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> is practically guaranteed to be set by the manufacturer at its optimal value

The optimal value for what? Speed? Performance? Comfort? Economics? I don't drive a car, but wouldn't trade-offs apply to car tuning just like it does to everything else?

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You clipped my sentence. "For its intended use", I said. Sporty cars are tuned for performance. Cushy cars are tuned for comfort. Econoboxes are tuned for economy. Of course if you want to make your Yaris do 0-60 in 6.0 s there are changes you can make. But drilling random holes on your STi ain't gonna do shit for its time on the track.

Sporty cares are tuned for performance, but the really high-end ones are often speed limited, too; I guess some of these settings are the equivalent of removing / turning off the speed limiter, if you know what you're doing / can drive on a proverbial track where you have need for those speeds.

That's exactly his point. Those speed limiters aren't there to arbitrarily limit your fun, they're there because the stock wheels and tires can't handle greater speeds. If you don't understand why the limit is there in the first place, you're going to have a nasty surprise when you exceed the tires' limits while going well north of 150 MPH.

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