Last week, Porsche and Boris Johnson’s London government announced that the £25/per day congestion charge that the the previous London government, headed by Ken Livingstone, has sought to impose would be overturned. A judicial review concluded that critical evidence suggested that the enormous charges, more than three times what is currently in place, would actually do more environmental damage, rather than less.
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There are three reasons that Porsche is concerned about London’s impending congestion charge. First the people don’t want it, second it affects the sales of Porsches, and because it unfairly punishes the people by raising money for the city of London through a sort of taxation without direct representation, and is therefore unlawful.

Another observation: Porsche is by no means the carmaker in European Union with the lower overall emissions, but let’s look at the numbers…

The 911 has a 3.6 liter H-6 engine this base Carrera has a combined cycle of 25.7 mpg, with CO2 emissions of 266g/km. The car also costs $73,000 US, or £61,620.

The 2.7 liter H-6 Boxster engine costs $46,000 US or £33,375. It however with it’s smaller engine gets a very reasonable 29.7 mpg on the combined cycle with 227 g/km of CO2 emissions. The 3.4 liter version of that engine produces just 254 g/km. These three models are sports cars. Competitor Ferrari on the other hand produces a V8 engine in the F430, which has output of 420 g/km - quite a lot- and gets only 15.4 miles per gallon. The V12 599 GTB that Ferrari makes produces 490 g/km and drinks a gallon in 13.2 miles.
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It happened right in our backyard. An unfortunate event transpired last week, when a 24-year-old Phoenix man was killed in a head-on collision. But what makes this story so unique was that he was killed by a man suspected of robbing a local Bank of America. The suspect himself was being actively pursued by local police. Speeds reached up to 100 miles per hour (160 KM/hour) before the suspect crashed into a civilian. The chase ran through several Phoenix metro neighborhoods and due to its high speeds and busy streets put dozens of civilians lives at risk.

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Speeding is now the most common offence on the UK’s roads, according to government figures. In recent years it has made up more than one third of all driving offences dealt with by police in England and Wales.
Part of the reason for this could be that the UK is the speed-camera capital of Europe, according to recent figures given to MPs. Numbers have risen from 1,935 in 2000 to just over 5,500 this year (DfT (UK)).

In last week’s edition of BeyondtheKM.com, we covered the sordid story of a Mini/BMW executive who was recently given a stiff sentence by the British courts for driving 100+MPH (162.5 KM/hour) in a 50 zone. We cover the topic of speeding in Britain a little more in depth here at BTKM!

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The AP reported today that Briton Tim Brady will be jailed for 10 weeks as a result of his conviction for speeding in a 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo - at 276 KM/hour (172 MPH). The record set by Brady for highest recorded speed on a British motorway beats the old record of 251 KM/hour set by car dealer Jason McAllister in 2003.

Judge David Morton called the act “criminally self-indulgent.”

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Of all the senseless laws, speeding may be one of them. Still, it is a legal reality, and speeding is a social norm, worldwide. When we saw this article about a driver caught speeding at 172 m.p.h. in a Porsche Turbo, we couldn’t help but smile. Nice ride, nice speed. See the article here: BBC News.

The reason we analyse the story in this edition of BeyondTheKM isn’t because we are jealous (we are), rather the analysis to be made is the correlation to automotive advancement and the speed limit.

Point one: speed kills. A legal argument that is commonly made by legislators is that increasing speed limits increases the number of deaths related to speed. We have never seen irrefutable studies to this point, but we have to concede that driving, in general and at any speed, can kill. We can generally assume that a positive correlation exists between the increased speed and increased deadly accidents. It is also true that despite increased speed limits over the years, cars have gotten safer and deaths from speed is not correlated to that increase in some cases from 55 mph to 75 mph in many US states.

Point two: countries with high speed limits or none at all have a competitive business advantage. Talk to any Japanese GT race car driver and they will argue that Japan which has a lower average speed limit than Germany is slower to develop new car technologies related to performance and handling than their German counterparts. The anecdotal argument is simple. In a country with roads where people can travel 300 KM per hour, people will travel that, even at the risk of spending a little bit more on petrol. At those speeds, drivers must be better trained (a solution for legislators everywhere) and car companies must produce better cars.

We think that the advantages in handling, performance, and technology that Germans have over Asian and American counterparts give them an advantage in the marketplace. This is the reason why buyers will pay so much for BMW M, Audi S, and AMG series vehicles. Cars are better built, stiffer, have better engines and brakes because consumers demand to drive 300 KPH. Simple as that.

Lexus has recently launched an AMG division of it’s own called the F series. It seems that while decades behind the Germans, the Japanese are finally getting the hint. Speed may kill, but it also pays.