5 ms·

The stopping distance at 166mph is about a quarter of a mile in good conditions!

by ranko 8y ago

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
I know this will be an incredibly unpopular opinion around here but most official sources for stopping distance seem to use a very slow to react person driving a vehicle on 10yo economy tires to generate the baseline for their stopping distance calculations. This is at the high end of what to expect in reality. Non-terrible tires and non-terrible reaction time can shave a lot off that. Think about it like a reverse drag race where you start at trap speed and reach 0 ASAP and the vehicle always has more power than it can put to the ground (indeed brakes are basically always capable of enough torque to break the wheels free). Pretty much anything on good tires should be able to stop from that kind of speed in under 1/4mi. It won't be 1/8mi but it will be solidly under 1/4. I can say from personal experience that if you have non-terrible tires and you're stopping in the kind of distances insurance companies, driver's ed and state drivers' manuals like to quote then something is wrong because those sources are very, conservative with stuff like that (for obvious reasons).
- blktiger 8y ago
  You have to assume something other than a best-case stopping distance because almost all drivers assume they are a "good" driver and will assume they can stop in the minimum distance even when they can't. Most drivers also don't pay enough attention to what's going on to have good reaction times.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    There's one right turn I take off a rural road where the telephone poles are 200ft apart. I usually try and see how fast I can stop if nobody is around. I've been doing this for years. The difference between bald Douglas all-seasons one week and the same tires but brand new the following week is the difference between ~400ft@80mph (approximately textbook stopping distance) and about 350ft. I could probably shave off more distance if I had ABS and could plant my foot and make the computer do all the optimization for me. I'm not trying to assume best case. I'm saying we should not assume worst case either. Most sources do the latter because most sources seek to coax everyone into driving conservatively (which is not a bad thing).
sh-run 8y ago
I grew up in Carson county. 166mph isn't ever really safe, but the Texas Panhandle is flat (I mean seriously flat) and I40 is a pretty well kept highway. If your going to go 166 on public roads, that might be one of the best places to do it.. I will add 10:22am there would've been quite a bit of traffic (relatively speaking) and highway patrol loves hanging out on I40 (as it's a major drug corridor).
bamboozled 8y ago
166mph is ~267km/h for the international guests.

The stopping distance at 166mph is about a quarter of a mile in good conditions!

by ranko 8y ago

The stopping distance at 166mph is about a quarter of a mile in good conditions!

I know this will be an incredibly unpopular opinion around here but most official sources for stopping distance seem to use a very slow to react person driving a vehicle on 10yo economy tires to generate the baseline for their stopping distance calculations. This is at the high end of what to expect in reality. Non-terrible tires and non-terrible reaction time can shave a lot off that. Think about it like a reverse drag race where you start at trap speed and reach 0 ASAP and the vehicle always has more power than it can put to the ground (indeed brakes are basically always capable of enough torque to break the wheels free). Pretty much anything on good tires should be able to stop from that kind of speed in under 1/4mi. It won't be 1/8mi but it will be solidly under 1/4. I can say from personal experience that if you have non-terrible tires and you're stopping in the kind of distances insurance companies, driver's ed and state drivers' manuals like to quote then something is wrong because those sources are very, conservative with stuff like that (for obvious reasons).

blktiger 8y ago
You have to assume something other than a best-case stopping distance because almost all drivers assume they are a "good" driver and will assume they can stop in the minimum distance even when they can't. Most drivers also don't pay enough attention to what's going on to have good reaction times.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  There's one right turn I take off a rural road where the telephone poles are 200ft apart. I usually try and see how fast I can stop if nobody is around. I've been doing this for years. The difference between bald Douglas all-seasons one week and the same tires but brand new the following week is the difference between ~400ft@80mph (approximately textbook stopping distance) and about 350ft. I could probably shave off more distance if I had ABS and could plant my foot and make the computer do all the optimization for me. I'm not trying to assume best case. I'm saying we should not assume worst case either. Most sources do the latter because most sources seek to coax everyone into driving conservatively (which is not a bad thing).

sh-run 8y ago

I grew up in Carson county. 166mph isn't ever really safe, but the Texas Panhandle is flat (I mean seriously flat) and I40 is a pretty well kept highway. If your going to go 166 on public roads, that might be one of the best places to do it.. I will add 10:22am there would've been quite a bit of traffic (relatively speaking) and highway patrol loves hanging out on I40 (as it's a major drug corridor).

bamboozled 8y ago

166mph is ~267km/h for the international guests.