Filed under: Trends, Sedans/Saloons, Sports/GTs
Manufacturers may lift 155-mph limits
It started out years ago as a 'gentlemen's agreement'. Now, the 155-mph speed limit found on Audi, BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes cars may be lifted after years of being a fact of life. Started as a means to prevent government regulation, this self-regulation is not followed by all manufacturers out side of these four. With more and more manufacturers producing cars that are significantly faster, these four are talking about lifting the limit on their regular production vehicles. The limit removal is being looked into by Audi, BMW, and Lexus. Lexus was not one of the original manufacturers when the limits first were imposed.
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rc51 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Yay!! I hate those things. Friggin electronic nannies:(
They have the same idea imposed on motorcycles.
But it was set for 300kph or 186mph. Maybe the bike manuf. will follow suit.
Reply
nezromatron 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
About time! This will shave minutes from my daily commute home..
Reply
Chris 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
I'd be happy if my car could go 85!
Chris
89 Ford Tempo (3-speed auto)
Reply
sam 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Damnit... my german car is electronically nannied to 130mph... probably something about the tires being unsafe at higher speeds... damn corporations, think they know whats best for me.
Reply
BF 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Yeah baby yeah....let her ride!
Reply
V?or Rubiera 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Go ahead the limiters really never worked.
Reply
Orvon 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
The good thing about higher speed limits is that the wreck pieces will be smaller and easier to pick up.
Reply
Rob 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
This is needed, although more importantly than Audi, BMW, Merc or Lexus, I need Ford to follow suit. They have the limiter set at 85mph on my Taurus, this should at least be 155mph as well.
Reply
Dude 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Sweet in Germany. Not so sweet in America.
Reply
md 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Maybe the should be left on. There are a lot of bad drivers out there. I'm sure that in America there is hardly ever a need to go that fast, except on a track. For those who do wnat to put them on a track it should be up to them to buy a tuner/chip for the vehicle that can remove the top speed limitor. Just my opinion.
Reply
will 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
where did you get your ford...
it is important to realize to my knowledge ford is set at 110 for the focus and there other cars. It is a digital limiter which can be removed the taurus has its geared ratioed so that the v6 edition will not go over 90 with out redlining... at least the new ones. If you want a taurus to go faster buy an older taurus SHO
Reply
Snake 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
I had a 1999 Ford SVT Cobra and it had a governor set at 150mph, not 155mph. The said it had something to do with the aerodynamics becoming unstable. I asked the dealer to raise the limit, I even offered to only drive it faster than 150mph with a 5+mph tail wind, but he wouldn't go for it. Candy ass!
Reply
Oh Brother 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
"What a shame. If only he'd been going 150 instead of 155, he might have lived."
Reply
Matt Gabriel 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Late at night, on RT. 24 before the traffic became unmanageable at any time of the day or night, I engaged in a bit of shenannigans with my heavily modified '88 Fiero GT. A Lincoln Mk VIII slowly and surely pulled away from me at 145mph, leaving me to curse and scream for more cubic inches...
155mph was something in '89. Now we've got things like the new Bugatti pushing 250. It's at the point where I doubt anyone can or should go as fast as modern technology allows, without some driver-assist tools to keep you from wrecking into the guard-rail at jet-liner speeds.
We're around 10 years away from such tools, and they're likely to show up in racing and in big-rigs before we see them in our BMW M5's.
Until then, top speed and accelleration will never be as entertaining as clinging to the pavement when the road gets twisty. You don't need big horsepower for that kinda fun.
Reply