Originally Posted by Hamwich
Originally Posted by TBM
There is great fun to be had in driving a lower performance car to its limit,

This is exactly the point of driving for pleasure in my view. You need to be able to feel the car as it nears the limit, understand how the tyres move, what the steering inputs do, and so on.

Sure, you can do this in a high performance car, but you need to pay for an expensive closed track with extensive runoffs, and if you get it wrong you are looking at even more expensive repairs. On the other hand, larking about on a deserted B road in a car that has a much smaller performance envelope is not only free, but even if you do get it wrong you'll be sliding into the hedge at 40mph rather than 140mph.

For the rest of it, which usually involves just getting from A to B with the least grief, is actually more enjoyable in a lower performance car as you don't have to be constantly fighting the urge to go faster. My 4/4 on a motorway is perfectly happy up to 85 and can sit at 70 all day, but there's no risk of me absent-mindedly pressing a bit too much on the throttle and getting nicked for 90mph +

I dont think that A to B is relevant to this discussion. If thats all you are using a car for, as indeed is the case most of the time, then all you need is some saloon with decent seats , good aircon and some sort of audio. Auto of course since there really is no point in messing with gears in a 20mph queue.

I never take my toy car out if the journey involves town centres or motorways - they can never be fun. But B roads and even roundabouts are a different thing altogether. I used to really enjoy overtaking cars on a roundabout in my Lotus or seeing how much I could exceed the silly advisory limits they put on many bends. Yes I know its a bit childish but the actual speeds involved are low - despite modern tech and dualised roads, I can never match the average speed I use to achieve in my Spitfire in the 60s on the way cross country to university. No motorways then but also no traffic and de-restricted meant just that.

You dont have to drive a fast car fast. You dont ( or at least I dont) buy one for its max speed - what use is the 185mph of my Ferrari? Instead you buy it for a variety of personal reasons from the badge, the heritage, the camaraderie of the owners club, the beauty of the engineering involved and indeed the sheer driving pleasure of spending time in magnificent machine. You do get some occasional snide comments from ignorant / envious people but way more smiles and waves.

Nevertheless I have never exceeded or even closely approached 100 mph on the public roads. They simply arent suitable for such things.