Sense of Speed
 

Just out of curiousity, has anyone noticed that its takes effort not to go fast?

I usually cruise around 65 in my local freeway. Sometimes, I check the speedo to find that it says I'm going 75 yet, it feels like I'm going 60. :eekdance:

I think my car is trying to get me a speeding ticket.

It sorta feels like your going extremely slow at posted speed limits. Usually if your 15-20mph over the posted limit, it feels your are going the correct speed lol.

What was your previous car?

I recently took a road trip (for business purposes) which put me on several dozen miles of nice straights and smooth winding cliffside roads. Needless to say, going 60 after several minutes of "not so 60" it felt like I was standing still.

Average speed after 3 hours of driving - 79mph, including a gas pit-stop. :cool:

freeway is ok. I just can't stand going 35 around the city.

Yeah this car has a tendency to do that, especially if you have the Sport/Nismo model with the extra front aero bits. The car's just so stable as you ramp up the mph, it's easy to not really notice. Some of my older cars, if I got up to ~100-110 on a flat highway, my passenger could feel the instability even more than I could and would start freaking out. In this car if I don't point out that we're doing 120 or whatever the passenger just keeps on reading her Kindle or whatever.

:iagree: biproduct of stability... my family van (I was 17 cut me a break) felt like I was about to lose it at 50 mph. Usually smaller/stable cars don't feel the speed as easily.

I noticed this on my first test drive. I gave it the beans, didn't feel like it was all that fast, I looked down at the speedo, and :eek: holy crap 75mph in seconds. :rofl2:

The car is remarkably planted.

My passengers are usually calm until they look at the speedo... The stability this car has at high speeds is incredible

Take it to a twisty road or track. 40mph will feel like you're doing 90.

I agree i have to tame myself whenever i drive it and constantly look at the speedo. Too easy to go fast means it has great power !

:driving:My husband drove my Z last weekend.
first timer...
he said "this thing is like a little rocket! OMG!"
of course he was grinning from ear ear to ear (like I have been for a month):icon17:
100 on a township road is a bit much though, even for me!

It pours through turns, and indeed, that is where my enjoyment of this car is at its peak. It handles like it's on rails.

:bowrofl: Skoda

Few weeks ago I was on a 2-lane road without a lot of passing opportunities. Three cars in front of me going 52 mph in a 55 zone, and not enough room to pull in between them and pick them off one at a time. Finally found an open stretch where I could comfortably take all 3 at the same time. Pulled out and put it to the floor. Didn't look at the speedo until I was passing the last car and was just topping 110 mph. Really hadn't planned to be going that fast. :) I'm sure they about crapped in their minvan as I went by.

the stupid old people that drives 10-15mph under the limit should drive this car! lol

On the freeway, I must use the cruise control or I will creep up in speed.

There has been much scientific research about speed limits and safety, and essentially 100% of the data is ignored by bureaucrats, politicians, police, and even voters when it comes to establishing traffic laws.

1) Joan Cimino, a researcher with the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, analyzed all the available data about speed limits and safety back around 1984, as I recall, and found NO relationship between speed limits and safety. Don't try to find this information anywhere. It appears it was shredded, thrown into the trash, burned, deleted, and has vanished entirely from the known universe. I suspect Ms. Cimino was taken to the desert and killed for her traffic safety heresy and buried outside Las Vegas. I have been able to find no mention of her since this study appeared, nor any mention of her research and findings.

2) In the 1950s, a study was done which demonstrated that unreasonably LOW speed limits actually INCREASED the speed of drivers--perhaps they were just showing their rebellious American nature toward bureaucracy.

3) Around 1950, a study out of Massachusetts found that a high percentage of accidents wherein police listed "speed" as the cause were actually due to mechanical failure in the automobile. Police were just defaulting to "speed" as a cause of accidents even when no direct evidence of speeding was present and without conducting any actual investigation.

4) Analysis of the safety record of drivers showed that the safest drivers habitually drove 10MPH OVER the speed of the rest of the traffic. Insurance companies don't want you to know this!

5) Yield signs are safer than stop signs, and yet law requires you to come to a complete stop at a stop sign even though that IS MORE DANGEROUS.

6) Traffic lights produce more danger than yield signs, and yet citizens often clamor for traffic lights at street corners.

7) The greatest dangers occur when traffic is forced to slow down. Keeping the traffic moving is the best safety principle. (See Maxwell Halsey's great book on highway safety printed back in the 1940s.)

8) Research has conclusively demonstrated that, when left to their own devices (no speed limit set), almost all drivers rationally drive at the speed which is SAFEST FOR THEM. This may be a completely different speed from that which is safest for another driver. One size of pantyhose does NOT FIT ALL.

Don't expect ANY scientific research to get you excused from a speeding ticket or from rolling through a stop sign.

