what is the point in a fast car
Discussion
Im talking anything less than 7.5 ish to 60.
I myself drive a warm hatch hitting 60 in just under 9 seconds in a twingo 133 cup and although it would be nice to have more shove/quicker acceleration it seems utterly pointless on british roads, even 9 seconds gets you breaking speed limits relatively quickly.
So what are the benefits of having a lot of power if you can never really use it or if you use it the fun only lasts a few seconds, surely its more fun to rev the s
t out of a car and have more fun than being careful with the throttle incase you go over the speed limit before you even realise?
I myself drive a warm hatch hitting 60 in just under 9 seconds in a twingo 133 cup and although it would be nice to have more shove/quicker acceleration it seems utterly pointless on british roads, even 9 seconds gets you breaking speed limits relatively quickly.
So what are the benefits of having a lot of power if you can never really use it or if you use it the fun only lasts a few seconds, surely its more fun to rev the s
t out of a car and have more fun than being careful with the throttle incase you go over the speed limit before you even realise?Sometimes it's fun to thrash a car. Other times it's nice to just have a metric stload of power under your right foot even if you don't use it.
Sometimes it's fun seeing how much throttle you can get in low gears whilst keeping traction. Sometimes it's fun subjecting yourself (and the odd passenger) to the physical sensations of high acceleration.
You're not going to use most of it for most of the time.
tload of power under your right foot even if you don't use it.Sometimes it's fun seeing how much throttle you can get in low gears whilst keeping traction. Sometimes it's fun subjecting yourself (and the odd passenger) to the physical sensations of high acceleration.
You're not going to use most of it for most of the time.
It's sort of valid.
The most (driving) fun I've had in cars was probably the years of thrashing and road rallying a mk1 astra sr. Slow compared to the Evo but great fun.
Human nature to go better, faster, so that's what we do. But my fast car is now slower than my quickest car I've owned by a margin but I love to drive it quickly because it feels like a go cart whereas the Evo was about sheer pace (at the time one of the quickest point to point cars on the road).
However my 1.0 polo is so slow that overtaking is rare and it could do with another 30hp to be fun, but at 50mpg on the commute it's a relief after the 15 mpg rx8.
The most (driving) fun I've had in cars was probably the years of thrashing and road rallying a mk1 astra sr. Slow compared to the Evo but great fun.
Human nature to go better, faster, so that's what we do. But my fast car is now slower than my quickest car I've owned by a margin but I love to drive it quickly because it feels like a go cart whereas the Evo was about sheer pace (at the time one of the quickest point to point cars on the road).
However my 1.0 polo is so slow that overtaking is rare and it could do with another 30hp to be fun, but at 50mpg on the commute it's a relief after the 15 mpg rx8.
Because the feeling of pressing the throttle and steaming off into the distance, however rarely it happens, is totally addictive. I've got a saloon that does 60 in 5.3s (when it was new, a looong time ago) I use on long trips and weekends, and a slower, more highly strung MX5 (mk2, 1.8, don't know the 0-60 time) and both are excellent but if I had 200 miles to cover it wouldn't be in the MX5.
Also, lots of other attributes go with fast cars (specifically large saloons) that make for an enjoyable journey. Peace and quiet, nice ride, space, etc etc.
Also, lots of other attributes go with fast cars (specifically large saloons) that make for an enjoyable journey. Peace and quiet, nice ride, space, etc etc.
Had a commute over the peaks last week and on several occasions I found myself behind a string of 3 or 4 cars stuck behind a van or wagon doing 40 in a 60. No one overtaking.
In a slow car I would have had to sit behind them all the way to my destination.
In my fast car, I was able to pass them all safely and enjoy traffic free roads (for a while anyway).
In a slow car I would have had to sit behind them all the way to my destination.
In my fast car, I was able to pass them all safely and enjoy traffic free roads (for a while anyway).
The question should be "What is the point of a car with a high top speed?"
Acceleration, is fun, makes overtaking faster and isn't illegal (yet
)
I have a Caterham with 120bhp, 0-60 in 6 seconds makes it fast enough to be a lot of fun, but the noise and discomfort at speeds above 80 mph means I tend to back off before I'm going fast enough to lose my license. It is also low enough geared to get to use all the gears on th road at sensible speeds
Acceleration, is fun, makes overtaking faster and isn't illegal (yet
)I have a Caterham with 120bhp, 0-60 in 6 seconds makes it fast enough to be a lot of fun, but the noise and discomfort at speeds above 80 mph means I tend to back off before I'm going fast enough to lose my license. It is also low enough geared to get to use all the gears on th road at sensible speeds
Like many others, I like the feeling of brutal acceleration. My benchmark of a fast car is sub 5 seconds 0-62.
There's just something beautiful about getting onto a motorway slip road and being able to get up to...ahem...motorway speeds within a few seconds or having a huge amount of power to overtake with ease.
There's just something beautiful about getting onto a motorway slip road and being able to get up to...ahem...motorway speeds within a few seconds or having a huge amount of power to overtake with ease.
Jasandjules said:
Sometimes you need to overtake and you can get past safely. This includes when the p**k you move past tries to speed up to stop you.
Indeed, overtaking and still having some "reserve" makes things a lot more comfortable. Besides it's not just about 0-60 times it's in-gear performance, being able to do 30-70 in 2nd gear down a slip road or 50-70 in top gear with just a gentle squeeze of the throttle is fantastic.
That said I do kind of understand the view that on the road a serious performance car can feel restricted and you can't enjoy too much WOT time where as as having a little pocket rocket such as your Twingo133 you use all of it's power fairly often which is very very fun!
You have to consider that in the world outside of PH many many people would think your Twingo is unnecessarily fast as their car with half the power (eventually) gets them to the speed limit.
newuser24 said:
I'm talking anything less than 7.5 ish to 60.
In the real world 50 to 100 is where it matters fully laden with 5 adults and half a ton of camping gear. The quicker, that you can overtake, and get back on your own side of the road, the sooner your passengers will stop screaming.
I have no idea what the theoretical o to 62 of my cars are, but I can say that 50 to 100 is never short enough.
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