How fast is fast enough?

[Mactech]

I've just been reading of the Lotus Evija which does 0 - 200mph in 13 secs.

This ELECTRIC car just ripped up Autocar's road test record book - it leaves the McLaren F1 for dust! | Autocar

Thirty odd years ago the Autocar tests meant a great deal to me as they tested a a car I had developed that became the very first to record a 150 to 170mph time in the confines of the mile straight at the Millbrook proving ground. I was also the first person to drive this car at over 200mph.


Autocar says of the Evija:
The Evija becomes only the third road-legal production car that Autocar has tested all the way to 200mph; which it cleared leaving plenty of room for braking within a measured mile. “We habitually figure cars over a standing kilometre as part of our road test benchmarking, in order that we’ve always got some safety margin” Saunders continued. “It’s rare, but not unknown, for road-legal cars to be doing more than 180mph at that point. But the Evija went past the kilometre marker at fully 217.4mph, already straining against its electronic speed limiter.”

The 217mph just happened to be the best speed we ever got to in the XJ220, but it needed the very large 8 mile oval in Texas (yes, everything is bigger there!) to achieve it.
I admit I own a car that will exceed the national speed limit (by 2.5 times!) and one that is limited to 93mph. I have never had to drive to or test those limits on public roads.
Do we really need road cars that can do these speeds? Or am I just getting too sensible with my old age?

 

[TC350]

I've just been reading of the Lotus Evija which does 0 - 200mph in 13 secs.

This ELECTRIC car just ripped up Autocar's road test record book - it leaves the McLaren F1 for dust! | Autocar

Thirty odd years ago the Autocar tests meant a great deal to me as they tested a a car I had developed that became the very first to record a 150 to 170mph time in the confines of the mile straight at the Millbrook proving ground. I was also the first person to drive this car at over 200mph.

View attachment 176396
Autocar says of the Evija:
The Evija becomes only the third road-legal production car that Autocar has tested all the way to 200mph; which it cleared leaving plenty of room for braking within a measured mile. “We habitually figure cars over a standing kilometre as part of our road test benchmarking, in order that we’ve always got some safety margin” Saunders continued. “It’s rare, but not unknown, for road-legal cars to be doing more than 180mph at that point. But the Evija went past the kilometre marker at fully 217.4mph, already straining against its electronic speed limiter.”

The 217mph just happened to be the best speed we ever got to in the XJ220, but it needed the very large 8 mile oval in Texas (yes, everything is bigger there!) to achieve it.
I admit I own a car that will exceed the national speed limit (by 2.5 times!) and one that is limited to 93mph. I have never had to drive to or test those limits on public roads.
Do we really need road cars that can do these speeds? Or am I just getting too sensible with my old age?

You buy a Bentayga then ask if you’re being too sensible? Not something that many will accuse you of.

You said that you’ve “never had to drive to or test [your cars’] limits on public roads.” The operative words there are “had to”. I once (just once) took my car to its electronic limit of 155 mph to check that it worked - or some such excuse. I certainly didn’t have to, but I wanted to.

Do we “need” high speed road cars? Absolutely not. But let’s face it, there’s very little that we really need. Life would be boring without wanting things and managing to have some of them.

 

[190]

Do we really need road cars that can do these speeds? Or am I just getting too sensible with my old age?

My need for speed has certainly diminished in my old age. Back in 1976 I had a Z900, which at the time was one of the fastest mass produced motorcycle (in a straight line). It did 0-60 in 4.5 secs. While at the time I couldn't imagine a need for anything faster, it now looks pedestrian compared to modern bikes. In between then and now there was what seemed a sensible 100 HP limit that came and went. It seems anything goes these days and in recent years you can look to Tesla for making EV acceleration fashionable with Ludicrous mode. Live and let live but high performance is no longer limited to a small minority of very expensive cars. Is 0-60 in 4 seconds safe for the average or sub average driver - I think not.

 

[Mactech]

You buy a Bentayga then ask if you’re being too sensible? Not something that many will accuse you of.

Agreed!
But from my perspective it makes a whole lot of sense. In addition to being a celebration of helping Bentley to their most recent Le Mans win and engineering a diesel land speed record, its also just happens to be one of the most comfortable and relaxing modes of long distance transport with room for family and dogs. 40mpg is quite sensible too.
The fact it is also very powerful and faster than you probably ever need on the road is an indulgence, but as as you rightly say, the want/need balance is very rarely aligned in automotive choice.

