Power and Speed Limits
 

Hi Everyone,

I've had my 86 for about 3 weeks now and I came from a 130 HP Corolla. I've noticed that in the 86 there is very little opportunity to fully use the power and I hardly have any chance to go through the rev range. I live in Australia and most of the roads I'm on are either 60 - 80 km/h (37 mph - 49 mph).

Have any of you experienced this? Are there higher speed limits in the States for normal roads? How are the speed limits on US freeways? I find myself just accelerating a bit and I'm already at the speed limit.

Have any of you experienced this?

Yes, surprisingly for a car with "only" 200 hp it's still much faster than any of the roads allow, there's beauty in the fact you can either choose to stay in the limits and still have fun, or go well past road limits and still have fun safely with this car if you know what you're doing

Are there higher speed limits in the States for normal roads?
Certain roads, but alot of the back roads without police intervention are ripe for creating your own higher speed limits :lol:

How are the speed limits on US freeways?
Alot of places they are woefully incorrect as in 60 mph (100 km/h) on really good long newly paved roads, specifically to gain revenue from people speeding or that those speed limits haven't been updated since the 80s or 90s and more than 60-70 percent of people are going way faster than that speed limit. But in my area of PA a lot of the highways increased speeds to 75 mph and PA troopers don't ticket below 5 mph so people usually do 80+ on them. Personally this car isn't a freeway highway pull kind of car, so if I have time when I'm driving somewhere I set google maps to avoid highways and toll roads to try to stick to backroads


My personal driving style I speed a lot, I know its bad, but this car begs for it and loves to be revved out

@FRSBRZGT86FAN I find the opposite. This car does eat up miles surprisingly well for what it is. Though not at a GT level, for an entry level sports car it is acceptably comfortable.

My biggest gripe with it is that you do have to stay in higher revs to make any power, and that is slightly annoying on the highway. But, to counter act that, I just drive slower on the highways so that everyone can pass me instead.

I don't use back roads to get from A to B. They're too inefficient where I live, and traffic is usually just as bad on them if you're trying to get anywhere big.

That's understandable, usually with my berk muffler delete the car is kind of quieter at higher rpms and burbles quite nice when I do run on the highways to work. Here in PA though there are alot of assholes on highways which tends to be a problem, I've had several lowered and fart cannon civics and heavy tahoes and suburbans tailgate me hard if I'm going to the speed limit because its a sports car....

Seems like the road limits are generally higher in the US.

You have to do about 15-20 over the limit on any given road to keep with the flow of traffic here anyways..... not that I do that, obviously.


65, 75, and 80 MPH are some limits here on certain roads. *edit* guess we have 85 now too, didn't know that! http://www.cnbc.com/id/49520151


Nothing too crazy though, we don't have an autobahn-like system. Although the autobahn has speed limits too, it is still a pleasure to drive on.

Here local roads are between 30 and 45mph, state highways and parkways are generally 55mph and most* of the big roads (interstates) have been brought up to 65 but that is dependent on proximity to population dense areas or places where there are lots of access/egress points. I've only gotten one speeding ticket (so far) and I'm going to take it to court because I was rolling with traffic. The trooper got me and a Tahoe at the same time and pulled us both over, told me she was doing 81 and I was doing 82 (in a 55) and I want to know why he took us and nobody else. I think it was because we were isolated between larger groups of vehicles but the group behind us was gaining on us.

Most of the roads where I am are 100/110. I live outside the city. Our speed limits here are virtually the same, just in kph rather than miles with US freeway limits being slightly higher due to rounding off the mph. There are roads in the outback that were legally limitless until recently, now they've been reduced to about 140kph I believe.

I find skipping gears the best way to get to the speed limit if you wanna have some fun. Like @FRSBRZGT86FAN I have the berk delete too and I wanna hear it so I do it alot. For 80kph I stay in 2nd and shift to 5th when I hit 80 and for 110 I use third until I reach the limit and shift to 6th.

I am guilty of speeding during about 90% of my driving. Always have and it has not changed with this car. I find the power more than enough to continue my normal driving habits. Sure I am not doing a blistering take off but can be at or above the speed limit in just a few seconds (usually just to slow down again).
As Cole said (I live nearby) the back roads around here do not lend themselves to being a good way to get about unless you have to so I stick to the highways. My normal routine is to take the on ramp at about twice the posted speed and hit the highway already going as fast or faster than the traffic. Once on the highway I usually stick to about 20 KPH (12 MPH) above the limit and try not to go any faster or slower. The local police will generally ignore somebody doing 20 over as long as they are not weaving in and out or in any other way driving like a fool so I am comfortable with that. It is important to note that even at 20 over the limit I frequently get passed like I am standing still. These vehicles are almost always a minivan, pickup truck or some other sort of marked work vehicle.

