[vladvasiliu]

Here in Europe, fat American-style SUVs are still somewhat rare, especially outside cities (!). People still can't corner worth shit in their "regular" sedans. And I say this as a pretty chill motorbike rider.

I've lost count of the number of Golf GTIs and similar behind which I have to wait around when riding on roads that aren't perfectly straight. And these cars should have better cornering ability than my fat bike. I know my dad's Corolla does.

[lefra]

Counterpoint: I know my car can brake and turn much harder than I do (it's not a sports car by any mean, but that's beyond the point).

I'd rather not change my tires and brake pads all the time though, and keep some margin for whatever unexpected stuff is hiding behind the corner. Also I don't like having to stop because everyone in the car got motion sickness.

[vladvasiliu]

I'm not saying they should drive like a rally. I most certainly don't. Just don't slow down to a snail's pace for no reason. Or if you insist on doing that for whatever reason, let other people pass you if you can see that visibility is low.

[pmontra]

Every car can brake, turn and accelerate much harder than any of us will even think to do especially turning and braking. But you pinpointed why we must not attempt to reach for the limit, not for us but for the others. And anyway a normal car won't lay long if driven like a racing car. Every single component is not designed for that.

The usual computer analogy /s You don't run a LLM on a Core Duo 2, but of course https://yeokhengmeng.com/2025/04/llama2-llm-on-dos/

[prmoustache]

Race cars component are designed for higher loads, but they aren't designed to last either. Running cost per mileage of race cars is super high actually because of all the consumables to be replaced and stuff that needs to be serviced on a regular basis.

[maccard]

I used to drive a GTI, (it was stolen from me…) - you can absolutely fling it into a corner and come out unscathed. I never put it on a track and I don’t think it would do great without adjustment but on road legal speeds there no reason it should need the driver to be “tender”

[salezred]

I have a sports car and a Model Y. Whenever I go on a twisty mountain road, without fail, if I will encounter what you said. It does not matter which of the two cars I drive! What's worse is that this happens even in roads where the speed limit is 35 mph and those people may drive 25 mph or even 15 mph! (See the road passing through Cambria in California. It's an epic drivers' road, and yet...)

[prmoustache]

For some reason people seem to fail to understand that the speed limit is not supposed to be a target to reach.

[Our_Benefactors]

It’s more like the lower end of acceptable speed to drive.

[westmeal]

For the love of God speed up

[prmoustache]

There are vehicles that cannot and are allowed on the same roads.

[brailsafe]

Sometimes I wonder whether going excessively slow around corners is a symptom of people pushing their steering wheel from the side opposite the direction of the curve instead of pulling it from the same side into the curve. Just a hunch, but doing the latter usually feels like I have more control.

[vladvasiliu]

I don't know about that. But what I usually observe is that many people tend to veer off in the next lane in the direction of the turn (even if it's a lane for traffic going the opposite way!) if there is one. But if there isn't (right turn, they're in the rightmost lane), they'll tend to leave quite a lot of space between the car and the shoulder.

So I'd say these people have a hard time figuring out the space on the road their car takes. I can only imagine this worsens with larger cars and less visibility.

[brailsafe]

Oddly enough I recently accepted an old beat up, but gigantic utility truck from the 90s that I'd never have purchased, and while it's fun to drive, it's also absurd to try and park it anywhere. Even box trucks are comparatively easy to figure out. When it dies, I'm sure as hell not going buy another one, but until then I'll enjoy not knowing how close I am to anything.