Ever had a car that was too fast ?
Discussion
I know a some bikers buy bikes like an R1 and find they are a bit too quick and perhaps go back to something a little less ballistic, anyone done it with cars and care to admit it ?
Appreciate it is down to how hard you press the accelerator and the rest of the car as a package but just interested to see if anyone bought something that scared them or made them think it would get them banned.
Appreciate it is down to how hard you press the accelerator and the rest of the car as a package but just interested to see if anyone bought something that scared them or made them think it would get them banned.
i had a 400bhp camaro for a month. Up until that point, the quickest thing i'd driven regularly, on the roads, had not-much-more than 100bhp/tonne (so moving to 300ish seemed like it'd be a shock). as it was, it was completely controlled, very refined, and a little bit boring. I think cars these days are so capable at stock that they're not 'too fast' - its rare for something to have more power than brakes, or for it to overwhelm the suspension or whatever. In days of old, or with modified cars, I can see this being the case..
I wouldn't consider that my current car (350z) was too fast, but I would struggle to convince myself that I should spend a lot more cash to get something considerably quicker. There are quite limited opportunities to drive my current car flat out and those opportunities would become scarcer still in something with 400+ bhp.
Which is probably a good idea since I've only just finished paying for it and am quite looking forward to not having to make any loan payments for a while. That said, I'd quite like an NSX...
Which is probably a good idea since I've only just finished paying for it and am quite looking forward to not having to make any loan payments for a while. That said, I'd quite like an NSX...
Im driving my fastest car to date and in PH terms is still pretty modest. Its only an Audi A4 with the 2.6 V6 but its still nippy.
Its not fast to the point where its scary but it is very easy to sneak into ban territory. 4k rpm in 5th is over a ton whereas in the mondeo it was touching 90 at 4k rpm and in the corsa it was 75 ish at 4krpm
You dont feel the speed either. Its not whisper quiet in the cabin but even at 80mph its like you arent moving.
Its not fast to the point where its scary but it is very easy to sneak into ban territory. 4k rpm in 5th is over a ton whereas in the mondeo it was touching 90 at 4k rpm and in the corsa it was 75 ish at 4krpm
You dont feel the speed either. Its not whisper quiet in the cabin but even at 80mph its like you arent moving.
J4CKO said:
I know a some bikers buy bikes like an R1 and find they are a bit too quick and perhaps go back to something a little less ballistic, anyone done it with cars and care to admit it ?
Appreciate it is down to how hard you press the accelerator and the rest of the car as a package but just interested to see if anyone bought something that scared them or made them think it would get them banned.
Yes, no and maybe. It all depends tbh. Appreciate it is down to how hard you press the accelerator and the rest of the car as a package but just interested to see if anyone bought something that scared them or made them think it would get them banned.
I think many modern cars, even moderately powered ones are pretty boring to drive unless you thrash the nuts off them, which would invlove unwise speeds.
So to fast for road enjoyment - yes.
I also admit that even though my car is only moderately nippy it is all to easy to attain high speed in it. Arguably a less powerful car allows you to drive it harder for longer and more often.
My car is fairly quick, in the grand scheme of things there are far faster cars out there, but it's fast enough to dispatch most traffic if necessary. I think my next car I will get a slower one - something like a Fiesta ST, with a nice charismatic engine that is not too powerful.
On boost, my Cupra R builds speed quite impressively and it could very easily catapult a "quick overtake" into "Licence losing hoon" if I did not exercise some foot restraint. While the Fiesta ST is no slouch, you can keep your foot down through the gears a lot longer without so much worry, while still having enough power to be fun.
That said, the sensation of a powerful turbo car coming on boost is pretty addictive, I might not want to let that go!
On boost, my Cupra R builds speed quite impressively and it could very easily catapult a "quick overtake" into "Licence losing hoon" if I did not exercise some foot restraint. While the Fiesta ST is no slouch, you can keep your foot down through the gears a lot longer without so much worry, while still having enough power to be fun.
That said, the sensation of a powerful turbo car coming on boost is pretty addictive, I might not want to let that go!
Yeap, 1.2 Nissan Micra supersport, basically a micra with a body kit and sport seats, I loved it, told every one it was as fast as a XR3, arh those were the days.
17, passed my test in the morning and got to drive by myself for the first time, that thing was Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast for my abilities.
17, passed my test in the morning and got to drive by myself for the first time, that thing was Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast for my abilities.
No. A car is only as fast as you want it to go...
