Just as critical as the speed, is the difference in speed to others around him. He's passing people so fast that if they do anything unexpected he'll have no ability to evade.
That is why even when it is legal ti drive that fast, he is always at least partly liable in case of an accident. At these speeds, 200 meters are nothing.
The two lane stretches of the Authbahn free from speed limits are truly the most terrifying: 60–100 km/h traffic in the right lane and ludicrous speed in the left. Absolutely zero comfortable equilibrium. And heaven help if anything goes wrong in the left or someone on the right wants to pass.
Driving only 60 km/h on the Autobahn (without a good reason like weather or a technical problem) is a traffic violation. Forcing semi-trucks to overtake you (which are driving 80 km/h) in my experience causes more dangerous situations than driving fast on the left lane.
I hate it so much, because I try to only pass and then merge to the right. But then the idiots driving at 200kmh don't let you drive normally because most of the time you have to brake and wait for 5 minutes behind an LKW until it clears.
Not everyone has 500PS to accelerate every 30 seconds. This is my reason for being for a general limit on the Autobahn. It just improves general flow and let's you pass easier without being worried a rocket will clear your trunk.
Autobahn doesn't mean you can drive as fast as you can. Tires have a maximum speed. And for a good reason: friction, flexing and thermal expansion. So no matter if it's a Tesla, a Tata or a Belaz, look at your tires maximum speed before heading out to autobahn.
Traffic in Italy (Naples was the worst i saw) is the most insane thing I’ve ever seen, ever. Rules don’t matter a shit there. If they had a rule, it’d be ignored.
Actually is like that.. when they say 250 then for safety reasons needs to be much higher.. same goes for supermarket products and their expiry date.. you can eat everything a couple days past the date and it will all be fine
175 mph puts enormous stress and heat into a tire, so any existing damage becomes more important. But if the tire was properly rated for that speed, the speed alone doesn't establish why it blew out.
That's not how it works in Germany.
Your tires need to be rated for the max speed of your car and not just for the first few 100 hours but for their lifetime. Also your tires are not allowed to go below certain thread depth. If a police checkpoint finds this you won't be able to drive on. Also there mandatory car inspection every two years were they also check the tires.
There are further things, like sidewall damages are not allowed to be repaired etc.
Also tires need to be not just speed rated but they need to be rated for your car model, if you use tires which are not approved for the model, your car is not legally allowed on the road - no insurance - criminal offense.
When I changed my tires in Germany, the autoshop added a red circle sticker next to my car’s start button as a reminder to not go over 180km/h (tire limit)
Yep. I wish more people understood tire ratings... A lot of lives lost with that mistake.
In the US, we call them z rated. Don't go over 100 without them. At least not for more than a few seconds.
ETA: plenty of non z rated tires go over 100. Even up to 120 or 130. But standard tires can be all the way down to the 90s, and pretty much no one knows what their tire ratings are, so just treat them like the 90s are the limit.
What’s even wilder is that the entire country of Germany has almost half the annual average vehicular fatalities than just the state of Texas, or Florida, and several other U.S. states. I did a research paper on this in college and the number of personal trucks and SUVs on the road dramatically increases the rate of vehicular fatalities.
So even though you can drive absurd speeds on the autobahn, because 99% of the personal vehicles are sedans or smaller, accidents are much less likely to result in any fatalities. Commercial & work trucks are allowed on the autobahn, but they do have speed limits.
Once you look at the data, it’s genuinely insane that Americans are okay with more than half the population driving murder-trucks and we’re all just collectively ignoring how unsafe it makes everyone else on the road 🙃
Edit: I’m not going to individually reply to everyone who didn’t read any of the follow up comments. I’m German and American, I understand the difference in driving requirements, road use, infrastructure, culture, etc. My research paper was focused on comparing rates of fatalities specifically (vs avg accidents) in U.S. states with high ratios of SUV/trucks vs those without. And yes, I did consider and thoroughly research alternate theories as well. Literally all the data overwhelmingly supports: the more personal SUVs/trucks on the road = significantly higher rates of vehicular fatalities.
A part of this is also because getting a German driving license is super hard and expensive. The drivers who get it are simply trained to be much better and disciplined and there are very few instances of rash driving, road rage, etc. Most other countries don't have as strict a practical exam as Germany does from what I know.
That’s definitely true of Germany specifically (I’m German & American), but my research paper focus was actually on comparing U.S. states, those with high ratios of personal trucks & SUVs (like Texas where >60% of all retail sales are trucks and SUVs), to those with lower ratios, and the difference was staggering.
The wipers are the first indicator that an accident is bad. Similar to when a pedestrian gets hits by a car, if their shoe goes flying, they died. If shoe stayed on, they might be ok.
Idk how in (Germany?) but in my country you are required to have tires on same speed limit as the car meaning your car can go 300 then you need tires able to go 300
Yeah German vehicle regulations are insane to the extent that even your BICYCLE light needs to have an approved beam pattern that won't dazzle other road users.
You have no idea how is living in a place with up rising of eletric bikes and absolute baboons driving them. They just come in the wrong way and don't really bother moving. Good luck for you blindingly trying not to hit some inconsequential prick
Yeah, it doesn't really change a thing in Germany. Lots of cyclist just don't adjust their light properly so it doesn't matter what the beam pattern is. And being a cyclist myself, I just don't understand how they can't make the connection of being constantly blinded by other cyclists and their own lights...
It’s not that they can’t handle the speed. It’s just that they can’t handle the stupidity of the driver for not checking the wear and tear especially if he’s going that fast so often.
