Porsche should be selling bumper cars

[Bollo]

What is the point of owning it if you are going to drive it like an old biddy with dementia??

The short frivolous answer - why do you think I'm selling it?

The long sensible answer - I bought it because I'd loved the old 911s as a kid and was in the lucky position of being able to afford it. I'm sure there are many reasons why people buy fast cars, but in my case it was like owning a painting or sculpture that you've always admired. The plan was to keep it 'forever', but I was driving it so infrequently that it was just a shame (and expensive) to keep it in a garage.

Did I drive like a two-hats? Honestly, no. Life has given me too many examples of my own fallibility and mortality to think that I have a free pass to drive any car dangerously. Also, I know my limitations as a driver - I've never been trained to operate a car beyond the limits of everyday road driving, so why would I think I can hoon it like Hamilton just because I'm in a car with a bit of poke? I've kept a clean licence for 29 years and I'm proud of that. Other drivers think differently, but I can only answer for myself.

I'd have no problems with graded tests, periodic retest and ultimately a ban on high performance cars. They can be beautiful pieces of engineering, but probably not essential to the survival of mankind.

I ride my bike like a **** though.

 

[Profpointy]

Because, when a twat puts their foot down on the accelerator of a high performance car, they have the potential to hit something faster and, more importantly sooner, than in a lower performance car.

Sorry, may have misunderstood - thought you were arguing quite the opposite - as you were

 

[Over The Hill]

So from the insurance stats we know that faster cars have more accidents and so probably kill or injure more people. But as a society we are still quite happy to accept this as long as the fast driver pays a bit more on his premium.

I do quite accept the argument that if you take this same driver and give him a Nissan Micra he will probably drive like a nutter still.

However you set things on the path of change in two ways-
More nutters are not attracted to driving fast as all they see is a sad prat in a Micra instead of a cool guy in a Porsche. The nutter driving the Micra will not get the pleasure of driving like a nutter so is not rewarded for his efforts. - He goes from "Marlboro Man" to sad addict.
Without the speed culture, car style will move in a new direction that people will buy into. - It does not have to be about speed.

 

[Markymark]

My BMW is faster, has a bigger engine and is less to insure than my Audi which is used to ferry around the kids.
The age and value of the car appears to have a bigger impact on the insurance.

 

[Profpointy]

a side question - Australia (and USA I believe) have relatively low speed limits on empty roads quite strictly enforced - yet a tendency to hugely big V8 engines in their cars.

Europe has quite high tollerated if not legal speeds on motorways yet most people have fairly small engined cars.

Co-incidence?

 

[Markymark]

a side question - Australia (and USA I believe) have relatively low speed limits on empty roads quite strictly enforced - yet a tendency to hugely big V8 engines in their cars.

Europe has quite high tollerated if not legal speeds on motorways yet most people have fairly small engined cars.

Co-incidence?

Weren't the low speeds on the US interstate roads to do with fuel shortages some decades ago and have just stuck?

 

[ArDee]

a side question - Australia (and USA I believe) have relatively low speed limits on empty roads quite strictly enforced - yet a tendency to hugely big V8 engines in their cars.

Europe has quite high tollerated if not legal speeds on motorways yet most people have fairly small engined cars.

Co-incidence?

Weren't the low speeds on the US interstate roads to do with fuel shortages some decades ago and have just stuck?

As somebody that drives fairly regularly in the US, the speed limits on the interstates outside towns and cities is quite often 70.
It's normally in the towns and cities where there are lots of junctions and traffic that the speed limits come down to lower speed 60 or 55. The difference between the US and the UK is that in the US these lower speed limits apply all the time whilst in the UK there are variable speed limits depending on traffic loading.
As an aside there are some states in the US where the speed limit is 75, 80 or even 85.

 

[ArDee]

The large engines in Australia and the US is partly due to customer expectation requirements; but, also partly due to the RON (or octane) rating of the fuel. in the US "Standard" petrol has a RON rating of 88 or 89 in Australia it is 91 whilst in Europe it's 95. The lower the octane rating the lower the power output for a given engine size.

 

[swee'pea99]

Even as a cyclist and one who has absolutely no interest at all in fast cars, I really don't seem to be able to share the ever so faint sense of satisfaction that some people seem to have that two people died a horrendous death in an expensive car while driving stupidly.

I really don't mind people doing stupid things. Life would be a bit boring without it, wouldn't it?

Le Prince Noir
[media]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5hL1zuq-tY
[/media]

London Calling

[media]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhaGzAnEOd8
[/media]

The original and still the best....

View: https://vimeo.com/34039780

 

[Milkfloat]

So from the insurance stats we know that faster cars have more accidents and so probably kill or injure more people.

Do we know that faster cars have more accidents?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Well blow me.

Thank you for the offer but no, just NO!

I cannot believe this post is still going, I'm surprised everybody isn't dizzy re-visiting the same points over & over again.

 

[Tin Pot]

So from the insurance stats we know that faster cars have more accidents and so probably kill or injure more people. But as a society we are still quite happy to accept this as long as the fast driver pays a bit more on his premium.

I do quite accept the argument that if you take this same driver and give him a Nissan Micra he will probably drive like a nutter still.

However you set things on the path of change in two ways-
More nutters are not attracted to driving fast as all they see is a sad prat in a Micra instead of a cool guy in a Porsche. The nutter driving the Micra will not get the pleasure of driving like a nutter so is not rewarded for his efforts. - He goes from "Marlboro Man" to sad addict.
Without the speed culture, car style will move in a new direction that people will buy into. - It does not have to be about speed.

Yes, quite happy thank you.

The lack of Porsches on the road will not decrease nutterishness. I would accept that with no cars at all available to nutters, road deaths would decrease.

 

[donnydave]

Whilst out and about having a pleasant chug around in either of our fairly sporty cars (leaving a trail of destruction, chaos and dead baby seals ) you would not believe the nutterishness my wife and I have witnessed from supposedly safe smiles-and-rainbows producing non-sporty cars who seem to think they need to prove something

Blame the people! Don't blame the cars! leave the cars out of it, poor things! (although one of my cars is a vindictive little sod and I'm sure is actively trying to kill me all the time)

 

[Over The Hill]

Do we know that faster cars have more accidents?

Yes.


Otherwise the insurance would be cheaper.

However to be more accurate it is the cars that people drive faster rather than faster cars.

 

[Tin Pot]

Yes.


Otherwise the insurance would be cheaper.

However to be more accurate it is the cars that people drive faster rather than faster cars.

There is a substantial difference between inference and knowledge.