What is your Car's ''Happy Speed'' ?

Post by **Welly** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:43 pm

Been driving a few different cars recently and it got me onto thinking about something......

You see, every car seems to have a speed that it will sit most happily at.

You know - not being pushed or anything just happy to sit there cruising with no real effort by the car or driver...

Well, mine seems to be 80 mph

Wondered what other peoples were????

GeordieBoy · Post by **GeordieBoy** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:18 pm

I would say 90mph on mine, sits at 3,000 revs and gives 45mpg.

Post by **Welly** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:41 pm

Most Diesels are pretty good at cruising like that because of the Torque they have and the Low Gearing also you can't hear the engine working hard so you keep it going.

The reason I asked was that with smaller buzzy petrol engines after a while you get the impression that they really don't like cruizing at certain speeds, but they will have there very own 'Happy' speed aswell usually alot less than 80.

It is a case of the driver settling for a Happy speed with the car, where the driver is happy that the engine isn't thrashing and the car sits comfortably on the road without needing constant corrections etc, so really every car made must have a 'Happy Speed', whatever it is.

Wonder what speed the 406 2.0's / V6's / turbo's like doing though?

Captain Jack · Post by **Captain Jack** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:23 pm

Mine is happiest at 80mph and gets 45mpg. It's only over 100mph where you feel it's starting to get pushed, but goes happily over 110 though

Davva2004 · Post by **Davva2004** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:52 pm

Funny that, mine's also 80mph... just feels right at that speed, road and engine noise are pretty subdued, only seems to take a whiff of throttle to maintain it too

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:10 pm

I tend to trundle about around the 55-60 mark. It gives me well in excess of 50mpg, but another 50 or 10 mph over crops this by 5 or 10 mpg.

MaDc0w · Post by **MaDc0w** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:17 pm

Mine likes arround that 80 too. Don't do "happy speeds" much though....

Blue406 · Post by **Blue406** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:52 am

Well, I'm finding that since I treated my engine with petrol treatment to clean it out over a month, she cruises very happily at 90!

trem1 · Post by **trem1** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:18 am

mine likes 80 as well

but its quite awkward keeping it down to 70 on the road

we should campaign for an 80 mph speed limit on motorways for 406s cos thats what feels right

Post by **DaiRees** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:30 am

Right I got a theory on this, I usually trundle around at sub 70, but a few times recently I've noticed that the car seems to be more comfortable at 80. The other day I was driving along the A40 at 80 on the cruise when I realised why it just felt right, I had half a tank of juice and each of the 5 needles on the dash was pointing straight up, it all looked neat and symmetrical. So I reckon this is a design feature, everything reaches a nice harmonic state and it all looks aesthetically pleasing. My car was without doubt designed to cruise at 80mph. Shame about the speed limit really innit?

niz406 · Post by **niz406** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:08 pm

Believe it or not... mine enjoys the 50 mph margin.. however it happily cruises at 70 - 80 with little throttle rerquired.

V6WAYNE · Post by **V6WAYNE** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:14 pm

mine will happly sit at 90mph all day can go a bit quicker tho

niz406 · Post by **niz406** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:51 pm

Well mine will sit @ 140+ all day long, but that don't mean I do it.....lol

Captain Jack · Post by **Captain Jack** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:04 am

Niz406 wrote:Well mine will sit @ 140+ all day long, but that don't mean I do it.....lol

Somehow I think it does!

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:35 am

Mine's 70. Above that and you can hear the wind/engine too much. I usually just slipstream trucks at 60 though... can get up to 40mpg if there's no slow traffic/jams. Not bad considering this thing's only supposed to be able to do 28mpg on paper eh?