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when you say you drive flat out pretty much in the way it was intended, I am not totally sure that manufacturers make their cars with the primary aim for top speed. Surely the 530d has been made the way it is for a mix of fuel economy and mid range pulling power rather than top speed. Just being pedantic - apologies.
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I often use maximum in-gear acceleration, but not been anywhere near its top speed.
I often corner quite quickly but wouldn't go anywhere near the limits of grip (except in the snow!).
But I'm currently doing a bit of an economy drive, with careful acceleration getting 50mpg while still doing 70 on the motorway (65% of my driving is dual carriageway/ motorway).
Load carrying - infrequently have carried a fridge freezer, washing machine, boot full of building materials, junk to the tip.
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> I am not totally sure that manufacturers make their cars with the primary aim fortop speed. Surely the 530d has been made the way it is for a mix of fuel economy and mid range pulling power rather than top speed.
I don't think this car was designed specifically with the intention of having a very high top speed. But the combination of a powerful engine, a 6 speed gearbox and aerodynamics result in a high top speed. I think BMW realise that their customers, at least in Germany, expect to be able to drive distances at or close to the top speed and therefore design the suspension, brakes, cooling system, etc. to allow this without the car leaving the road, overheating, or having bits falling off it. German car manufacturers are in the unique position of supplying a home market that (at the moment at least) has no speed limits on its autobahns and have to offer products designed to cope with this. This makes them overengineered for overseas markets which, in my opinion, is one reason people like them.
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I use the full potential of boths cars almost every day. The MG is a pure delight to hammer round the twistys with the engine singing it's little heart out, and the Mondeo has a lovely punch to it when accelerating that makes it hard not to go near the limiter, it doesn't corner as well as the MG though :-)
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Performance-wise I don't use it to its extremes, though I do try to use its ecconomy potential - I do use it to its carrying capacity a fair bit, though, that's why I bought it!
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My car: Suzuki Ignis
Torque: yes, quite often reach 4000 rpm
Power: occassionally rev to 6000 rpm in 2nd gear
ABS: so far activated only once in icy road
full volume of music system: never tried, I'll become deaf
fuel economy: yes, often achieve 43 mpg against 45 mpg as advertised
passenger carrying: quite often carried 5 adults + some luggage
max speed: yes, rated 99 mph, achieved 105 mph (GPS reading - not on downhill) [not on public road :o)]
airbags: don't intend to use
luggage carrying capability: yes - moved house using this tiny car! Only obvious furnitures didn't fit in it like sofa, chests etc.
So, I'm quite happy to say that I've used full potential of my car.
On an advisory note, I don't think a car should be taken to its full mechanical limit everyday - it will cause pre-mature wear of components.
It is far easier to use cheaper/smaller cars to its full potential compared with a bigger/expensive cars.
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No. It's my own car, but with company petrol (3.2 Vectra).
So, generally, I don't squeal the tyres but use a fair bit of welly away from lights if I'm in the mood. Avoid cornering/braking hard to save tyres/brakes. Use quite a bit of huice on mid range acceleration. Haven't for above 130ish yet, but planning a trip to Germany in Aug to see if it really does do 155...
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Of course not. It's illegal and as many have pointed out, expensive.
Get a racing driver to do 20 quick laps of Silverstone in a brand new roadgoing Porsche 911 and see what it's like afterwards. It won't be brand new any more, that's for sure. Of course it would take most of us much longer to wear it out, but if we were trying hard we would soon crash anyway.
Edited by Lud on 30/05/2008 at 15:24
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You'd be amazed how much stuff I can cram in the car. Funnily I've always used the full carrying potential of all my cars, no matter how big (or small).
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Yeah, going to the tip uses full potential more than anything else.
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I use the full potential of the petrol tank capacity when I fill up, but that's about all.
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No
To use the full dynamic potential may be illegal and in finding out I might find out that its capability is higher than mine and that would be dangerous.
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Nope. Nor my PC, nor my sax, nor my ...
To be fair, even if I was a full-time driver (etc) I doubt I would. I know my limits!
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0-60 6.7 seconds: Very rarely. I care for my clutch.
30-70 6.5 seconds: Quite often, useful when overtaking
155mph: Absolutely never
5 Seats: Very infrequently
Huge boot: Never
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Interesting.
To answer my own question, I reckon I routinely use about 90% of my Mazda 323's performance and handling capability. I'm usually one of the faster moving vehicles on any road, so I'm not sure when I'd get to use the extra abilities of a more capable car.
My car is worth £1,000 max. Is a BMW 1-series (for example) twenty times as good as my 323? I fancy a new motor, but I'm having trouble finding a good reason to buy one - "nice soft touch plastics" doesn't justify an extra £18k.
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Panda 4x4.
Certainly use its egine power to the max as it would go nowhere if I didn't.
Handling, however, is superb and use this to the max on windy roads.
4x4 performance, well I have taken it off road but you only know you've used full performance when you get stuck which I have. Have used on ice and snow but again you only know if full performance used when you slide off the road or crash which I have not.
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In my ZR, I've only filled the boot up once whilst I travelled up to Scotland with my then girlfriend, even then it still had a bit of space.
Did the same with my Ford Ka & ended up using the backseat as an overflow :)
Performance wise I've never taken the ZR to it's topend speed, I've however taken it to the rev limiter once by accident whilst overtaking somebody....... ooops....... but I do occasionally take the revs around the 4000-5000rpm mark occasionaly.
I fill the fuel tank up everytime I go to the filling station.
Occasionally I may go round bends with maximum adhesion when it's safe to do so.
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Yes, I used to drive my Dyane absolutely flat most of the time, but the roads were a bit better in a lot of ways back in 1970. It was capable of putting in some remarkable times too (including once, in the small hours of Sunday morning, 54 miles on South-East A roads including about seven or eight miles of London in just under an hour, a time only equalled once over 30-plus years, and that in a much faster car, the usual time being an hour and a half to two hours).
The car hated it though, only did 30 or 35 mpg, never felt good driving like that and was pretty knackered at 30,000 miles although still going OK. I wouldn't be so cruel to it today. 2CV variants on their absolute cornering limits are very gauche to put it mildly, albeit quite faithful.
Edited by Lud on 31/05/2008 at 19:12
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I drive my company BMW 530d flat out on the autobahns. So pretty much using it in exactly the way it was intended.
What does 'flat out' equate to in old money then?............................and are there ANY other vehicles around at the same time?
Just interested....................MD.
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140 plus mph.
What difference is the presence of other vehicles, quite a few of which will be going at similar speeds, supposed to make MD?
Just interested...
:o}
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One of the reasons I got shot of my BMW was that it wasn't being used to its full potential. Generally four empty seats, immense performance capability that was rarely used - the Skoda that replaced it is a far better proposition in these utilitarian days.
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I pushed the old man's Benz 380 to 230km/h early early one Sunday morning across the flatlands of the Karoo desert, for an extended period.
That's what they build them for!
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Just think what speed Ian could have achieved if he hadn't been pushing a car. :)
Edited by Avant on 01/06/2008 at 00:55
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He was being chased by boomslangs. If they had been spitting cobras he could have pushed an armoured personnel carrier at the same speed.
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