> > This won't work unless speedometers can be calibrated and
> > sealed. Also allowing a different size tire would mean
> recalibrating
> > the speedo all over again. This would be very costly and you can
> > BET that the Car Manufacturers won't do it. Far too much
> liability.
>
> It's awfully funny that with lots of other rules that specify limits
> this
> isn't a problem. See, for example, minimum weight rules in
> roadracing.
In Road racing you have specialized cars that are dedicated
to one specific task on flat (mostly) surfaces at high speed.
Those cars are driven by top drivers and maintained better
in a 500 mile race than the average car is in it's entire lifetime.
> Now, any reasonably intelligent racer will set their car's weight at
> 10
> lbs or whatever over the limit to deal with scale differences. Some
> folks
> will spend more money so that they're confident that 5 lbs over is
> enough
> margin. Some folks are stupid and set their car's right at the min
> weight.
For racing this would work but for a Soccer mom with 6 kids
and a ton of junk cranking down the road while she yaps on the
cell phone I tend to doubt it. Stricter enforcement of the rules
is not the answer. You have to have tighter controls on a
speedometer and how fast the car is travelling to enforce the
law fairly also some police can and do lie in court and being expert
witnesses which the average citizen is not. They are automatically
believed in many cases.
It sounds like you are advocating having us all drive at 10 below
the limit just to be safe. Real world that isn't going to happen.
They need to up the limits to 85mph and enforce lane speeds.
IE: if you are a Soccer mom doing 55 in the far left 85mph
lane you get ticketed. People tend to travel at a certain speed
on certain highways oh sure they all slow down for the cops and
then resume their normal speed which would be about 85mph
at least around here during rush hour traffic.
The speed limits are set far too low unless you are driving a
Model T Ford.
> The enforcement is the same however. One bit more than the min
> weight and you're gone.
Enforcement is sketchy at best and many cops seem to pick cars
that are a good bet that the owner won't or can't fight the ticket.
A new "Out of State" Corvette comes to mind. The owner has
some money since he has to work to pay for the car, probably cannot
afford (timewise) to stay instate to fight the ticket and will pay it
instead.
Beater cars are picked because the owner probably doen't want
the hassle and can't take time off to fight it for other reasons.
Sure stereotypes but take a box stock Civic or Accord doing 85
and a Ferrari doing 85 any bets on who gets the ticket?
> Now tell me why that can't apply to speed limits?
Sure because it won't work as I stated above. Plus most of
the limits are set to generate revenue for the State.
The cops hide in ways that are illegal use highly calibrated
(when they work right) equipment to measure how fast you
are going but all you have is an approximation of how fast you
are going. Put one in an aircraft (if it were possible) and see
how accurate it would be.
The 5mph variable that is given by most cops is because of
speedo error. Some speedo's can be off as much as 14mph!
You cannot compare specialized race cars to daily drivers.
You also never did answer my point about the Car manufacturers
being liable for accurate speedometers because they KNOW
there is a huge variance in speed with different tire setups
etc.. They won't put their seal on the speedo and changing tires
would invalidate that anyway.
Police cars have speedo's that can be calibrated. I've owned a few
but never calibrated them. (No idea how to)
Steve Bernard
Red '99 Miata (B-Stock)
NER Region (Novice Class)
mailto:Solo-2@juno.com
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