Eric's Autos: Life in the Slow Lane (in a Fast Car)
It's an automotive Catch 22 for almost every car - even family cars - to have Autobahn capability yet be restricted to what amounts to life in the slow lane. A current V6 Camry or Accord is quicker and faster than an '80s-vintage Ferarri. Either can do 140-plus on top and 0-60 in about 6.5 seconds. This in in a country where you can't legally or realistically drive much faster than 70-ish in most places more than a few furtive seconds without risking a potential legal and financial Ned Beatty-in-the-woods-with-the-hillbillys situation.
It is not unlike having a really hot girl show up at your doorstep in a skimpy bikini, come inside and take her to the bedroom. But don't you dare touch her.
I recently got to test drive the new Dodge Challenger Hellcat. It has more than 700 horsepower and will do 120 in third gear. It has an eight-speed transmission. What do you do with this? And it's not a case of the Rare Exotic. Last week, I got a Kia minivan to test drive. It has almost 300 hp. A minivan.
Eighty in a new Prius feels as boring as 60 felt in a '70s-era Camaro Z28. Trust me, I've driven both. In the curves, it's the same story.
Today's middle-of-the-road family sedans have suspensions so sticky you have to take those freeway off-ramps posted at 35 at least 20 MPH over that just to begin to sample the limits. Anything less and you might as well be riding a bus - because you're not really driving anyhow.
In a sport sedan, you will need to be really laying it down for there to be any point to the exercise.
But do that and you risk doing time, these days. No joke. A colleague from Jalopnik got clinked for doing 90 in a new Z28 - out in the middle of nowhere, Virginia.
In this way, the current horsepower /capability build-up is not unlike body-building contests: It's mostly for show. Just as Arnold used his massive biceps for flexing, today's Steroid Cars cars and trucks are mostly all about posing, too.
It almost makes you pine for the days of Drive 55 - when you could at least run 80-ish without ending up as an extra in your very own version of the TV show, Oz.
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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for comments.
