NEARLY every test drive review you read or watch on YouTube from a Malaysian blogger or journalist and also many overseas motoring media seems to concentrate on speed.
How fast, how quick, neck snapping acceleration, great cornering ability, 0-100kmh acceleration time and more.
The reality is this, there are cars designed and built for speed, then there are cars designed and built for comfort, then there are cars designed and built for work and finally there are cars designed and built to be commuter transportation, simple cars.
Today, you have pickup trucks that deliver 500Nm of torque. Why? because some buyers get excited with these claimed figures and then after driving too fast around a bend, they end up in a ditch.
Then there are compact cars with 150bhp and buyers think they are hot hatchbacks and so their drive to the edge of hill top resorts and end up in a ditch as the brakes and suspension systems in compact cars are for city and highway commuting, not for hard edged driving round tight corners.
Then you have factory race tuned luxury sedans. Great for the open highway runs beyond 240km/h. They came with precision designed suspension systems and race ready brakes.
However, is the driver behind the wheel of this engine delivering 450Nm of torque able to handle this immense power delivery? Has this driver got the experience to handle an emergency situation? Some end up against the guardrail if lucky and those not so lucky end up behind a 10-ton truck.
With increased speed restrictions and stricter speeding laws in our country and around the world, do we really really need a high top end speed and huge torque figures when selling a new vehicle?
Volvo, who have been delivering high powered vehicles for years, have recently made a ‘strong stand’ in limiting the top end speed of their all new Volvo S60 T8 to a sensible 180km/h from its factory setting of 245km/h.
This 420Nm of sports sedan is the first of new Volvo vehicles to get speed restrictions in place.
Even 180km/h might be a lot, but this is a good starting point. Performance sedans like this Volvo S60 and the Mercedes AMG and BMW ‘M’ tuned cars came ready with brakes and suspension to cater to their impressive power delivery.
With many other ‘basic’ Korean and Japanese SUVs and family hatchbacks the power delivery might be impressive, but the brakes and suspension systems cater for ‘normal’ driving and not ‘on the edge’ track driving.
Take the media preview of the Proton X50 Crossover in quarter 4 last year.
The marketing team decided on a drag race for the X50 against its immediate rivals. Was this necessary? Was it promoting speed to its buyers?
Is it a crossover that will have some 21,000 plus owners in the next year racing up to a casino hotel or will they be commuting in heavy city traffic on a daily basis? – The Vibes, January 7, 2021
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