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by jackvalentine 2938 days ago
Wouldn't a more fair comparison being buying a car, doing the speed limit on the highway all day but also going much faster on the track? But of course you can't drive at full-tilt on a track all day without additional parts?
1 comments

I think the original comparison is more valid. If you follow the prescribed maintenance schedules, new cars are designed to run to the edge of their operational envelopes for their warranty period. Note this isn't usually dictated by engine power, but suspenstion and tire speed ratings.

Cars are incredibly over engineered machines.

There are performance limits reached where the brakes will overheat and you'll need to give it a rest before having another go. Even built-for-purpose race cars have these limits and drivers carefully conserve their brakes so they don't go bad before the race is over.

I think you might be terribly disappointed if you tried to stress your new car all day long on the edge of its suspension, braking and engine limits.

Your example of a race car being driven to complete a race isn't a valid comparison. It's designed and driven to complete that race. Which is vastly different operating conditions than what a consumer car is built for.

Consumer cars are not built to run race courses. I think you're confusing my statement of operational envelope with abusive behavior that it wasn't designed for. Consumers cars are built to be driven on the street in a wide variety of environments. From mountains to Autobahn to temperature extremes, etc... All within the advertised operational specs.

This is actually about the comparison the OP made that you disagreed with. A consumer car is able run at its designed and advertised speeds all day on the Autobahn, without overheating or having to stop and cool down, provided some other variable isn't out of spec. This phone isn't able to run at its advertised speeds continually, the same as a car could. Shocking as it may seem, cars are built to run on roads and at speeds in excess of what the US limits are.

Edit: Life is too short to argue about this kind of thing on the internet. Have a nice day.

XKCD386.