21 March

As a kid I remember wondering, why can cars do speeds that are more than twice the actual speed limit? Isn't that a waste of energy and engineering? And the answer is - yep. But they had to do it for a reason that isn't often spoken about. The torque in a petrol car is so hopeless at low revs, they have to vastly over-compensate for it by increasing the engine power hugely, so that people have any sort of acceptable acceleration at all. Meaning you also end up with top speeds that are more than twice what you actually need. Combustion engines are absolutely rubbish technology.