Why are the majority of cars able to drive nearly double the maximum speed limit of most countries?

Question

Why are the majority of cars able to drive nearly double the maximum speed limit of most countries?

In: 8

Answer 1

People touched on gearing, but this is also one of those things that is easily cracked in even modern computer ECUs.

Pretty much every car where there is a sports enthusiast market has super cheap chips to unlock artificially restricted power, remove rev limiters, and alter things that annoy owners like seatbelt chimes.

This kind of regulation would be beat by any consumer spending $200 and plugging a device in an OBD port.