This isn't a documentary?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...0/MadMax-1.gif

Haha thet was our first tourism advertisement campaign, people came here expecting to find leather cladded road warriors only to find singlet wearing barbeque fanatics who call flip flops thongs and think its a good idea to cook and eat the animals on their coat of arms....

LOL Be tough to eat the ones on ours. Lions are protected and unicorn meat is very hard to come by.
You could go with the unofficial coat of arms which has a beaver on it but that opens things up for a whole new range of jokes.

HAHA yeah I'll leave that one alone, think I'll just stick to my Kangaroo Tail Soup (A real thing) and emu burgers :lol:

I can run down to the local grocery store here and buy emu burgers. About two years ago I came close to hitting one on the highway. Scared the crap right out of me and I screamed "what the fuck was that?".

Yep, heard about the unrestricted limit in the NT. I think it's still going since the government also just extended it by another 74 km.

Well its a good thing I don't still live in Townsville then, otherwise I'd be road tripping to Darwin on a regular basis for no apparent reason lol

My first car was a hand-me-down 125hp '98 Ford Contour with a 4-speed auto. I used all the power. I was almost always foot to the floor in that car. Not that it mattered, 0-60mph took like 12 seconds. I went to a MK6 GTI later, and it was the same story. But I sped a lot more. I think because it was so damn quiet. Even at full throttle and 130 mph, it never felt like enough.

The fr-s is a different story. I rarely find myself exceeding the speed limits by more than 10. I think because of the road and wind noise. But also because getting up to speed does require a lot of revs. I could loaf around in the GTI in 6th at 1200 rpm all day, no issues.

Around here the roads go from 35 to 55 mph. When traffic is light (rare) people move at around 70. The interstate moves at 80 and up, again depending on traffic. When leaving work, I pull out onto a straight road at 55 mph. I usually get to run it through 1st and 2nd. Just running out 1st and briefly flooring it through 2nd to hit 40 or 45 mph is enough. On slower roads, I just wait for the person in front of me to turn, down shift and floor it back to the speed limit.

While I would love to have a GT3 and live by the Autobahn, I kind of find low speed antics to be more fun in this car than the really fast stuff. Less risk also helps.

Well, err, the fastest I ever did in the fr-s was 110 and that during the test drive on a brand new 2015. The dealer just kept telling me to push it. I don't think I have been over 85 in my current car. I see no reason to. No real desire to go faster. If I never went over 50 I would be happy.

I still get hard seeing a large supercharger in full whine.

OP. Find some twisty roads. That is where the car shines. Straight line speed has never impressed me, but a neutral slide around a corner ... Also gets me hard.

Seems like I get hard a lot. :D

I still get hard seeing a large supercharger in full whine.

OP. Find some twisty roads. That is where the car shines. Straight line speed has never impressed me, but a neutral slide around a corner ... Also gets me hard.

Seems like I get hard a lot. :D

I have the opposite problem. I go to fast and suck up my gas lol. I like to cruise at 80mph lol. Can it go faster, I've bumped 100 and it has more. But its gradual speed not instant. Our freeways are 75 mph.

Perception of speed is a real hazard for me. I drive my wife's RVR which is a nice soft ride, quiet and high and I will look down and be doing 30 or 40 KPH over the limit. I would never have even guessed if I didn't look. I have become so used to noise and the road flashing by a few inches under my butt that can no longer judge properly when these things are gone.


Not that I have ever tried it especially on a long empty stretch of highway at 3 am, in perfect driving conditions but did you guys know the fuel cut off comes in just before you bury the needle on the speedometer?

Boosted now so the car has this issue even more outside of weekend cruises on the freeway.


Even during my NA stages I found the car to have plentiful power as long as you stay in the high RPM range with a decent header. Getting there was the issue.


The questions you asked are the exact reasons I purchased this vehicle. It's so well balanced and versatile that one cannot go wrong with whichever direction they take their build. This includes leaving it stock.

It was on that stretch of road that I learned some cruise controls won't go above 89. Random fact.

In California, you really don't get a chance during the day to drive quickly because there's so much traffic practically everywhere. haha

Thats why you get a ECU Tek tune are remove the governor :D

Oh I would never go that fast anyway. That was a purely hypothetical scenario.

Oh I see how it is :thumbsup:

Basically what FRSBRZGT86FAN said initially. Most people around here go much faster than the posted speed limit. After getting my first ticket after one month of ownership, I only go over about 5 or so. I do tend to push it a bit on stretches of highway where I know cops aren't nearby - helps that I have an awesome radar detector (which I learned is illegal in Australia after talking to a visiting owner last month). I also use a rabbit whose driving like a jackass; they can get pulled over while I laugh as I pass by.

