Why do cars go faster than the highest speed limit?

Question

If the highest speed limit is 60 why make cars go any faster than 60-70 at most?

In: Other

Answer 1

Mostly because people want to go faster than 60-70 mph, and car makers are in the (reasonable) habit of making cars that people want to buy. I don’t speed regularly (not really anyway), but there’s no way I’d want a car with a speed-limiter set anywhere below 110-120+. Not speeds I ever drive (maybe 85+/- is a max on long stretches of empty highway with 70+ speed limits, but even that is few and far between these days), but it’s nice to know if I ever needed some real velocity, it’s available. Besides, there are places where the official speed limit is 80mph, and the “unofficial” speed limit is even higher – there’s no reason to go less than 80-90 on long stretches of highway in some of the western and plains states (in the US).