why do speedometers go as high as 140 – 160 mph but some average cars can’t go faster than 100 -120?
In: Technology
Look at the 12 o’clock speed. That’s about the top you should be driving. Often it’s about 80mph / 120kph or so.
Hills exist; going down a slope will aide getting over that normal max speed of factory stock cars
Also – you can modify cars
Its cheaper to build a standard speedometer get that calibrated and have it pass compliance vs creating a new speedometer for every car in your fleet. Just build a speedo that will work with the fastest car you make and then install it in every model.
Almost any motor vehicle can go fast enough on a long downhill.
If a car can go 120mph on flat road, it could most likely reach 160 on a downhill
Marketing.
You are looking at two cars you could buy.
You’re young and you can’t afford a bigass car.
One has a dashboard that the speedometer says maxes at 120.
The other has a dashboard that does 160.
You have watched some of the street racing movies. Even Transformers.
Fast cars are cool.
Which one are you going to want to buy?
A lot of people are going to buy the 140 car, even if they only ever go 110
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1. Car makers will make 3-5 different versions of a car with a similar dash & use the same dial on all of them. Some would go that fast. Some would not.
2. Aftermarket mods to the car could make it go faster, so you would need more room on the dial than the stock top speed.
It comes from gaugeing standards where the gauge needs to have 50% greater readable range than the set operating range.
This way you know when and by how much something is exceeding said operating range and then can adjust/fix this before it causes damage.
You mean my Corrolla’s speedometer isn’t custom?
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