Only car I have driven and not conquered yet in terms of “oh shat this is too fast for the street” is the 918Spyder. GTR, 458, Pista, TDF all lasted about a day to get used to.(TDF is a bucking bronco!) I’m told the 765lt however is in a different league.
I agree. My issue is the fact that US speed limits have not changed since I was born, and are not changing while we see huge increases in power and performance. It's less public roads and more to the track you'll need to go to get the thrills safely from your supercar now. This is admittedly an upper crust first world problem as we are now buying cars with 600/700/800HP+ 0-60 in under 3 seconds, so you have under 3 seconds to enjoy before you're now opening yourself up to attention from the LEO down the road... ask me how I know It's a losing proposition for these companies to be so focused on power and performance like they seemingly have, the Taycan and next gen electric cars will mop the floor with them if that is the goal. Gotta have the emotions and sensations that you can savor, like the glass of fine wine!
Uhhh that was a Carrera GT. Very different animal. 918 hasn't been around along enough to have 10 year old tires LOL
Guess I don’t know my Porsches, lol. I only got as far as the C2 911. And that was plenty of car for the secondary roads in the Blue Ridge mountains.
there is really a simple explanation for his quote. Its too quiet for the speed, hence it seems too fast for the dB output of the engine. Perception
I notice some people are equating “too fast for road” to the concept of “losing control” of the car. They are two different points, and not equated. For me “too fast for road” implies diminishing returns on enjoying all the nuances of a car: such as sound, how it “bends” into a corner, the idiosyncratic little “hiccups” in the acceleration delivery, the varying force of braking related to initial speed entering a turn, the connection of the steering to the road, the way the suspension handles undulations in the road—to name just a few that immediately come to mind. A car being “pushed” along its performance envelop will feel different than the same car operating at 50% on the same stretch of road. I can therefore drive a car like the 458 (or a 911 GT3) both at 50% AND at 90% on a favorite country road. In so doing I open up the nuanced way the car behaves differently along its operating envelop. The same cannot be said of newer supercars which you CANNOT sanely operate at 90% of their envelop on public roads (not talking about just multiplying .90 X top speed). A car built at a very high “super” level is so far down the curve on its potential on public roads that the nuance is lost. That is my thesis anyway...worth about 2 cents.
And they are too soft for the track in many cases but sometimes depending on where you are you can exploit the performance to an extent.
The claim "too fast for the road" while a truism is overly simplistic. Any current car can exceed the speed limits of any city road or highway within 3-5 seconds. 700 HP super cars are so capable and fast that clearly exploiting their full potential can only be experienced on a track or isolated country, winding roads. For those who only drive these cars in congested city environments, a super car seems counter intuitive. But in the appropriate environment such as isolated country roads, the explosive speed is thrilling. Since I live out of the city and 5 minutes from horse and cow pastures in a beautiful pastoral setting, hitting the throttle and feeling the G force thrust your torso into the back of your seat, never ilicits the thought of this car being excessively and wastefully fast. Steady state speed while exciting on the appropriate roads, pales in comparison to blistering instant throttle response on an isolated road which can be repeated many times. For me, no such concept as the car ever being too fast.
For those who lament the fact that the F8 is too fast for the road, how many would purchase a 500HP version of the car for $30K less expensive?
They are all too fast the road. Good for the tracks. For me they are also too fast for backroads which is where the fun is to be had. Anything above the 355, 360 has too much power to be enjoyed properly. I have more fun in my 355 than anything new. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
i agree with i agree totally. i decided to sell my TDF when i realized by the end of second gear i was either gonna goto jail or hurt someone.
Steve McQueen famously returned a special new 911 Porsche which had been loaned to him to test drive. After driving the new car for less than a week, McQueen showed up at the dealer and dutifully handed back the keys. He told the owner of the dealership, that the car was so fast and fun to drive that it was going to get him thrown in jail.
"too fast for the road" means to start having real fun in the car, you need to drive seriously fast. i.e. WAY above the speed limit. UK has some very fun (but quite narrow) roads, with zero runoff (hello hedges and trees immediately after leaving the road). The F8 is so good, that even at say well above the speedlimit, the car is barely getting into it's stride. It's so effortlessly fast, once the idea that you're driving around in a Ferrari has worn off a bit, you'll have to be doing mental speeds to entertain yourself. Comes from the old saying ''It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow''.
a TDF isnt hard to handle, like a cgt might be. its just ridiculously fast. my experience with both cars.
this. the limits are too high on an F8 as well as speeds, in my 458 i'm already going what feels stupidly fast around the twisty roads near my house in the countryside. even if I could go faster I wouldn't want to. lets not forget that a 458 is a 210mph car...
fair enough, seems to polarise a lot of peoples opinions who've driven them - it's a common thing for people to report "it feels like it's trying to kill me etc" I've never driven a TDF or a CGT but they remind me a little of the 996 GT2 when that first came out, it killed 3 members of the track day club I was in at the time over the period of a couple of years - very experienced drivers also. I was offered a ride in one (996GT2) more recently and declined, i'm petrified of them.
i never had the tdf, f40, or cgt on a track. The CGT on the old tires was white knuckling for me. With the updated tires it cured most of the white knuckle issue. the f40 is very docile for daily driving, minus the brakes. for me the TDF was very manageable and predictable around town under 80 mph. the issue with the TDF was the one i described earlier, half way through second gear i started worrying about running into the car in front of me or getting caught by the cops. if i lived in Europe i wld have kept the TDF. i plan on buying a CGT again one day.
*for clarity the accidents in the gt2 happened outside of the race track on public roads it would depend on where in Europe you lived I guess, here in the UK it's fairly easy to get into trouble with the police when speeding. although I've found they can be reasonable if you're nice to them.
