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Performance and speed
I just got home after driving from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Those of
you who have driven I-95 know that it's literally a speedway through
parts of Maryland (and further south in Virginia). I thought it was bad
up here in Philly, but the speeds are nothing compared to what you'll
find down there. Of course, the traffic volume (read: # of loonies on the
road) is much lower too.
My mom's little 1985 Toyota Camry was doing about 70-80mph in the right
lane, with rigs passing me on the left. And cars were flying by them, no
doubt some had to be doing 95-100mph. It was scary, let me tell you!
Anyway, what I wanted to say... a car's top speed is (IMHO) a pretty
useless statistic. I don't know what the top speed is on that Camry
(certainly not the 170 that the speedometer goes up to :) but it's
certainly not safe at anything more than 80mph, that's for sure. The car
is in good shape, but at high speeds it vibrates (especially the steering
wheel) and the suspension gets kind of wobbly. And you really gotta blast
the radio to hear it over the engine. It's not meant for fast highway
speeds like what I had to drive tonight, I don't care what Consumer
Reports had to say.
A few months ago there was this commercial advertising "the 140mph
Cadilliac Seville". It goes 140mph, woop-dee-doo. What speeds were it
designed to be driven at? Performance of a car is not something that is
constant at all speeds, at least not in my judgement. Some cars ride as
well at 100mph as they do at 55. But on other cars there is a big
difference between 65 and 75mph. Does anybody know-- does this Cadilliac
handle well at 140mph? Or was it just advertising hype aimed at the ego?
My questions, which may be kinda stupid: What's different about making
a car that performs well at high speeds? Are tires really a big factor?
What extras go into the suspension? What stops the feel that the car just
wants to pull apart into 1 million peices? Is the size of the car an
important factor? and on and on...
Just like there's cost depreciation, there's also performance
depreciation. I'd love to hear from some designers or people in the know
about how drivability and safety deteriorate at higher speeds on some of
the real popular cars. And I'd like to know some cars that don't suffer
such losses at high speeds.
Comments, or whatever would be appreciated.
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