Is this really what Ferrari speedometers looked like in 1982? :(

*Posted* 80?

Without a link, I'm just guessing, but most places have a designated speed for "unmarked rural roads" -- E.g. a "default" speed limit for places where the speed isn't posted. (a.k.a. where they saved money on signs. )

But that's not a limit to what they can post a road for.
Most states provide for letting an "engineering study" recommend a higher speed for some roads.
Not that they always accept those reports.

But I'm a big believer in local administration.
Having speed limits set by people who have never seen the road is bureaucracy in action.
(There are places where road rules are set by people who don't even have a driver's license.)


Update: Found some links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_the_United_States_by_jurisdiction
https://www.motorists.org/issues/speed-limits/state-chart/

Wiki calls that chart "the most usual posted daytime speed limits, in miles per hour, on typical roads in each category. The values shown are not necessarily the fastest or slowest. They usually indicate, but not always, statutory speed limits."
So it's a fuzzy indicator.

 

I-79 from I-70 to the West Virginia border. (Southern part of Pittsburgh to Wheeling.)

I could have sworn I saw a posted a sign, and my Jaguar F-Pace indicated 80mph limit.

I was surprised.

Matt

 

I worked for GM when this nonsense was going on. Not one speedo could read above 85 MPH (140 KMH). That included Buick Grand Nationals and Vettes. I think the Vettes had an analog and a digital read-out around that time. I'm not sure if the digital read out was capped at 85 as well.

Of course back then we had no GPS type device that could give us a real speed reading. All we could do was extrapolate using the tach. Ah, yes, those were the days.

 

I'm guessing so. I had an 87 turbo Buick with a digital dash and it would just start flashing at 85.

 

That was the excited little kid in the programming urging you "FASTER!!! FASTER!!! FASTER!!!".....





.....or maybe that was just in my head

 

Now you know why I live in Nevada --- and no front plate requirement as well!

 

German automakers agreed on a 155 speedo . Defacto arms control

 

We drove cross country this past summer and there were a few posted 85 mph limitson the big higways....but I forget where. Wyoming maybe?

 

about 1988 i got pulled over by a cop in connecticut while returning to ny from ri. i was in a rental. he pulls me over at about 11pm, wearing a smokey the bear hat and raybans....asks me how fast i thought i was going....i demure, he asks again, i decline to answer and give him my license and rental agreement, he asks me again....at this point i lose it and tell him that it was a rental, the needle was buried on the right hand side of the speedo, and therefore i dont know how fast i was going....

this did not sit so well with mr trooper, so he wrote me a ticket for $350....which i did not pay until my wife obliged me to do so in 1993.