 

[SmartAmg]

Of course we don't need a 200 mph or over, car. Think that kind of speed is totally, irrelevant, on our roads, with our speed limits. Anyway, the vast majority of drivers are far more, interested in the 0-60
times. For the traffic light Grand Prix.
My X Power has "only" a 124 mph top speed, which I will never do, let alone 200 mph top speed. But the 0-60 is 3.5 secs.
which I do on a regular basis,
(only joking)

 

[chic0821]

Do we really need road cars that can do these speeds? Or am I just getting too sensible with my old age?

Yes & probably
In my early twenties, I loved Lotus. Had both Elan Sprint & Europa twin cam & everything had to be taken at the red line. Car in front of me maybe had a couple of car lengths between him & the car in front of him & I was past him. Stupidity, yes. My pal had a tuned Super Seven, acceleration unbelievable, but when he got to about 90mph it was like hitting a wall, but getting there, brilliant, no need to go any faster. Nowadays I hardly see anyone overtaking on normal roads. I now go with the flow, too many cameras & average speed jobbies only make it worse. I am now my dad.
If I was young now & had a 200mph in 13 secs Lotus

 

[Dippo]

The automotive industry seems to specialise in producing things the customer didn't realise they wanted or needed. Who would have guessed that we all wanted ultra low profile tyres fitted to enormous wheels, and were prepared to sacrifice ride comfort for the aesthetics. Or that we had all become colour blind, and only wanted our cars in shades of white, black and grey? Or that we be prepared to accept a much higher security risk, simply for the convenience of not putting a key in aa lock? Or that we all believed vinyl was now renamed vegan leather?

 

[Scott_F]

The automotive industry seems to specialise in producing things the customer didn't realise they wanted or needed. Who would have guessed that we all wanted ultra low profile tyres fitted to enormous wheels, and were prepared to sacrifice ride comfort for the aesthetics. Or that we had all become colour blind, and only wanted our cars in shades of white, black and grey? Or that we be prepared to accept a much higher security risk, simply for the convenience of not putting a key in aa lock? Or that we all believed vinyl was now renamed vegan leather?

Exactly the same people who decided that we all prefer a stupid undersized "spacesaver" or a pointless aerosol of foam instead of a proper spare wheel and jack.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Exactly the same people who decided that we all prefer a stupid undersized "spacesaver" or a pointless aerosol of foam instead of a proper spare wheel and jack.

And even if you do decide to buy a proper spare, there's no where to put it other than the boot.
I'm looking at you, BMW.

 

[Mactech]

Exactly the same people who decided that we all prefer a stupid undersized "spacesaver" or a pointless aerosol of foam instead of a proper spare wheel and jack.

I can understand that if people in the car industry study statistics, then the energy required to lug an additional 25kgs of spare wheel and tyre around is an open target for change.
I maybe not typical, but I Iast changed a wheel on the roadside last century. Since then I have travelled over half a million miles without needing one.
Most cars are now designed without the facility for a spare wheel, and recent use of the UK's favourite car (the Ford Puma) shows just what creative use can be made of the space previously reserved for the spare wheel.
You are now much more likely to be stranded by an electrical issue than a flat tyre, but I do not consider carrying and spare Auto Electrician with me....

 

[HappytalkAgain]

Exactly the same people who decided that we all prefer a stupid undersized "spacesaver" or a pointless aerosol of foam instead of a proper spare wheel and jack.

It’s the single thing I least miss about modern motoring. I’m tempting fate but I’ve never once had a puncture in 35 years of driving so can’t say I miss a spare wheel (full size or space saver.)

 

[SmartAmg]

It’s the single thing I least miss about modern motoring. I’m tempting fate but I’ve never once had a puncture in 35 years of driving so can’t say I miss a spare wheel (full size or space saver.)

Ooo, Ant, touch wood, quick!

 

[ToeKnee]

And even if you do decide to buy a proper spare, there's no where to put it other than the boot.
I'm looking at you, BMW.

Where else would you put the spare???

 

[SpikyMikey]

Where else would you put the spare???

