14 Reasons Why Top Speed Figures Are Meaningless | Wealth of Geeks

Ask any gearhead what the two most important motoring stats are, and they’d tell you the following:

0-60mph Times and Top Speed Figures.

While we have already covered why 0-60mph times can be misleading, top speed figures are even more meaningless. This is the point where most people would disagree, shake their heads, and try to give at least one reason why top speed is a valid and useful measure of vehicle performance.

But they can’t.

Not a good one, anyway. That’s because a high top speed really is just a marketing ploy, and it can actually make your car more expensive and less fun to drive at regular speeds. Still unconvinced? Let us explain in 14 easy steps:

The Fastest You Can Legally Go In Most States Is 75MPH

Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Montana allow for 80mph motoring on certain sections of road. Texas lets you do 85 in a few areas, but the rest of the US has top speed limits between 65 and 75mph. It’s hardly worth paying extra for a car that can go much over 90, then, is it?

Most of Our Time Is Spent in Traffic

Forget 80 or even 65mph; most driving in the US takes place in city centers, where average rush hour speeds can go as low as 19mph (Washington DC). Getting up to 30mph is an achievement, so adding that big wing and supercharger to your V8 sports car is not going to do you any favors.

Don’t Even Mention the Autobahn

Now, before you even mention that the Autobahn has miles and miles of unrestricted highways, it’s not quite so simple. Firstly, traffic congestion rarely allows for foot-flat driving; the average speeds achieved on free-flowing sections of unrestricted Autobahn rarely reach 90mph.

Secondly, if you are living in the US, the only time you will have access to the Autobahn is on holiday, when your cheap 1.3-liter rental car will be hard-pressed to keep out of its own way, let alone set a land speed record on the way to your hotel.

Gearing Compromises Are Required for High Top Speeds

Your vehicle has gears so that the engine can deliver the right amount of torque to the road at varying speeds. Lower gears don’t allow you to go very fast, but they let you accelerate quickly. Higher gears do the opposite.

If your car’s transmission needs to cater to a very wide speed band, then it will have very long ratios (slow acceleration) or lots of gears (heavy transmission and constant gear changing).

Most Electric Cars Can’t Go Over 120MPH – Yet They’re Super Quick

While we’re on the subject of gears, most electric cars have just one. That’s because they produce a huge amount of torque all the time. That’s why some don’t go much faster than 100-120mph, but many are supercar quick at lower speeds. Adding gears may increase the top speed, but it also increases the complexity and cost, which is only viable on expensive vehicles like the Porsche Taycan.

High Development Costs for Performance You Will Never Use

Back in the ‘90s, most German auto makers agreed to limit their vehicles’ top speeds to 156mph (250km/h). This was partly for safety reasons, but it was also to stop the escalating development costs required to build cars that could do 200mph.

You Will Probably Never Drive at Your Car’s Top Speed

How many times have you driven at your vehicle’s top speed? Even for a few minutes? Most likely never. That’s because most of us don’t relish the chance of getting locked up or causing a massive accident.

Tires Get Very Expensive

Tires may all look the same, but they are very complex and performance tires are not cheap. Every tire has a speed rating that it should not be exceeded. Did you know that cars like the Bugatti Veyron had to have specially designed tires made produced just for them to be able to achieve their crazy top speeds? That’s why a set of the Bugatti’s Michelin Pilot Sport Pax tires can cost over $38,000.

Most Supercars Can’t Reach Their Quoted Top Speeds

Misquoting figures is nothing new in the automotive industry. Fudged acceleration figures, and especially wildly optimistic top speed claims have been the standard for decades.

Jaguar would name their cars after their claimed top speeds, yet even professional drivers couldn’t match these claims. The same applies to Lamborghini, Ferrari and dozens of other manufacturers.

Why do this? Because claiming that your vehicle is 1mph quicker than the competition will sell more cars, and nobody is about to test the claims anyway.

A 20 Mph Difference in Top Speeds Is Irrelevant

Forget a 1mph difference, even a 20mph difference in top speeds means basically nothing when considering actual performance. Many powerful AWD turbocharged, hot hatches can’t go much faster than 160mph, but they will easily out-accelerate big mega-horsepower luxury cars capable of 180mph+, thanks to a better power-to-weight ratio and superior traction.

Auto Manufacturers Know That Top Speed Figures Make Us Excited

Telling your friends that your new car can reach 180mph is a great way to get their respect and admiration. Well, the auto makers seem to think so anyway. We may never reach that speed or even know if its true, but why would anyone knowingly buy a slower car for the same money when you could have this ridiculously fast one, instead?

Volvo Already Knows Better

As part of its plan to reduce injuries and deaths to nothing by 2020, Volvo reduced the top speed in all its cars to 112mph. While it unfortunately couldn’t meet this target, it has got extremely close. The point is that sales of this model haven’t suffered as a result of this lower top speed and it can now focus on more important things, like increased safety features and better in-car tech.

The Japanese Were on It Decades Ago

The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association were on to this decades ago– 1988 to be precise. That is the year they decided to voluntarily limit the top speed of all Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars to 112mph.

That’s still way faster than legally allowed, but it allowed the Japanese auto manufacturers to develop cars that were real-world quick, without chasing a pointless top speed figure.

Just out of interest, a 276 horsepower limit was also introduced in 1988 as well, but was eventually lifted in 2004 as everyone had been building way more powerful cars for years, anyway.

In-Gear Acceleration Is Where It’s At

So, if top speed is silly and 0-60mph times are also a bit pointless, then how do we measure performance? Well, one way is to compare in-gear acceleration. Going from 30-70mph on a highway onramp or accelerating past slower traffic in town from 10-40mph is a far more common occurrence than blasting from 0-60mph, or hauling along at your car’s V-max. That’s why in the real-world, EVs are quicker than just about anything else out there.