85mph speedo what's the thought on that?

jvandyke

jvandyke

True Classic
So, why the 85 mph speedo, the car is capable of more, top end is not what it was made to do I'll agree but everyone occasionally gets up there a bit, no? Just wondering why they chose to limit it there? Not that I care anywhere near enough to do anything drastic about it, just curious.
 
I thought there was a law...

jvandyke said:
So, why the 85 mph speedo, the car is capable of more, top end is not what it was made to do I'll agree but everyone occasionally gets up there a bit, no? Just wondering why they chose to limit it there? Not that I care anywhere near enough to do anything drastic about it, just curious.
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Sometime in the dark days of the double nickel that called for limiting cars spedometers to 85mph. I don't think the law was in effect for very long.

Or maybe it was just proposed legislation that never got approved, but Fiat built the car to that standard anyway. They did that with the side impact and rollover protection when they designed the car, you know. One of the reasons why it's got such a stiff chassis (and is a heavy little pig, for its size).

Pete
 
Retro fit one from another year without the US mandated 85 mph Speedo if you like. This is not a difficult change to do.

It's a remnant from the Fed mandated 55 Mph speed limit, the idea was to "save fuel" and "save lives".

Bernice

jvandyke said:
So, why the 85 mph speedo, the car is capable of more, top end is not what it was made to do I'll agree but everyone occasionally gets up there a bit, no? Just wondering why they chose to limit it there? Not that I care anywhere near enough to do anything drastic about it, just curious.
Click to expand...
 
Once upon a time (1973 or 1974) there was a federaly mandated 55 mph speed limit (in the US). A reaction to the 1973 oil crisis...

In 1979 there was federal law the mandated an 85 mph maximum on a cars speedometer (again, in the US)

Dark days for those of us who lived through it (although the limit was largely ignored).

The federal 55 mph max lasted until 1987... I'm not sure when the 85 max speedo was changed...
 
I remember the 55mph limit but never noticed the 85mph speedo thing. That's just plain silly...oh sorry, NFC.
I was all set to call Fiat silly but not for that at least, there's other reasons I'm sure.
 
i used to have an 85mph speedometer in my car.. it was fun watching hte needle point downward way off the gauge
 
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