Sensation of speed: Theories? Factors?

ok, this subtopic has been muddying the torque/weight thread, so i'm moving it over so we can keep that one for what seems to have narrowed down to the search for the best 90's Nissan...

Here's the topic for this thread:

--What, in your opinion, causes the sensation of speed and "fun"?

--is it simply how low the driver sits to the ground?

--is it the instant lurch of the car when you hit the pedal?

--how much does it have to do (subjectively) with smallness of car?

--do lighter cars "feel" faster even when they are weaker "on paper"?

and finally:

--which cars have this hard-to-define quality?

(please separate responses into "dream car" and "affordable car" : )

example: "uhh... '75 jaguar and...'87 MR2"

I think that its about how hard the suspension is, and how you feel the road, and how well connected you are to it. ON my 91 CRX with a hard, lowered suspension I feel every bump in the road, and it feels that I'm going really fast, even if I'm not.

yeah, that's certainly part of it!

any other theorists? : )

wind in your face on convertables! love those MG's!

The greatest sensation of speed I've ever had was a 70 MPH tank slapper coming out of an almost-flat out banked right hand turn in a 125cc shifter kart. Nothing feels fast after you've driven one of those things.

I think how fast it feels like you're going is based on a couple things. You get the sensation of going 'fast' when things are leaving your peripheral vision at a faster rate then you can process them. The faster you go, the faster they leave your vision before you can process them = your vision becomes blurred. This is due to your eyes only refreshing about 90 times a second. That's why when something goes by fast it seems blurry, and often times you'll only see individual images of it - they're the refresh frames of your eyes pretty much. When you're sitting lower, you've put yourself closer to the road, so it's going to seem like it's going by faster (when you're farther away, stuff seems slower, thus when you're traveling 500 mph at 32,000 ft, the ground seems like it's crawling). So I'd say the main causes of the sensation of going fast are height, and how fast things are leaving your peripheral vision.

That's all part of the vision sense. As far as feeling it physically, like clawhammer said, it has a lot to do with suspension feel, and has to do with noise too.

what suspension factors do you think are most important to this?

and thanks to everyone for a lot of good ideas!

I think it's just the fact that you're in control of something that can alter everything around you in a split second...It's a power trip (and this is coming from a chick) trust me, the power got the best of me 3 days ago at about 130mph racing a buddy in an identical prelude but smaller intake when my car lost control, slid sideways half a football field, and flipped 3 times landing upside down with not one part salvagable...speed it something that nobody will every figure out the fascination with

Wow. Pgee that sucks! :eek7: I can kind of feel for ya - I've been in 3 accidents, and one was rolling twice going 70 mph, but nothing that bad. That's amazing you made it out of that. How fast were you actually going when you rolled? (BTW - I wish I knew more women like you :) lol)

what suspension factors do you think are most important to this?

and thanks to everyone for a lot of good ideas!

Well most important, ride height, as we said earlier

and then in no particular order, I'd say steering (the tighter the steering, the antsier it will make you - thus increasing adrenaline / 'fun')

profile of tires determines lots of how you feel bumps - low profile tires are going to feel bumps / potholes a hell of a lot more then mudbogging baloons :)

Shock towers will determine how much you can feel bumps

Sway bars / trailing arms / STB's will determine how much you feel your car moving laterally - softer setups will make it feel like the bodies going all over the place, even if the wheels are staying on the same path.

Wheelbase is a biggie - shorter = harder to control at high speeds (thus why lots of supercars are so friggin long)

Pretty much, the softer / more responsive a suspension/steering setup = the faster it'll feel like you're going.

thanks again everyone! good ideas...

especially ridenour for that tech list : )

glad you all survived your adventures in physics!

here's a question: what are some of the cars you can think of where the actual ground clearance isn't prohibitively low, but the drivers' seat is still set fairly low in the chassis?

any daily driver of mine has to endure occassional neccesary dirt roads where friends live, but i am looking for the lowest car i can get away with.

for measure, my 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R is *tolerable* on those damned dirt roads...

the kia rio driver seat is fairly low but i dont think you want a station wagon.

yeah. thanks tho, for the idea. : )

I think the less control you have over the car the faster it seems to be. When I was driving a jeep grand cherokee, 80 mph felt really fast and kept me on constant alert to make sure nothing will go wrong. But now when i drive my eclipse gt which has had suspension upgrades and has a lot tighter steering and control than the jeep it feels more solid at higher speeds and thus a little slower. I felt more in control in the eclipse at 120 mph than with the jeep at 80.

When the telephones are going by you faster than you can count or you hit a Zig Zag paper on the road and go airborn for 300' then you get a feeling of speed.

I'd have to agree with the suspension feel statement made a few posts but, I think that for me a sensation of speed increases when I'm able to sense more minor changes of the car while I'm manunvering it so I'm able to push harder.

I think the less control you have over the car the faster it seems to be


Yeah i'd have to agree with that. My Formula's steering is kind of "wandery" and the suspension is very very "hard", so when i'm going 65 mph it feels like i'm flying. Whereas in my 3000GT the steering is "tight" and I feel like I have complete control, 110 mph doesn't feel fast at all even while blowing by people. And even when doing 135 mph when I can't register everything I see, in the 3000GT, it doesn't feel like i'm going fast I just know I am because the speedometer says so.

I don't think it's just the instant lurch off the line that causes the sensation of speed, I think it's the lurch and then the force that keeps you pushed back in your seat. For example, my Formula will throw you back in the seat in 1st and 2nd gear for the first 3000 rpms, but after that RPM range it feels slow. Whereas in a TT Stealth, it throws you back and holds you there for the entire RPM range through the first 3 gears, and that feels amazingly fast.

The size and power of a car alone has little to do with the sensation of speed. A VW GTI feels almost exactly the same speed as a supercharged Pontiac GTP. Huge weight/size difference, no difference in feeling. Power-to-Weight ratio has a lot more to do with it.

As for the car that has the best sensation of speed, from my own personal experience it would have to be TT Stealth/ VR4. But i've never driven anything N/A that runs under 14 seconds, so I have no idea what non-boosted speed feels like.

i think g forces deffinately give the highest fun factor of anything. i can imagine shifter karts that can pull over 3g's are amazigly fun to drive. also i bet they feel extremely fast, they can get up to 125mph but they probably feel faster because 1) they are very small and low to the ground so that amplifies the optical sensation of speed. 2) they don't have windscreens or anything so your head gets pushed around with the wind and it probably feels like you're doing 150mph. i know as a kid when i rode my dads motorbike with him i thought we were going 120kph when we were doing 80. in my oppinion, karts and other open cockpit vehicles that go fast and pull high g's should give you the best sensation of speed and the highes fun factor, of course none of them are street legal.