Why Make Street-Legal Cars that Can Go 172 mph When It's Illegal?

Back in January 2007, Brit Tim Brady, on a day-off from his job working as a delivery driver for a high-end luxury car hire firm, decided to take one of the high-end models he so obviously envied for a spin. His vehicular death-trap of choice was a 'Porsche 911 Turbo', and the little spin he took saw him clock an unbelievable 172 mph along the highways of Oxfordshire in England. Being some 100 mph over the 70 mph speeding limit, he was duly arrested and has since been sentenced to 10 weeks prison, with a driving ban of 3 years.

All of this begs the question: Why is a street-legal car even capable of doing such high speeds? Or better yet, given that some of these cars can attain such speeds, why are they deemed street-legal and allowed on the roadways in the first place? It used to be that high-end performance cars would top out at 120mph or something along those lines. Compare that to what is now considered the fastest street-legal car in the world, the 'Bugatti Veyron' a very attractive little number which tops out at 253mph. Of course the price tag of $1,700,000.00 means that we're not going to be seeing too many of these cars on our roads anytime soon. But 253mph? How can a car company possibly justify such over-juiced vehicles and why does the legal system allow such obviously dangerous vehicles on the roads at all.

Of the many clichéd phrases used by advertisers to market cars both on TV and on Radio the '0-60 in 3, 4, 5 whatever seconds' is the one that really sticks in my craw. I expect it's only being used to indicate a cars ability and power because god knows how many deaths we'd see on our roads if anyone actually did go from 0-60mph in 3 seconds. I imagine you would have to live very close to a highway in order for this to be legal. Say 90 feet!

120 to 140 mph is plenty good for a top-speed maximum. It should allow a car to be plenty able to handle the top speed of 70mph in a smooth fashion and without rattling the car chassis to death. I speak from experience. My 2nd hand car would shudder, shake and basically take on the personality of 'Linda Blair' in the climactic scenes from the Exorcist whenever I came even close to 70mph and I'm sure if I'd had a higher-performance car that could best 100mph with ease then my 70mph ride would have been smooth sailing.

Unfortunately, these high-end super-performance cars are so well made nowadays that the driving experience obviously doesn't seem to register the reality of the speed to the driver. Super shock-absorbers and sound-absorbing car-frames probably give the driver a false sense of security and the video-game like images of cars whizzing by at high-speed I think propels some people into an almost hypnotic drug-induced state of euphoria. Gone are the tactile physical sensations you get from ordinary cars. The physical sensations experienced from high speeds in normal cars keep most drivers from losing sense with reality and stop them from flying down the highway at 100mph plus whilst these new super expensive death-traps seem to lull the driver into a completely different world simply by not allowing them to physically experience the normal vibrations, sounds etc. that a normal car would give them.

It's time the powers that be took a harder look at what vehicles are allowed on the road. Along with Tractor-Trailers (which flip over in 5mph winds) these 2 vehicles are a menace to our society.