Most speedometers max out around 140 or 160 mph, even though the cars aren't designed to go that fast. The practice serves automakers' needs to mass-produce standard gauges for different cars.
Although cars with high-horsepower engines can come close to the top speedometer speeds, most are limited by engine control computers. That's because the tires can overheat and fail at higher speeds. Tires now common on mainstream cars often can't go above 130 mph or they could fail.
One reason, according to a Toyota spokesperson, is that having the speedometer go all the way to 160 keeps the important 45-70 mph range right at the top of the dial, where it's easy to see, but that requires the whole speedometer to show speeds up to 160.
Meet every member of the 200-mph club. Back in 1987, the Ferrari F40 became the first production road car to exceed the mythical 200-mph barrier with a top speed of 201 mph. Now, Ferrari sells three cars that top out over 200, and even Dodge sells a 204-mph car.
On Sept. 1, 1979, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration added a provision into a regulation focusing on speedometer accuracy to place an emphasis on the 55-mph mark, and for a maximum speed reading of 85 mph.
Most speedometers max out around 140 or 160 mph, even though the cars aren't designed to go that fast. The practice serves automakers' needs to mass-produce standard gauges for different cars. It also adds psychological benefits to drivers, who may want to think of themselves as amateur racecar drivers.
Although cars with high-horsepower engines can come close to the top speedometer speeds, most are limited by engine control computers. That's because the tires can overheat and fail at higher speeds. Tires now common on mainstream cars often can't go above 130 mph or they could fail.
In crash studies, when a car is in a collision at 300% of the forces it was designed to handle, the odds of survival drop to just 25%. Therefore, in a 70-mph head on collision with four occupants in your car, odds are that only one person in the car will survive the crash.
Not only that, but the Chiron Super Sport 300+ also became the first car to break 300 miles per hour on the track. The final record was 304.773 mph with racing driver Andy Wallace at the wheel on Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany.
There are only 12 people in the world who can say that they've gone over 400 mph in a piston-powered car.
Even the cheapest 200-mph cars still fetch over five figures on the used market. But you can still go plenty fast—150 mph, to be exact—for way less money than you think. Here are some of the cheapest cars that are able to crest the 150-mph barrier.
The regulation states that speedometers must never underreport a vehicle's speed, while it must never overreport by more than 110% of the actual speed + 6.25mph. So if you're going 40mph, your speedometer may read up to 50.25mph - but it can never read less than 40mph.
Automakers overengineer cars to improve reliability
Another reason why automakers design their cars to go over the speed limit is they overengineer them to improve reliability. By making a vehicle that can drive up to 120 mph, there's less strain on the engine when it spends a lifetime of going 65 mph.
Speed Demon, the streamliner Duttweiler's “big engine” is destined for, is already the fastest car ever powered by an internal-combustion piston engine—481.576 mph is the official record set at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2020. Its owner, George Poteet, now 74, was driving.
If you exceed your speedometer's maximum speed, the pointer will remain at the maximum speed position, and will not move below the maximum speed position until your speed drops back into a readable range. Luckily for all of the speed-fiends out there, this will NOT damage the speedometer.
First and foremost, speedometers in most vehicles are designed to overestimate the speed of travel. International law has long required modern cars to overstate true speed.
For sale: a rocket-powered car named Bloodhound built specifically to break the land speed record. Theoretical top speed of 1,000 miles per hour. Seats one.
The “kill your speed” message originates with the estimate that “the chance of a pedestrian [or cyclist, presumably] being seriously injured or killed if struck by a car is 45% at 30 mph and 5% at 20 mph”.
As the on-screen crash analysis expert puts it, there's "absolutely no survival space."
A series of crash tests by IIHS and partners shows that impact speeds of 50 mph or 56 mph are far more likely to lead to injury or death than 40 mph impacts.
But in the end, the biggest obstacle to 300 miles per hour is air. The drag, or air resistance, that a car encounters as it approaches this speed, can be compared to what you encounter when swimming.
Depending on your car manufacturer, you may have questioned why your car may have been limited to a specific speed limit, most notably 155 mph. Although this doesn't apply in all cars, several of the cars that we lease here at LCH are impacted due to these restrictions, so it's only fair that our customers know why.
Team Vesco and reVolt Systems engineer a salt-shaking 353.870 mph two-way average.