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by LatteLazy 1874 days ago
The only way this makes sense is the concept of attractive nuisance. That's a very poor case imho, but let's assume we had to make it. The real attractive nuisance here isn't snap, it's that someone made a car that can do 153mph, and some kids parents bought it for him. Not Snapchat letting you film it with filters.
2 comments

To be clear, the car involved was a 2003 Jetta, 14 years old.

It wasn't like the parents bought their kid an Audi R8 or similar.

Why do you need a car that can do 153mph?
There's a sweet spot when it comes to power and efficiency. A car that only has enough power to go 70 mph will likely be very inefficient at it, not to mention that it would take a very long time to get there. On the other side of the spectrum, a 600+ horsepower monster than can go 200+ mph is pretty inefficient at 70 mph, too.

But somewhere in the 150-200 horsepower range will end up with a car that is very efficient at 70 mph, and a top speed around 130-150 mph depending on gearing an aerodynamics.

Of course, rather than designing cars with lower power, they could simply add a governor, so the car computer does not allow travel above a certain speed, but that would be an incredibly unpopular option, even among people that don't go significantly over the limit.