But - plenty of recent forced induction motors make the power too accessible by loading up on mid-range and leaving little or nothing at the top end. This kind of power delivery is great for salesmen because of the wow factor, but it soon turns to tedium in my experience. You find yourself using 80% of the power all the time because the engine gives you 80% halfway up the rev range. This can lead to the sense that the car is "too fast"
Peaky N/A engines are better, in so many ways.
But - plenty of recent forced induction motors make the power too accessible by loading up on mid-range and leaving little or nothing at the top end. This kind of power delivery is great for salesmen because of the wow factor, but it soon turns to tedium in my experience. You find yourself using 80% of the power all the time because the engine gives you 80% halfway up the rev range. This can lead to the sense that the car is "too fast"
Peaky N/A engines are better, in so many ways.
No, but it is something I would give serious thought to, there is simply 'too fast' for these roads to be enjoyable. My MX5 was fun because you could really give it some stick and it was often fairly close to it's limits around some B roads whilst still doing 60. I'd prefer something that can be driven hard without doing incredible speeds. That said, I still dream of getting a nice WRX Impreza - probably roundabout as powerful as I'd want to go. I used to think having a good car was simply having a fast car, now I've come to realise that speed isn't everything. That said, I'd never have a car I didn't consider 'quick'.
Tampon said:
Yeap, 1.2 Nissan Micra supersport, basically a micra with a body kit and sport seats, I loved it, told every one it was as fast as a XR3, arh those were the days.
17, passed my test in the morning and got to drive by myself for the first time, that thing was Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast for my abilities.
lol i know what your saying, my first car was a 1988 xr2 and it was way way faster than i was really safe driving at that age 17, passed my test in the morning and got to drive by myself for the first time, that thing was Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast for my abilities.
How i never crashed it i will never know. I did have a few close shave though and a few meeting with kerbs 
Ive got a tuscan at the minute and its very fast for b road playing, you just dont need all the revs yoiu have, redlining it will see some pretty crazy speeds which i will admit are too fast for b roads at times.
Still its all fun though
OMNIO said:
Im driving my fastest car to date and in PH terms is still pretty modest. Its only an Audi A4 with the 2.6 V6 but its still nippy.
Hey there, first other 2.6 I've heard of on here 
I haven't had a car that seemed unreasonably fast, nor have I driven one - the Atom 300 is absolutely bloody ballistic, but on a track it didn't feel too fast, just addictively so! On a tight country road, it could be far too brutally accelerative if you drove it like a t
t, but such is the driveability that I don't think it needs to be.I reckon something excessively old-skool turbocharged will be what comes under "too fast", something that could suddenly snap you into silly speeds when you're hardly pressing on.
If we're talking about something that can get your licence out of your wallet and into the police station, then even something like the Audi is far too fast, I could sit north of 120mph all day without worrying.
Not me but I know someone who had a 7 type kit car that was powered by an SR20DET with boost upgrades and a few other tweaks, that was sold on after a couple of trackdays and not much use on the road after the owner decided it was simply too scary to drive at speed and a bit pointless if you weren't. I don't know exactly how much power that was running, I'd assume 300+ and I guess in something weighing 500-600Kg it was probably quite 'interesting' to drive at full tilt.
I've driven a couple of cosworths over the years that have had bigger turbo's etc fitted that weren't necessarily too fast to drive hard but were certainly scary to drive hard, old school turbo lag made things very much 'wait for it....... wait for it....... wait for it....... oh crap keep hold of the steering wheel and try to keep it in a straight line!!!!' I've no idea how the RS500 touring car drivers did it without dying on every corner of every race !
I guess until you are in the realms of several hundred bhp/ton many things can be fast to drive, and easily get you into ban territory, but that doesn't make them too fast to become scary to drive.
Al
I've driven a couple of cosworths over the years that have had bigger turbo's etc fitted that weren't necessarily too fast to drive hard but were certainly scary to drive hard, old school turbo lag made things very much 'wait for it....... wait for it....... wait for it....... oh crap keep hold of the steering wheel and try to keep it in a straight line!!!!' I've no idea how the RS500 touring car drivers did it without dying on every corner of every race !
I guess until you are in the realms of several hundred bhp/ton many things can be fast to drive, and easily get you into ban territory, but that doesn't make them too fast to become scary to drive.
Al
Closest for me was my R1 bike engined MAC #1, 160bhp and weighing around 400kgs drive a few inches off the ground. I've also owned Cosworths, Evos and Subarus, also high revving Type Rs, S2000, Elise, M5 and loads of other stuff. Also into Litre bikes which to be honest has to be my performance 'high'. Currently own a CBR1000RR (2005).
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