But I think this does explain your problem. You are subconsciously attempting to drive at the speed which which is safest for YOU AND YOUR AUTOMOBILE. I note that driving at a slow speed allows my mind to wander and thus I am likely to be more vulnerable to making a driving mistake. Driving faster forces more concentration. That may be part of the answer to the above data.

I'll be 71 years old in a couple weeks. I resent the "old driver" comment! (Just kidding...) My average speed on my latest road trip of nearly 1000 miles was 71MPH and my gas mileage was 27.2MPG. Not bad numbers at all. Indeed, the MPH figure was HIGHER than the advertised highway mileage for the 370Z. Before radar and laser speed guns were common, I often averaged around 90MPH on trips and once 98.7 over 300 miles. Paul Newman was an old guy who, at 80 years old, could still drive racing speeds around a road course. One size (stereotype) of pantyhose does not fit all! (A song by The Waitresses had that title around 30 years ago...)

SailFree, your post contains much too much logic for this forum. :tup:

agreed, thus he is now an ignore list candidate. :icon17:

LOL

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

Wow! Very nice reading. Thank you.

Agree 100%, "But I think this does explain your problem. You are subconsciously attempting to drive at the speed which which is safest for YOU AND YOUR AUTOMOBILE. I note that driving at a slow speed allows my mind to wander and thus I am likely to be more vulnerable to making a driving mistake. Driving faster forces more concentration. That may be part of the answer to the above data."

I think Montana was the last hold out for no speed limits on the freeway, but thats done now too.

^ Exactly, driving briskly keeps you alert. Especially when you have a manual transmission. I wish we had an autobahn here in the states.... :(

Who's not on your ignore list,lol? Pretty soon all you'll see is this.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1339514576

:icon18: lol! that's when i quit the370zcom :icon17:

I wish at least this one rational point would be emphasized more at Police departments. About once a month somewhere in Houston, I'll be ripping along safely in "normal" Houston traffic (which means a 4+ lane highway, the speed limit is say 60, but real traffic speeds are commonly ranging up to 85-ish or so with lots of passing going on, and a few of us nuts doing well over that in the safer stretches)....

And then bam, I come into this traffic brick wall. There will be a pack of cars across all lanes about 20 cars deep doing 3 mph under the speed limit, and a cop sitting up at the front of the pack. People in the back mostly don't even realize the cop is up there, so they're all jockeying around for position and trying to get through it. It's a war zone, and the odds of accident in those packs goes way the hell up. Nobody at the front is willing to make the pass on the cop though. I'll usually eventually make it up front and pass the cop at 5-10 over. Never been pulled over for doing that (but frankly I'd love it if he did so I could give him a piece of my mind...), people are just scared.

Yeah with artificially low speed limits lane respect goes down. People incorrectly use left lanes and don't allow others to pass. That is why traffic fatalities increase. Now if you actually are involved at a crash at 90mph vs 70 mph it will certainly be more dangerous at the higher speed but with more respectful drivers less likely.

the biggest contributor to an accident is the one that drives slow.

how's that for a fortune cookie? lol

Wow! Very nice reading. Thank you.--Robones
SailFree, your post contains much too much logic for this forum.--shadoquad

Heck, I can't win here. Either someone sucking up or someone disrespecting!

Seriously, thanks folks.

--SailFree

sailfree- any comments on my fortune cookie quote? :tup:

Speed is not the factor that causes danger, but one's mind set and attitude at the time they are speeding..

From Confused Mikey.

you're going to need a jumbo-sized fortune cookie for that one, tiki tiki tembo! :tup:

My previous car was a Lexus GS430 and I must say I find that I was able to tell speed in that car alot better than the Z. The Z is very stable.

The National Motorists Association ("NMA") is the only organization I've known that consistently stands up for motorists in the U.S. They even have a Washington lobbying arm. They have much good info about "speed kills" nonsense, radar, red light cameras, etc. I recommend joining to support the rights of motorists (no ax to grind here - I'm just an ordinary member). The HQ is located in Wisconsin, and you can get info at National Motorists Association Website. I buy a family membership every year and consider it money well spent. What with all the "green" nonsense about "evil automobiles," the train lobby siphoning the highway trust fund, etc. - we need all the help we can get.

i remember a few weeks after I got my Z i was driving through town in a 35 mph zone with a cop behind me, so I was going exactly 35 and I literally couldn't control my own laughter because of how silly it was that I was going so slow...It was a road that I could easily go 45+ on safely.

Thanks for the link. They sound like my kind of people, and I'd never heard of them :)

i think the car actually gets more stable the higher you go... feels great in top gear at around 5k rpm....

yeah i get that same feeling. when i do i just turn on the cruise control....

Your a nut. And disagree with everything you say.