You are right about that! We went to Dresden a few times and you could literally tell where the old eastern block began! I used to make the run between Weiden and Regensburg (A93) all the time and it was unlimited. A couple of times I followed a few faster cars running at 120+.

Hopefully those roads will eventually catch up.

 

I'll say it one more time... TIME and PLACE. And those times and places are rare but they do exist.

And I'm a claims adjuster for State Farm, handling Bodily Injury claims. The fatality and serious injury claims I've handled, and there are many, have all been on high-traffic roads or city roads, not the time NOR the place for letting your horses run free.

 

High speed doesn't kill, it's the differential in speed between vehicles that causes accidents on the freeway.

If speed did kill, highway death rates would have gone up after the repeal of the 55 mph national speed limit, it went down instead!

Hmmm.

Dave

 

Right. Give me a straight stretch of good, dry pavement with no traffic, and sunlit skies and I would be 1000 times safer going 120 mph in that situation than I would driving the DC beltway going with traffic at 60 mph.

 

Now that is one that I can totally agree with you on.

DC beltway is a road that I work hard to avoid.

 

Especially during rush hour and two hours in either direction of rush hour. I'm currently handling a 5-vehicle claim that happened on I-495 at 7:00 in the evening on a weekday. Traffic came to a sudden stop as a car was trying to change lanes and didn't see cars ahead slamming on their brakes... ugly. One car ended up on top of another. All sorts of injured parties in the vehicles, still trying to sort out who hit who and in what sequence.

 

You'd be at least 50x safer running naked through Kabul at high noon with a burning Koran than you would driving the DC beltway.




That is part of it, but also a factor is the difference in speed between one car and stationary objects, like trees or telephone poles. Or the pavement.

Speed is a problem. The faster you go, the less time you have to react to anything. While the difference in speed between cars is a factor in multi-vehicle accidents, once a car has lost control (misjudging how fast a corner can be taken, after bouncing off another car, or whatever) the largest factor is the difference in speed between the out of control car and all of the stationary objects around.

And seriously--we probably should not be advocating breaking the law in ANY way around here. Believe it or not, speeding actually is breaking the law.

 

Well, you're half right...

High speed doesn't kill, it's the drastic sudden stop that kills you...

 

+1

 

I might as well leave a comment before this thread is blocked.

I did track time in Phoenix. One track (of 3) has the dragstrip. Didn't get close to top speed. The rest was fun though.

Can't think of any tracks that have really long straights. Top Gear did a run on VW's test track with the Bugatti Veyron, it was a huge oval.

So we are screwed for top speed runs. LEGALLY.

 

Of course they announced last week the US highway with the 85 mph speed somewhere out in western, usa............getting there, getting there.......

 

I had my Cooper up to 168KM/h on a stretch of completely empty highway, straight line with a million miles of visibility. At that speed the windshield wipers start making some funny noises.

I agree with "Time and Place." Of course it is still illegal and inherently dangerous, but I weigh those factors before making my decision to mash the throttle. Honestly I don't drive like that often, I generally like to keep my speeding to the windy back roads just after the break of dawn. Having a lot of fun in 2nd and 3rd gear.

 

Adrenaline rush, isn't it?

I miss that feeling of driving for long stretches at speeds of 120 MPH and up as I did on the Autobahns. Besides the adrenaline rush, I love the feeling of having my senses wide open.... brain on full alert, eyes on the lookout for danger.... including those 7-Series coming up from behind at 180-ish. Awesome feeling.

 

I've never tried to challenge the "top speed potential" of my MINI. I find there's much more to my particular driving enjoyment than either top speed or straight line acceleration.

Another concern is tires. MINI's, in general, MAY be an exception. But most cars sold in the USA come with all-season tires. They are unlikely to have the performance characteristics of European tires.

Many of the Interstate Highways in the Rocky Mountain states have 75mph limits. Some sections of I-15 in Utah are "test section" posted for 80mph.

 

Speed rating would be more important than performance characteristics. MINIs come with tires matched to their rated top speeds, Coopers with H, Ss with V and JCWs with W.

Actually, the JCWs don't really need W rated tires, 148 is the advertised top speed and W is rated for 149.

 

Sections of 95 near the Miami area, at eeeeearly hours of the morning are pothole free and five lanes wide. And Maryland roads are amazing compared to Michigan and Pennsylvania. Sadly, one should not advocate that kind of driving on US roads because most folks aren't judicious enough to know when to do it.

 

I won't tell you where, but I once had my old 2000 Eclipse Spyder Turbo up to an indicated 130 mph on a straight and empty stretch of interstate. I ran the stretch of highway at normal speed looking for potential problems, turned around and went back the other way. I then turned around again, waited on the on-ramp until I was sure the highway was deserted in front of me, and took off. With all those precautions, it was still a dumb, dangerous, and illegal thing to do. I won't be trying it again with my new MINI. I guess you sometimes do get smarter with age.

 

Public roads in the US are not, for the most part, really safe at high speeds. Sight lines are too short, there's too much traffic, other drivers are clueless, the road surface is ill-maintained, et cetera. That's not to say there aren't times and places where one can drive significantly faster. For example, check out the Silver State Classic, a road race on public roads (which are closed for the event).

 

So TX has 80 speed limits on some of their interstates. Also they are opening a toll road with an 85 limit. From personal experience I drove my MINI up to 130. I really did not like it. Now I just even try to come close. If you really open your MINI up I suggest an HPDE on a track that has long straights that you can do it on.

 

An occasional spurt of high speed in a safe place is enough to keep me happy. By "safe" I mean I can see for miles in every direction, there are no driveways, crossroads, or animals, there is no traffic except me. The main thing is that I know the speed and acceleration are there, in case of emergency. Getting out of the way is more important to me than 'winning a race.' There are plenty of racers on the highway already, who think that every road is a NASCAR track.

 

I found my R56 to not be much fun over 120mph, at 140mph it felt light. It takes longer to get there, but with 2 other people in the car it was much more stable 120-140mph. I have only had my R55 for about a month now and haven't really been above 130, but its noticeably more stable while I was alone when I was able to get up there.

*Closed course, semi-professional driver

 

If you want high speed go get a BMW or something else the MINI is a turd on the top end.

 

This thread had a chance, but it got off course after hitting the rev limiter.