Unpredictable things happens at that speed.
Forget about braking distance. The reaction time is the difference between life and dying before you even know it.
I know of one example where a motorcyclist killed himself that way. Nobody knows how fast he was going but it’s assumed above 250 km/h, on a regular highway. Down the road is a cross section. A lorry was fully stopped at the crossing and preparing to turn right onto the highway in the same direction as the motorcycle. The lorry driver checked both directions and saw that the road was completely clear as far as the eye could see, hundreds of meters.
A split second later he heard a bump and pulled over to check if he had hit an animal or something. He found a massive hole in the back and the debris from a motorcycle. There was no brake marks or anything indicating that the motorcycle had even attempted to brake or steer around. The theory is that the motorcyclist might have glimpsed at the speedometer or something for long enough that he drove the entire visible distance before being able to even react.
Obviously he was a fault himself, but the point is that at speeds like this, you no longer have any capability to predict what happens next.
If your friend thinks that cool, he might as well play Russian roulette. At least that doesn’t put innocent people in danger.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
We traveled to Germany years ago, rented a car and drove on the autobahn with no speed limit. We were on a long down hill in a brand new audi a6 … beautiful car and I floored it in the passing lane to 260 kmh … I was scared shitless because I knew that all I needed was a rock on the road or a little bump and we’d both be dead. I looked in my rear view mirror and a guy was flashing me from behind. He wanted me to move over and he passed us just seemingly floating right past us in a luxury Mercedes.
That was the fastest I’ve ever driven anything and it was scary. The car was fine, it’s just knowing that if any small thing came in our way at that speed, the car would fly, crash, crush us to death, rip apart and blow up in a blaze of glory. You can survive a crash at 140 kmh … it would be a miracle to have your body remain in one piece in a crash at 300 kmh
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I find it weird that a rental wasn’t limited to 250 km/h. Which most factories do by default. In fact it should be limited to even lower than that IMO.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
I don’t know honestly … all I know is that the A6 had about 5,000 km on the odometer and everything was pristine new … it was the most luxury brand new car I ever drove. We had to haggle the rental guy to upgrade our rental from a standard rental to one size up … he didn’t have anything in our range but said that he would look into upgrading us further and we ended up with the A6.
Like I said, we were on a nice long downslope in the country side. It was easy to floor it and build up speed but the car seemed to max out at 255 260 and I couldn’t get it any further. The best part was that Mercedes flashing us from behind and wanting to pass.
Later on on the same trip, we noticed to helicopter flights overhead carrying cars away from an accident … they don’t seem to bother calling in tow trucks to carry things away because the pieces of cars that are left from a high speed crash are small enough to be carried away with a chopper.
Tja@programming.dev 2 days ago
It probably was indicated 260, real 250. Even the S6 is limited, and for the RS6 you have to buy an option to rise the limit.
x00z@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Why should it be if it’s not illegal to go vroom vroom? Makes no sense.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s an American law, so vehicles weren’t faster than police vehicles, there was ways to remove the governor though.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
You technically can survive a 140kph crash in the same way that technically you can survive jumping out an airplane at 10 kilometers, or how you can survive rabies
Technically possible as there are few recorded incidents, but let’s say that you easier win the lottery than surviving any of that shit.
Was it myth busters who smashed a car against a wall at 120 or 140 kph? Don’t know anymore but I do recall the car literally being folded up
At those speeds, crumplezones extend way into the back of your head, so again, you can quite safely bet you’ll die.