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We traveled to Germany years ago, rented a car and drove on the autobahn with no speed limit. We were on a long down hill in a brand new audi a6 … beautiful car and I floored it in the passing lane to 260 kmh … I was scared shitless because I knew that all I needed was a rock on the road or a little bump and we’d both be dead. I looked in my rear view mirror and a guy was flashing me from behind. He wanted me to move over and he passed us just seemingly floating right past us in a luxury Mercedes.

That was the fastest I’ve ever driven anything and it was scary. The car was fine, it’s just knowing that if any small thing came in our way at that speed, the car would fly, crash, crush us to death, rip apart and blow up in a blaze of glory. You can survive a crash at 140 kmh … it would be a miracle to have your body remain in one piece in a crash at 300 kmh

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Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I find it weird that a rental wasn’t limited to 250 km/h. Which most factories do by default. In fact it should be limited to even lower than that IMO.

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- ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I don’t know honestly … all I know is that the A6 had about 5,000 km on the odometer and everything was pristine new … it was the most luxury brand new car I ever drove. We had to haggle the rental guy to upgrade our rental from a standard rental to one size up … he didn’t have anything in our range but said that he would look into upgrading us further and we ended up with the A6.
  
  Like I said, we were on a nice long downslope in the country side. It was easy to floor it and build up speed but the car seemed to max out at 255 260 and I couldn’t get it any further. The best part was that Mercedes flashing us from behind and wanting to pass.
  
  Later on on the same trip, we noticed to helicopter flights overhead carrying cars away from an accident … they don’t seem to bother calling in tow trucks to carry things away because the pieces of cars that are left from a high speed crash are small enough to be carried away with a chopper.
  
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Maxing at 255-260 was almost certainly the speed governor. Most German cars come with a 155-160mph limit from the factory. You can remove it, but rentals absolutely will leave it in place.
    
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  - Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Maybe it didn’t have the limiter because it’s not specified to be able to go above anyway?
    Congratulations on the upgrade, I haven’t tried it myself, but I’d imagine it was amazing. 😀
    
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    ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    This was also about 15 years ago so I don’t know of limitations, regulations, vehicle type or anything else had to do with it all
    
    We did that 260 kmh for about five minutes in the south of the country driving to Nuremberg and it was just that once. We were too afraid after that and just drove the same speed as everyone which was an average about 140 to 160 kmh
    
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- Tja@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  It probably was indicated 260, real 250. Even the S6 is limited, and for the RS6 you have to buy an option to rise the limit.
  
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Or, just tweak the ECU, and also get more power
    
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    Tja@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I doubt a rental car company will tweak their ECUs
    
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- x00z@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Why should it be if it’s not illegal to go vroom vroom? Makes no sense.
  
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  - potentiallynotfelix@lemmy.fish ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    The rental company will be down $50,000 if they total it in a crash. I don’t like speed limiters on personal vehicles, but I do get them on rentals.
    
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    x00z@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That’s why they have insurance though no?
    
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  - Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That you’d have to ask Audi about. I just know they do it.
    www.theuth.co/…/11102/
    
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- SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  That’s an American law, so vehicles weren’t faster than police vehicles, there was ways to remove the governor though.
  
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  - Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    It doesn’t make sense an American standard would use km/h.
    
    www.theuth.co/…/11102/
    
    Article:
    
    This limit at 250 km/h dates back decades and has origin in Germany.
    
    You:
    
    so vehicles weren’t faster than police vehicles
    
    Article:
    
    They reached a gentlemen’s agreement to electronically limit the maximum speed of its models to 250 km/h.
    
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    SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Lol, too cheap to provide the right tires, so let’s make a cartel agreement to hobble our vehicles. Yeesh.
    
    Thats worse than the American reasoning.
    
    So I just want to point out, that’s it’s not unusual for people to convert while discussing. 250 is very close to the metric equivalent (it’s rounded to it for this reason) of 160 miles. Which conversely is also double the sped limit of most states, which is what governers are usually mandated at.
    
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  - tantalizer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That’s not true. Cars are normally capped at 250 km/h in Germany. But it’s completely legal to pay extra to get it removed.
    
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    SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    So you need to pay to unlock the full potential of the vehicle?
    
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phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
You technically can survive a 140kph crash in the same way that technically you can survive jumping out an airplane at 10 kilometers, or how you can survive rabies

Technically possible as there are few recorded incidents, but let’s say that you easier win the lottery than surviving any of that shit.

Was it myth busters who smashed a car against a wall at 120 or 140 kph? Don’t know anymore but I do recall the car literally being folded up

At those speeds, crumplezones extend way into the back of your head, so again, you can quite safely bet you’ll die.

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