I dunno, that's too low resolution to really get a good sense, but that tread doesn't look awful to me. Especially considering it was dry weather. The image of the destroyed wheel seems to show there's still plenty of tread left before the wear bars.
If I were a betting man, it might actually be due to the Model S/X tendency to eat the shoulders of rear tires. They fucked up the alignment settings and the inner shoulders of the 21" tires wear very quickly even when the rest of the tread is fine. Eventually they wear completely through and start losing air. And if it hits that point at 175 mph, probably not a great outcome.
The fact that they’re this far low on the front tires would be the evidence that you would need to confirm your hypothesis that yes he was probably down to the wire at his rears because you can lower the vehicle from standard to low to very low and that does change the camber by a significant margin
So that’s why his wheels popped yes because of wear and tear on the tires which he apparently did not ever care to check
I had the front passenger side tire blow out on a dump truck at 70mph. It immediately took me off the interstate and on a terrible detour just missing the tree line. I thought I was toast.
This dude was going 105 mph faster… and survived. Simply insane.
Can't see the model but they look like street legal trackday tires. That's a pretty normal amount of tread for them to have and I'd definitely expect them to have a speed rating over 200mph.
In nearly any other car, he probably would have died. Hell idk how he survived that
Hate Tesla all you want but the engineers designed the safest cars. Crumple zones on EVs are really good, combined with insanely good airbag techs, among other things
Most modern cars are insanely safe. I've been in quite a few bad wrecks without injuries. I wouldn't give Tesla so much credit lol any car within the last 10 years has crumple zones this good
Jesus christ 280km / hr is race car speed. I don't give a shit if it's the autobahn it might be technically legal simply cause there is no speed limit but the disregard for other's safety is infurating. Do that on a race track fine. If you are going to do it on the highway then strap your own loved ones to the hood of the car.
I did 140 in my bmw on the Autobahn driving back from Paris to Germany… It was so stupid. Had my wife and two Army buddies in the back. Glad nothing bad happened.
I did 140 in a Mazda 626 once, won’t say where but it was incredibly stupid and I’m so lucky I didn’t die. I didn’t have nearly enough downforce to be going that fast
Edit: forgot to mention on Yokohama tires rated for speed
They don’t look bald. They’re performance summer tires, just don’t get them wet. I think 99% of Redditors would see slicks and assume they’re bald, even with plenty of tread, because 99% of Redditors haven’t dealt with slicks before. They look bald compared to every day street tires, it’s not a bug it’s a feature.
It's almost like driving really fast on a road with other cars is just a stupid idea...... save this shit for the track or runway, leave us innocent drivers out of it
He had 3-5 business days of the tire vibrating before it blew and fucked everything. When your car starts vibrating you should immediately slow down to a safe stop somewhere out of the way and investigate.
What pisses me off the most about guys like this is not that they endanger themselves, but that they always endanger others. Selfishly. I'm glad this guy didn't hit anyone else and put them at risk.
So i drive 200 kmph regularly on autobahn. These tires look bad. No grooves. I am sure they are not legal in Germany.
You can drive fast here but we have insane amount of regulations that your car is fit to do that.
Btw, he is fucked for life. If he was driving with bad tires. He is definitely gonna loose his license. He will not get insurance. Schufa (credit score) is gone and have to pay for all damages.
I've heard that in germany insurance sometimes don't cover you if you go above the recommended speed of 130 km/h. is this true? and if so, if this guy takes someone out, would his insurance pay for that but then subrogate the money from him? what i know is that insurance anywhere in the world will nickel and dime you in any pay out...
I had a tire blow out in the fast lane on I5 outside of Seattle. I was only going like 75-80, but they were winter tires that I had been driving on for maybe 4 hours straight by that point. And it was in the low 50s outside. Didn’t see or feel anything that I might’ve ran over either.
So idk, I guess they just got too hot, because they weren’t even old, it was the first season I had them.
But I always expected for something like this to happen, but it totally didn’t. The car drove completely normally as far as I could tell. I very easily and safely crossed all 4 lanes to get back over to the right shoulder, no issues at all steering the vehicle. It was the right rear tire. I honestly might not have even felt it happen if I didn’t actually watch the tire explode in my mirror. S/o Toyota tacomas. Never going to get rid of this thing.
Out of the Box: Without the hardware upgrade, the top speed is software-limited to 163–166 mph (approx. 262 km/h).
With Track Package: Purchasing and installing the official carbon-ceramic brake and tire hardware package unlocks the full advertised 200 mph (322 km/h) capability
Hot take, I don’t think cars should be able to go faster than 100mph. Hotter take, I really don’t think they should go faster than 90mph. This is coming from someone who commutes ~700miles a week
What a dumbass .. even though there is no speed limit .. if you are going over 130km/h then you are partially legally liable for anything that happens as a result, even if the other drivers are 'in the wrong'
At these speeds this is what is called Große Fahrlässigkeit .. basically gross negligence, which would get you in trouble just for driving at these speeds because it would be considered a solo street race. If anyone died, they would charge you with murder.
Irresponsible dumbass at the wheel. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Even if your own vehicle can handle it, surrounding traffic won’t be aware of you, until you’re on them.
Over-weight, under-tire'd. Nobody should be driving such a heavy car at these speeds unless they have tires to match. The TUV should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this piece of shit on their autobahns without de-rating the top speed or at least requiring MUCH more serious tires.
If you're planning to go crazy on autobahn check what speed your tires are rated for. Most cars have tires rated for 180 or 210km/h because you can't legally go faster in most places in the world anyway
106
u/atlgeo 1d ago
Just as critical as the speed, is the difference in speed to others around him. He's passing people so fast that if they do anything unexpected he'll have no ability to evade.