Preferably under the boot floor,
not above it....
It takes up beer shopping space.

 

[Chrishazle]

For a long time I would have agreed about carrying a spare wheel, but in the past couple of years I have had :
S204, northern Norfolk heading to collect a friend and bring her to our hotel for dinner, complete failure of the inner wall of a Goodyear Eagle F1 requiring fitting of the full size but speed restricted spare and finding a replacement tyre at short notice. Expensive and bloody awkward.
SLK280 - failure of trainee mechanic to re-torque rear NS wheel bolts resulting in entire wheel coming off on a cold January Sunday morning and a good samaritan stopping to help 2 70's OAP's stranded waiting for the rescue service to appear. Good samaritan got the car up and packaway spare on, managed to get it inflated enough that we could get home (5 miles) but within hours of getting home spare was flat.
S204, both NS wheels went into an unseen pothole, front survived but rear got bad split on inside sidewall, stranded at side of side road waiting for recovery mob, 2 new rear tyres, nothing from Kent Highways so £280 out of pocket.
On both cars the supplied compressor runs from a cigar lighter socket, and neither car has one of those live engine off, did not even try with the S204 as the spare is at full pressure, but for the SLK it's deflated so we had to have the engine running to run the compressor, it took forever and we never got the spare fully inflated!

 

[AMGeed]

I think its a bit futile buying a car that will do 2.5 times the NSL in the UK, but I've done just that. I could have gone for a smaller engined but equally nice E53 or E43, but I love the V8 Mercedes engines I had to have the E63.

 

[Chrishazle]

Getting back to "How fast is fast enough?" - with many cars, drivers have found out the hard way that enthusiasm can seriously exceed ability very quickly, often ending in tragic consequences. The faster the toy, the quicker the consequences - and the outcome of the consequences - can arrive. In the past I have seen certain high performance cars (?TVR, Westfield 7 types) where to buy the super performance version you have to take a driving course. I think that cars with that sort of performance should only be sold to buyers who either will only track them or will take and pass a driving test before being allowed to buy them.

However, I have always been an advocate of always having 2 ways to react to a driving situation - if you are experienced enough to realise that the situation is about to appear. Being able to judge whether it's safer to brake or accelerate for an impending situation is important, but means you must be an experienced and thoughtful driver. Reflects back to my first driving lesson (in 1968) when my driving instructor said to me "look at every vehicle around you, think about what is the most stupid thing each one could do, and be prepared for it, because one of these days one of them will!!" Superb advice which has served me superbly over many decades.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Getting back to "How fast is fast enough?" - with many cars, drivers have found out the hard way that enthusiasm can seriously exceed ability very quickly, often ending in tragic consequences. The faster the toy, the quicker the consequences - and the outcome of the consequences - can arrive. In the past I have seen certain high performance cars (?TVR, Westfield 7 types) where to buy the super performance version you have to take a driving course. I think that cars with that sort of performance should only be sold to buyers who either will only track them or will take and pass a driving test before being allowed to buy them.

However, I have always been an advocate of always having 2 ways to react to a driving situation - if you are experienced enough to realise that the situation is about to appear. Being able to judge whether it's safer to brake or accelerate for an impending situation is important, but means you must be an experienced and thoughtful driver. Reflects back to my first driving lesson (in 1968) when my driving instructor said to me "look at every vehicle around you, think about what is the most stupid thing each one could do, and be prepared for it, because one of these days one of them will!!" Superb advice which has served me superbly over many decades.

My driving instructor had a similar philosophy. He was a rough as you like Glaswegian who advised that the safest way to drive was to consider every other road user to be " a complete and total ****".

Sound advice as it turned out.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

….Glaswegian who advised that the safest way to drive was to consider every other road user to be " a complete and total ****".

Was he referring to Audi drivers from the perspective of a BMW driver?

What a beautiful irony.

 

[Mactech]

I think its a bit futile buying a car that will do 2.5 times the NSL in the UK

If you intend to do that speed, absolutely futile. However being able to cruise at the motorway speed limit using just a fraction of the available power ( and in the case of the Bentley, at just 1400rpm) then it allows a very relaxed and decidedly calm and quiet way to travel.
It is not about what it can do, it's about how it does it.