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Comment by louwrentius | Hacker News Reader

More than twenty years ago, I drove from The Netherlands to Munich in a Volvo v70 at 210 KM/h most of the trip. I could see the fuel gauge needle move as for every 5KM it used 1L of petrol.

Driving this fast was awesome. You have to keep an eye on the horizon because you will be there in less than 10 seconds.

But it was absolutely nuts. As I see it, from an environmental perspective, it's indefensible.

I'll miss the lack of a speed limit, as driving fast is absolutely awesome, but I can't justify the tax of this 'perk' on society.

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Similar here. My mom had a mid-90s BMW 5-Series 540i Touring that I was allowed to drive when I got my license. The thing had a manual fuel consumption indicator going up to 30l/100km which was crossed at the slighest touch of the pedal. Anything above 180km/h you could watch the fuel gauge needle move.

Wow, another Volvo gas guzzler. My 170hp automatic S60 is 10l/100km by attempting to drive normally. As soon as I step on it though... Even then because it breaks a lot I've never reached speeds above 170km/h and also because I haven't taken it out to a highway.

Yes the famous 5-cylinder 2.5L 140hp volvo engine was always 1:10 which was quite uneconomical. Sorry to see your S60 be that thirsty and unreliable. I have a 2010+ S60 which is basically a face-lifted Ford and that one is a modern 180hp turbo that at least does 1:14-1:16 if you drive normally.

But for me, as soon as I have the funds I'll swap it for electric.

It's a 2.4, but hardly matters. It's actually a 170hp model, the 140hp was a software limitation that closes the throttle plate at upper RPM around 4500RPM and up.

The modern S60(2010-2015) is a far cry from the sizes of the old models, it was made as small as the P1 era S40. The S80 P3 model is the size of the old S60 P2.

Honestly I cannot say why the engine is so inefficient, maybe it was the weight + it being an automatic, who knows really.

My dad had several wagons/stations V70 850 740? The all did 1:10 and where manual. I think the large displacement, the 5 cylinders (is indeed heavyer) and low HP/L + naturally aspirated = inefficient.

My S60 is from the Ford-era and is basically a Ford Mondeo with volvo interior and exterior. In some sense it's too bad, it's not a 'real' volvo, I always loved the 5-cylinder sound, but I'd rather do 1:14-16

I own my S60 since it was brand new in 2001. Manual shifter. Currently I'm at roughly 9l/100km. 210km/h is doable.

Back in the 90s, I went for 215 KM/h with a Audi 100, but found it too exhausting. Everything goes so fast, and you have to be super-aware at all times. I doubt I drove more than 5 minutes at that speed.

We were young and we did the trip in 7 hours for 1300 KM but it was exhausting indeed. It was fun but it's insane.

I did similar trips through Germany when I was just old enough to drive. One time I was driving 200 in the left lane and a truck changed lanes just in front of me, because the driver didn't expect me to drive this fast.

I had to do an emergency break maneuver and almost crashed into the truck. Only then it dawned on me that driving this much faster than the other vehicles is very dangerous. To me it is completely nuts that this is allowed. If you want to drive fast, you can always drive on race tracks...

I rarely went over 130kmh since then, nowadays I mostly cruise at 100-110kmh, because it is the ecological sweet spot of my car and in general it's less stressful.

The Germans are aware, but there are tons of people on the road from other countries that forget sometimes.

And we may feel fancy at 200KM/h but you really have to watch out for the anry BMWs/Audi/Merc and so on that will want to pass you at 250-300KM/h.

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