high speeds for long periods, perhaps only on an unrestricted autobahn. I think they like them for their style and especially, the acceleration. I see and hear them, 0 km/h to the speed restriction of 40/25 in two seconds. There will always be Mrs Wong in her Toyota Camry to slow them down. Stereotyping yes, but quite true.
ReplyDeleteWhy do these cars even have the capacity to travel at high speeds? It's like giving someone an automatic rifle but telling them that they can't use it.
DeleteI try to use public transport or walk most of the time, except when having to travel to places with no bus service. I haven't driven my car for three years now and am not sure I want to any more.
ReplyDeleteMost people associate The Isle of Man with speed - racing motorcycles whining into corners and of course countless deaths too.
DeleteI have a red i20, without a name, it's a good car for me, does everything I require, which sometimes includes up to 80 on the motorway.
ReplyDeleteYour car needs a name! How about Maureen?
DeleteI agree, and I have never understood the thrill of motorsports and high speed.
ReplyDeleteIt is mostly a male/testosterone thing that I do not share.
DeleteAgree.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, YP. A car is a bit of tin with a wheel at each corner to get you fr om A to B. I have never hankered after an expensive model just to show off. My trusty Hyundai i10 does me proud. In my bit of London there are speed restrictions of 20 miles per hour and I must confess I find that hard to keep to. It is so refreshing when I can reach a 30mph area and give it welly.
ReplyDelete30 mph! Wow! You need "Go Faster" stripes on the bodywork.
DeleteThe first time I drove over 100 miles per hour, was in 1990 in a nearly new Honda Accord - thankfully I didn't get caught, the second time was on the Autobahn in Germany in 2015 I was going about 110 when the Porsche passed me.
ReplyDeleteAmerican patrolmen seem pretty keen on nailing speedsters. I was caught twice over there on the same holiday. Once in Georgia and the second time in northern Florida. It taught me a lesson.
DeleteWe have so many rude drivers on the road these days. Speeding, cutting people off, tailgating, taking illegal shortcuts up the shoulder of the road or running red lights. It's a terrible selfish mindset.
ReplyDeleteI bet they all came over the southern border illegally.
Deleteabsolutely not...
DeleteOh, my husband does love a fast car. And yet, he drives a Toyota as his main vehicle, has some old trucks for hauling things, sticks quite close to the speed limit. But I am sure there was drag racing when he was a boy. I don't understand it but isn't that the way with many things that others may love and we don't care a thing about? Football, for example? I see no sense in it at all and yet it brings you much joy. It's a little like racing, I think. You aren't out on the pitch, playing, but you love to watch others do it. Racing shows are like that too, I guess.
ReplyDeleteNow, as to cars being able to exceed the speed limit many times over- I have no idea why that's allowed.
Liking football or not liking it doesn't really matter because either way you are not going to kill anybody... but speeding cars, that's different.
DeleteI try to keep to the speed limit but sometimes catch myself joining in with the speeders. Driving defensively here is a given for most of us, the crazies are out there causing mayhem.
ReplyDeleteRemember Dick Dastardly from "The Wacky Races"? Perhaps you should change your name to Deb Dastardly!
DeleteOn most of my car journeys these days I rarely travel far enough to build up any speed!
ReplyDeleteI do like a comfortable car, but have to agree with Addy's description. Lately the town has started to erect the digital speeding signs, red for over the speed limit and green for within the limit. Earlier this week I was happily cruising at about 27 kms (in a 30km area) when an electric scooter overtook me and the digital display shot up to something like 35 kms!
Perhaps you should swap your car for an electric scooter Carol.
DeleteCars are just a means of getting from A to B as far as I'm concerned. They are also a way of bringing produce back from the allotment and carting logs home.
ReplyDeleteMy grandad and great uncle shared a car. It was the only one on the road where they lived. How times have changed.
Do A & B stand for Accrington and Burnley?
DeleteI share your opinion about cars -- I do not have a "need for speed." But I suppose there are some areas where you could speed-test a car like that one at the top of the page. I believe drivers do it on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, for example. (I have no idea what the regulations might be or how they go about it, but I'm pretty sure they've broken the sound barrier out there.)
ReplyDeleteI've been in a car at over 100 mph only once in a my life, and it was when I was a teenager, and I'm glad I didn't die.
Well - I am also glad you didn't die because if you had "Shadows and Light" would never have existed!
DeleteI suspect that there are two factors at play here - the perennial human need to test the limits (fastest car/greyhound etc, tallest skyscraper etc) and the equally perennial human need to show off - my (fill in the blank) is bigger/faster/shinier whatever than yours. As for speed limits, I have almost never felt any need to drive at 70mph or faster - I plan my journeys to allow time for unforeseen delays and for me the extra fuel costs in no way compensate for the marginal time saving. My biggest complaint about speed limits is with the proliferation of 20mph zones, usually justified on the basis of lower pollution, but with my car I can easily achieve 60+mpg on unobstructed 30mph roads, but can get less tan 30mpg on most 20mph roads, with all of the stops/start and slow down and speed up involved, so much more pollution generated.
ReplyDeleteYou seem very sensible Will!
DeleteI looked up what a Hyundai i20 looks like as that model isn't sold in the USA. Do you in England still use miles? I thought you used kilometers. Maybe both?
ReplyDeleteGreat Britain still uses miles for distance and speed. We don't even have kilometres on our road signs. My kids use grams and kilograms but people of my generation still use stones, pounds and ounces.
DeleteThanks for enlightening me about miles vs. kilometers. When I was in the UK last, I was in a tour group and I never had to drive, so I didn't pay any attention to the road signs.
Deleteif you wanna drive a race car go drive it on a race track - stay away from me and my family, thanks....... cars are a tool to be used to get from here to there...... we wouldn't need half as many safety features and "advancements" if they were all made to do just that one job!! It's a bit like the right to bear arms, innit? Just cos you have the right to own one doesn't mean you gotta go buy the biggest one to beat the guy who runs into you in a smaller one?
ReplyDeleteYou make that point strongly and the link is very valid in my opinion.
DeleteI don't do well with things that require a lot of special attention and maintenance. So I appreciate the fact that there are others who apparently do and they purchase and drive (hopefully responsibly) such specialized cars. I get to look at their cars and appreciate the design, engineering, and object qualities. My needs are for a vehicle that is reliable, comfortable, safe, and maintainable.
ReplyDeleteWill Jay