We all know the truth: Accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention. About 80%.......

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Driving+Safety/...avior+Released

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Was driving I-10 west in west Texas a few weeks ago. Speed limit is 85. Miles and miles of straight open road. Hit 137 when wife was looking at her phone. She never looked up. But usually I am slow poke on the roads. Too many idiots. Take it to the track.

 

Agreed.

There are far, far, far, far more dangerous types of behavior on the road. By far the worst, however, is apathy.

Driving is a relatively dangerous activity and should be treated with attention and respect. Context matters a lot, and so does the assumption vs. the dispersion of risk. I care less about the former than the latter.

I could not care less if someone drove 150mph in an open desert area with no incoming cars, if they were attentive and making sure there were no incoming cars. I care a lot about someone driving 15 mph in a shopping center parking lot while texting... and possibly running over a 2 year old.

The laws are outdated. My moral inclination is to not be angry at the Porsche driver going 130 in an open stretch ... if a deer pops out and it's a disaster, so be it... it was an assumption of that risk. I think it is the weaving driver, or the driver speeding in a two lane road that runs into oncoming traffic because of a tire blowout... those are the truly morally culpable ones.

But hey, it's just my view.

 

Agreed, but 130mph on any public road in the US is going to be charged as reckless.

 

The problem is that the premiums would start out so high that you won't have any customers or you wouldn't charge enough and claims would far exceed premiums collected and you'd go out of business. It makes no business sense.

There have been numerous studies showing evidence that an increase in the speed limit increases the number of accidents.

Have you seen the rates just for HPDE events?

But man I hear ya...

 

Attention and respect? Steering and braking are the least of my worries.
While travelling at 75mph on a congested freeway my top priorities are:

1.) Responding to text messages
2.) Responding to emails
3.) Eating
4.) Changing tunes
5.) Drinking to stay hydrated
6.) Steering
7.) Braking

Thank you very much.

 

That's why I said it doesn't always mean "reckless".

I typically keep my speed below 95 on a highway. I've been passed by minivans and SUVs with kids in the back doing 110+.

90, I think is a decent threshold for any public highway, given ideal conditions regarding visibility, temperature, traffic, etc.

Let's not forget that the nationally-mandated speed limit of 55 MPH was created to lessen our fuel consumption during the oil embargo in the 1970s ...

 

The main thing they keeps me from speeding in Miami, in addition to oblivious drivers, is road hazards. I'm pretty sure the garbage trucks down here do more littering than waste clean up. If you're going 100 mph and hit a small object, it could cause a total disaster. I guess that's similar and more predictable that a deer, but could be fatal none the less.

 

You will never eliminate all risk, you can minimize your exposure.

If your car is squared away, 130 isn't really breathing hard.

With fresh tires, tight suspension without issues, 150 is smooth and the front end isn't light at all…This is where I think our cars shine. Many cars can do 150, but do you feel safe, is the car solid, or is it a little scary because the front end is a little sketchy? You do not want to swap ends at 150…

PBIR will let you have a lot of fun, and help you minimize risk. Watch some of the other cars/drivers, speak with some people.

If you crash on the street, little sympathy from the court of public opinion.

If you crash at a track, at least you were trying to do it "right".


Good luck and have fun.

 

First, make donations to your state troopers, and police associations to get both decals you can slap on your windshield, good investment.

I step on it pretty healthy on onramps, and some backroads, but take the triple digits to the track.

 

True, but you still have to be careful. Some Porsche owners are total posers on the track - i've seen incidents where people had car to car contact and later threatened to sue the other driver. Cover your ***.

 

LOL. Esp. in FL.

 

Rather than out-and-out speed, I think in this country I get more daily enjoyment out of staying between the lines and *not* slowing down much for corners with decent visibility. You can still take the best late apex line you can within the proper lane, and it's fun to be way behind someone going into the curve, then immediately right behind them at the end of the curve. I am constantly amazed at how poor most people are at staying in their lane, not crossing the center line, etc., etc. LEOs typically have all the long, clear straights pegged, anyway, and a Porsche is more of a handling and finesse car and less of a dragster. Then comes the real challenge: getting into a non-Porsche car and remembering your new limitations before you hit the first curve. All that said, the autobahn is a real hoot in unrestricted zones when traffic is fairly light. As an Austrian friend said to me, "Can you believe this? A street-legal race track!" (Austria does not have unrestricted speed roads, either.)

 

Back some 25 years ago, I had one of the first Mitsubishi AWD Eclipse cars, potent for the time. I eventually did a lot of things to the car, bigger turbo, fuel computers, shocks, and on and on. But when the car was new, I was driving on some long lonely road in very rural Alabama, on my way to Ft. Rucker, at about 3 am, and came upon a whole string of semi-trucks. I decided to try to work my way thru them, one at a time, so I spooled up the turbo, and pulled out to pass the first semi. Then, found it was very close to the one in front of it, and there were no oncoming headlights, and the road seemed straight, so stayed on the throttle, taking the next truck, then found the same thing, would have had to brake pretty hard to merge. So began to take semi after semi, maybe about 6 or seven, and when I finally blew by the lead truck, i realized I was really clipping along, and glanced at my speedo, and saw it swinging by 140 mph. I had no idea I was going that fast, but the trucks by then were just a blur.

I try to avoid doing dumb things in cars anymore. My son and I have thousands of track miles, and find that track time in our former Superformance Cobra was a great experience for both of us. In about three weeks my son and I are running from SC out to western NE to run the Sandhills Open Road challenge, and 52 mile up and then back run on a closed two land winding road.

all the best

 

"Where do you speed"?
No where that I would discuss on a public forum