Why are cars in the USA made to go at speeds of over 100 mph, where the top speed limit is far below that?

Question

Wouldn't the number of death resulting in high speed chases and accidents be cut dramatically?

Answer 1

As always, this is the wrong approach to attack the problem. Neither the car nor speed kills a driver, its the irresponsible behavior. The problem should be attacked at the root, by educating drivers to drive responsibly, not forcibly imposing that on that.

Doing that will have some major impacts. 1) People will get very pissed about it. 2) The auto industry will get pissed. Basically a lot of people will get very angry, and ultimately, it wouldn't work.

Anyway. in response to your question, cars are made with gears that allow for efficiency. A car with a top speed of 80 would take a lifetime getting there. With proper gearing, even a normal family sedans can go up to 130 mph or so, but deliver only reasonable low end acceleration.

And anyway, like I said before, its the driver behavior that kills the people. Even a crash at 30 mph can be devestating.

Answer 2

Vehicles in this country are over powered and over geared...A typical 6-cylinder car or truck engine has more horsepower than a typical Beech, Cessna or Piper carbureted airplane  engine...The maximum posted speed limit  in this country is 75 mph - and that is in about 6 western states...The average speed for freeway travel in Los Angeles during commute time is about 20 mph.

I think that a quicker and cheaper way to address this problem would be to recalibrate all speedometers to show a top speed of 80 mph - with a redline between 75 and 80.

Essentially, too many drivers do not have the discipline or judgment to keep their vehicle blended in with surrounding traffic...I have all this power and I'm gonna use it - get outta my way!!

By the way, great question!...This topic is part of my presentation on driver safety.

All the best.

Answer 3

Yup speed sells. Also in America you can go as fast as you want as long as you don't get caught! My friend from Germany came over for a month a rented a Corvette and got it over 150 on r 80. But he got caught and was put in jail and also paid a big fine!

Answer 4

Car manufacturers do not care about safety for real, they care about the bottom line "MONEY".

Speed sells cars.

Answer 5

What makes a car go at high speed?.....the DRIVER. As long as a human element is involved, it doe not matter whether a vehicle is capable of going 100 mph or 60 mph, people can get killed.

Answer 6

That is an old question but always relevant. Power is zero to 60 mph for the highway. The faster to 60 the faster over all they can go. Change one you change the other. These days it is excessive as opposed to necessary therefore more deaths and single car collisions.

Answer 7

i have perfectly the answer for this... lets say a car can max out the engine at 150mph 7,000 rpm 5th gear ok? that means its puttin a lot of power all it has on that 150mph, now imagine if it went to 60mph then its not a problem for it right? now imagine a car that can max at 60mph like the engine puts his whole heart out for the engine at 60mph then it will obviosly break faster right?  just because cars are made to go liek 120 130mph dont mean they got to get there...its like lets say your a small guy and its hard for you to lift 150lbs, because for example your the smaller engine which cant do much, but lets say for a body builder who benches 500lbs, 150lbs is nothing its like easy as pie... and he gets lets strenous from that workout.... hopefully that helped =x