So you drive a fast car. You’ve got the sunglasses, the driving gloves, and 300 horses under the hood. You’ve watched all the TV ads, and read the magazines to get the best handling and fastest car you could get. Now what do you do? -you rev the engine and gently (careful not to burn rubber) bring your car as quickly as possible up to 55 mph, and then, after that 5 second thrill, travel pleasantly along with all the other rowboats and minivans. You ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my fast car?” All the latest technology is useless because even a 1934 Ford can handle the turns well above the current speed limits. The whole thing is a cruel joke. All the car manufacturers talk about the unbelievable performance of their vehicles. They speed them around race tracks and skid them across salt flats, as if this is what you require your car be capable of doing. Furthermore, there are automobile TV shows that caution us to never break the law by improperly discarding our antifreeze, and yet no such admonition is given about speeding laws, which are quickly exceeded in about 5 seconds by many of the cars reviewed on the same show. So you bought your high performance machine merely to poke along at 45 mph on a twisty country road? or sit in a traffic jam on a highway designed for 80 mph traffic?
Or are the car manufacturers actually encouraging us to break the law and speed? Why hasn’t anyone sued them for the cost of their speeding tickets? If cigarette manufacturers are to be blamed for our illnesses, and gun manufacturers for our killings; then certainly Chevrolet should be held responsible for making their Corvette too fast and too responsive. When a car is built for 90+mph driving, can we really be held responsible to keep the speed under 55? At the very least, they should be required to place a label on the side – “Warning, your local guardians have determined that use of this car beyond 38% of its full potential is both dangerous and unlawful”.
But here is one more example of how society says one thing and promotes another. Make up your mind, do you want your sports cars or your speed limits? Unfortunately, speed limits are not there to protect the citizens, but merely as a means of boosting revenue. Its hard to get money out of real criminals; so instead, we mulct the good citizens. At the very least, why can’t we set the speed limits more appropriate to the design of the road, and give back some of the sports car’s reason to exist.