Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Partial FC: Why top speed is so overrated...

(continued)

LOL

200 mph?  In a street car, on a public street?  Heck I know some folks 

who can't even parallel park, what makes them think driving past 65 

would be safe?   Back in the day a guy who ran the gumball rally in a 

RUF RTurbo was showing off his in car footage at a Porsche dealership 

where I was getting my car tech'ed from West Texas with an indicated 208 

mph.  He was in a well built and prepped car with a full integral roll 

cage, but at that speed, something goes wrong, he would have been dead 

or worse killed someone else.  Same guy showed up at a DE once and was 

kicked out in under 10 minutes for not following any of the rules 

(safety rules) spun his car multiple times, passing in corners, no clue 

really.  Fastest anyone was ever asked to leave.  Money and brains do 

not always go hand in hand, this guy was clearly a trust fund baby.

200 mph is really ludicrous speed, I have been on track and not come 

close to those speeds and it was still very very, don't you dare f**k up 

fast (160 in the 348, 165 in both Vettes, ~140 and 150 in the M3's)  

That is with safety crews standing by and on a closed race course, with 

my car inspected well before each session.  The ZR1's were hitting close 

to 180 (claimed by a real race car driver) into turn 1 at Road America.  

That is probably the fastest road course in the US (longest straights), 

so top speeds are not getting hit even there.  Too many variables like 

other vehicles, animals, potholes, oil patches/ road debris, police, 

etc.  Measuring a performance car for its top speed is all fun and games 

I guess, but really not that important, I do like seeing the Top Gear 

track times, and the Nurburgring lap times as a measure of a car's 

performance.  That makes a lot more sense to me than 0-60, 60-0, 1/4 

mile, or top speed.   Though again, running a single lap does not tell 

you much about the car's real ability and durability.  Running for 30 

minutes or longer is where some of the difference between the $30000 EVO 

and the $150000 Porsche come into play. 

I suspect the top speed crowd are the same guys who watch Nascar...

My $ 0.02...

Mike

Michael James wrote:

I'd be more concerned about the simple fact that the roads today are MUCH more 
crowded than at any time in our Nation's history, and the 'open road' ain't so 
open anymore.  I remember reading Brock Yates' adventures in the CannonBall Run 
with Dan Gurney at the helm of a 365 GTB/4 Daytona, hitting 180mph to make up 
time in the Arizona/Nevada desert.  You can't do that anymore - they knew that 
in the early 1980s, which is why Brock pulled the plug and stopped the event 
before someone got themselves or someone-else killed.  Where can you go that 
you won't encounter a bumbling SUV/Minivan/Motorhome in the left lane?  With 
the economy being where it is, many cash-strapped folks will be vacationing 
within the US this/next year, and if they can't afford airfare they'll be 
taking to the highways where things will get even MORE crowded.

I'm real glad that cars are getting more-and-more powerful, but....is anyone tracking the driving abilities of the people who are buying them?  Nope...now that the Japanese have made Supercar performance attainable to High School kids, perhaps we should just sell them crack cocaine and machine-guns too, so they can all kill themselves more-efficiently without plowing their GTR into a minivan loaded with some midwestern family.  That should calm the Nervous-Nellies in Washington before they enact legislation to protect America from themselves.  BTW, if the Japanese built a washing-machine that could do 200 mph, would you care?  Is that what we want to drive?

Maybe I just need more coffee,

M

--- On Tue, 3/17/09, Fellippe Galletta <fellippe.galletta [at] gmail.com> wrote:

From: Fellippe Galletta <fellippe.galletta [at] gmail.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] Partial FC: Why top speed is so overrated...
To: "Michael" <Cavallino_Rapante [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 2:18 AM

Just saw this video that really puts the whole top speed into total
perspective:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEP3ew1MPXA

Here you have 4 cars that couldn't be more different than each other and
totally different price brackets all clock in between 195 and 201.5
mph...Nissan GTR --> Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Talk about diminishing returns
to get an extra mph in top speed, lol.

Horsepower has increased dramatically since 1990, yet top speeds have barely
gone up much. Allegedly supercars from back then could go more than 200, but
now I'm not so sure.

My only explanation is that the newer cars have a lot more downforce and
stability than the older cars at these speeds; weight is about the same,
aerodynamic drag can't be much different, HP & Torque are a lot higher, so
must be the downforce perhaps (or maybe the gearing too).

F40, F50, and 550 Maranello all are supposedly in the 195 mph range as far
as what they're clocked at, and the reports of their stability at those
speeds have been nothing but phenomenal. I can't comment on the very latest
Vipers, Corvettes, but traditionally these cars are not rock steady at very
high speeds. Don't know about the 911 reputation, but don't think it's quite
at the level of supercar F or L.

Which leads to the final point.... that is, all that should matter IMHO is
the stability one feels flying at these supercar speeds. Given how long it
takes to get to these speeds, I doubt very few people will ever be
completely stress free going past the 300 km/hr zone. I've experienced 135
mph in a few cars and it's quite apparent the dramatic difference between
some of them....

Most of this is trivial for many of us, but given the right supercar and a
cross country trip, I know there are numerous roads where you can go flat
out. It would be nice to experience 190 mph drama free for a sustained 30-60
seconds....

Would like to hear some war stories!! Even more than flat out speeds, I'm
interested to hear about highest average speeds for long
distances.....averaging 130 mph for an hour or two would be impressive!

FG
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Re: Partial FC: Why top speed is so overrated...	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: Mike Fleischer (themightytoegmail.com)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:19:37 -0700 (PDT)