From: kevin@taronga.taronga.com (Kevin Brown)
Subject: Re: Are all Americans Stupid???
Reply-To: kevin@taronga.taronga.com (Kevin Brown)
Organization: Minimal.
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 15:00:31 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.140550.20408@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> kerrat@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Adrian T Kerr) writes:
>Well where do I start?
>
>Perhaps the title is a bit abusive but from the articles  I  have
>read  here  and elsewhere I have not seen anything to suggest the
>average American has an IQ higher than your average chimp!

Heh.  Probably true of the *average* American, but you tend not to see
most of them on the net, since they're generally not bright enough to
figure out how to use their VCR, much less a computer...

>Where are the statistics that say 55mph  is  the  safest  maximum
>speed  a  four wheeled vehicle can travel at? 

Beats me.  I don't buy it, myself.  I suspect that most of the people
here on the newsgroup don't buy it, either.

>In Britain the max-
>imum allowable speed on motorways is 70mph and this  is  woefully
>slow!  In Germany there is a recommended speed limit of 80mph but
>if the conditions permit then it is lawful to travel at any speed
>your vihicle is capable of. In a recent article in a European mo-
>toring magazine a Lambourghini  Diamblo  was  driven  legally  at
>204mph  on a German autobhan.To be honest I don't need to be able
>to drive at 200mph but it is reasonably safe then why not? A lim-
>it  of   90mph   however   would seem a very acceptable limit for
>modern European cars  (  not   bloody   automobiles   as   stupid
>Americans  splutter on about ) 

Hmm...you mean automobiles like my Mustang GT?  Capable of cruising
at 120 easily...:-)

>capable of cruising at 100mph very
>safely ( I have personal experience of this since on  most  jour-
>neys on British  motorways I travel above 80mph in as much safety
>as the other road user's ).
>
>Surely my sense of homour has momentarily disappeared  but  I  am
>sure  someone  in one of the auto news groups was disscussing how
>to put her lipstick on whilst riding her motorbike!

Unless it was a joke posting, I never saw it (I did see a joke posting
along those lines).

You mean you weren't able to figure out that it *was* a joke posting?
Better check that I.Q....

>Other articles relating to engine braking and such  nonsense  are
>plain  ridiculous.  If  you remove your foot from the accelerator
>then believe it or not you will go slower!

No shit.  The only question is why.  I think it's pretty obvious
myself.  You take your foot off the gas, and there's insufficient
energy in the burn to compensate for the force needed to compress
the cylinder.  You have losses due to the drag of the internal
engine components.  You have losses due to the drag of pulling
air through the manifolds and through the valves (which causes
manifold vacuum, BTW).

Add it all up, and you get engine braking.

There are probably other forms of parasitic loss that I didn't
mention...

>I would have continued this assualt on you national pride  but  I
>have to go for some coffee now.Keep up your good work it gives us
>a great laugh!

I'm sure.

But before you laugh too hard, you'd better check your own I.Q. first.
I had to reformat your article because you didn't put line terminators
in your posting, and you ended up with 256 character lines.  Not very
bright of you, eh?


		Kevin Brown (kevin@taronga.taronga.com)