On local streets however, car begs me to push it but I say nope, calm down. We will go have fun soon. Helps downshifts while coming to a stop with the exhaust I have is just so.... yummy.

I also came from a 120hp Corolla. I remember how shitty it was when it came to onramps, highway passes/lane changes, etc. The FRS feels like a supercar (at least how I imagine it) in comparison.

They are illegal here as well. In fact the fine is probably (to lazy to look it up) higher that the low level speeding tickets. The cops here even have radar detector, detector, detectors. Yep, they can tell you have a detector before your detector's detector detector can tell you they are detecting.

Here in Texas, most highways have 70 mph speed limits once outside of city limits (65 inside) so you can safely do 75 to 80. There are a couple with 80 mph limits, and of course out in central Texas, while the posted limit might be 70, the actual is "how far ahead can you see/how fast do you dare"? Years ago out in the middle of nowhere in my old Celica, I set my cruise control at 110 and did that for about 20 minutes until I got too paranoid that I was going to blow past a cop hiding behind a sign.

Depending on conditions, I often run at 75 - 80, and the car hustles right up through ninety plenty easy. It helps to have some traffic for cover though; if I'm the only car on the road I set the cruise at 4 over the posted limit.

This car is make for cornering...not for speed.
You might want to drive on the mountain, it is fast even if you doing 40-50.
I bought this car 3 weeks ago,,and I already went to the mountain, the handling is still great without any mod yet.
The only time I rev it up is enter the freeway, and downshift to pass someone.

I live near LA, and when there isn't heavy traffic I often see the average car moving well over 80 mph even though the speed limit is set at 65 mph. I've even seen it once or twice where the traffic was swooping away at nearly 95 mph! Naturally, I have to keep a similar speed with traffic or else I may get the ticket for endangering others.

Fastest speed limit I've observed in the USA (west Texas) is 80mph I believe...though online it states there is an 85mph limit some parts of Texas. I did also observe 80mph limit in Wyoming I believe.
And it is quite normal in the USA to see other traffic going up to 10mph over any of the freeway limits.
Example: One day coming into Philadelphia, from the northwest, on interstate 476, some traffic was going 95mph...where the speed limit is 65mph I think.

I was very disappointed to find the cruise control on this car allows only 90mph limit to be set. I think that's the limit, not sure. Certainly there are times, in an 80mph highway limit that I'd like to set cruise on 95mph for example.

These cars are supposed to go 139mph top speed. But I've seen my speedo read 142mph one day in Arizona...just having fun officer.

Certainly there are parts of Australia one can have the ability to really move...it is a huge country.

And these 86s totally rule on winding paved or dirt roads...as others have said, that's their forte.

Maybe it's time to explore the interior of your great country...get your car down and dirty.

I believe that's one of several turning to a 75 mph limit soon, they've already changed I-76 and a bunch of parts on the PA turnpike to 75 during the summer it's a bunch of fun and state troopers are beginning actually enforce the stay right pass left rule on those interstates when tailing people it's awesome and it's a long time due.

LOL you do realize that many of us don't have a mountain to drive on right? The nearest thing even close to me is about 12 hours away.

mmm yeah, i live at sea level. if i drive 4 hours west, i find some hills. whee.

Not to mention up a hill you'll lose quite a bit of power unless you're FI

I have eaten both of those things in the US.

I ate them intentionally, but there was a time some before some of the youngsters here were born (late '70s, early '80s) when there was a big scandal about Australian beef being imported into the US. Seems the ranchers down there your way didn't like kangaroos grazing their land and competing with their livestock, so they would shoot them illegally, then have them butchered and packaged up as "beef" for North American consumption to hide the evidence. Hell, we didn't know the difference. It's a pretty good bet that any non-vegetarian over the age of 40 in the US has eaten kangaroo, whether they realize it or not.

There are still wild emu in some parts of the southern US where people decided to try to farm them when the emu burger fad hit, then just turned them all loose when the bottom fell out of the emu market.

Toll 130 between Austin and Seguin is 85 mph. I go that way when I have to go down to the coast. I set my cruise on 87 and am usually the slowest thing on the road for miles at a time.

The cops only come out there when someone hits a feral hog. Despite the obvious setup, that's not a cop joke. That's deep rural Texas, and for over 70 miles there's nothing out there but wild pigs. Fuel up before you go.

You have Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba.

It is on a teensey mountain or real big hill depending on your sensibilities.

Otherwise you need to head out west

That is a 21 hour drive. If I was going to do that I would go a little further and chill with my PNW homies. (and visit go_a_way1 on the way).