What is it about some cars

That makes you feel like you are going super fast?

I've experienced this in several cars. Currently this is my experience in our Mazda 5. Speedometer indicates 65, radar trailers confirm 65, traffic is all +\-5 so I'm pretty confident we're going 65. Feels like 85. It's not noisy or rough but the sensation of speed is heightened in this car. 
 

Splain me why. 

Interesting. We had our Mazda5 9 years. Finally dumped it. Never felt fast. Always felt slow. 
 

my GSR Sedan always feels fast, as you describe. At 75 in GSR I always feel like I am passing traffic. In my SuV, at 80mph it feels always others passing me.  I attribute it to the high revs the GSR always sits at. Its frisky. It's just ready to go always. Low belt line + gearing + thin a pillars, all contribute to the feeling.

Higher quality miata

How closely you are sitting to the road has a lot to do with how “fast” a car feels..

barefootskater said:

What is it about some cars... That makes you feel like you are going super fast?

Splain me why. 

A classic Mini, originally built with no seat belts and sealed beam headlights, going ~50, in the dark, on a two-lane country road.

Why? It's dark, can't see, could be ejected. 

In reply to RealMiniNoMore :

My 67 S does 85 mph all day on the highway here. Feels fast. But I have seatbelts and a 1380motor and 6 lights up front 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

This is a 13 and I assume your 5 was a first gen. Maybe some difference there. And this car is not fast, it just feels fast at cruising speed. Zoom zoom baby. 

Motorcycle.......    

and my first time over 110 in an IROC Z.....

In reply to barefootskater :

Ours was a 2012. Bought new in 2011 July when they came out . 18inch Ms3 wheels from our mazdaspeed3 with sticky rubber. Good riddance after 140k miles 

In reply to Recon1342 :

My 80 mustang sits much lower and doesn't feel this fast. Of course there is a high probability that that speedo is not super accurate. Our Camry felt the same at 90 as it did at 60, sinfully boring thing it was. Sisters rav4 sits higher and feels slower too. I don't know. 

I think a few things help...

1. Slow-car fast phenomenon. A sporty, but not truly fast car feels amazing to daily. You feel the presence of the cars mechanical limits, and it tickles the lizard brain. A 240mph benz whose limits are clearly far away is less exciting than a 200mph F40 (or even a 110mph 914!), with no traction control, even if the benz might be technically superior in most every aspect.

2. Lightweight. Light cars always feel lively in a way bigger cars do not, unless the power/weight ratio has been addressed (turbo ls swap). I would argue that lightness trumps even power to weight by just a bit in this case. The opposite case is my enduring gripe with ecars, and luxury muscle. 

3. Connection to the road. Vauge, but its a totality of things. Responsive (not to be confused with grippy) tires, stiffer suspension, lower seating, noisier cabin, lack of roof, steering ratio, and quality of your balljoints and bushings.  The little things add up to a feeling greater than the sum of its parts. The opposite can ocassionally be true also... a terrible road feel can occasionally make the very act of maintaining the speed limit feel beyond stressful as your 80s chevy swerves with a half a turn of the steering before the wheels begin to react...

4. Engine manners. Some engines just 'want to play', and rev easily, while others seem to be on a 2 second delay line. A well-tuned multi-carb setup, ITBs, and cable butterfly t/b setups seems to rule here. High rpms, lightweight rotating assemblies, and short gearing always make everything feel faster. Even if its just the sensation that the gas pedal does something, fast or not, it seems to make the car feel more alive and faster.

This more or less describes motorcycles, miatas, and maseratis in my little mind. 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

My '60 850 was fun (and scary), even before I built a 1380 for it. 

I haven't driven my Impala SS much for the last 5 years.  I've been DDing a 4x4 pickup of some sort.  I get in my lowered SS and I find myself going 50mph on the highway because it feels like 90.

Recon1342 said:

How closely you are sitting to the road has a lot to do with how “fast” a car feels..

Exactly! Driving a Semi feels like you are crawling @ 60mph.

I think it's a subtle thing involving how the car reacts to external forces and driver inputs, and not easily condensed.

I know plugging the trailer onto the RX-7 reduces the sensation of speed.  60 without the trailer feels like 80 with.  Having the "drogue chute" back there makes it a heck of a lot less fidgety.

And then, 60 with the trailer feels like 100 in the Volvo, which is always an interesting culture shock after I park the Mazda after a 500mi weekend in it, and find myself having to keep a close eye on the speedometer until I get re-acclimated.

RealMiniNoMore said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

My '60 850 was fun (and scary), even before I built a 1380 for it. 

My dad has an all original 850. Very fun but slow. I prefer my 1380 :) 

The new Fit & ex-GRM van have the opposite problem. With the van it accelerates so slowly that I don’t always realize I’m still accelerating until I look down & see I’m 10-over. The Fit is so smooth & quiet being new, plus with the CVT not doing any shifting, you don’t really get the sensation of speed. 

However, th Miata is completely opposite. I’m sure it’s a combination of being low, loud & raw.

The gixxer 1000 with a GT28 I had back in 02 felt stupid fast, then again, it wasn't really slow either. 

I never really felt a greater sense of speed in a Miata. Maybe I just expected it to be more extreme. Its loud but not fast. At 65-70 the car doesn't feel anywhere near the limit, and cross wind doesn't affect it much either.

In reply to captdownshift :

Stock srad gsxr 1000 isn't that slow ( love me that generation). I can imagine a boosted one being very interesting.

As several people have pointed out I think it's a noise vibration and harshness thing. 
 

In reply to 1SlowVW :

97 SRAD 750, my first bike. Glorious. Bought it with 21k miles. Sold with 87k miles. Lots of stupid 150mph+ pulls on the Bay bridge 

The Caddy feels like it's going 45 when going 85, which sucks.

My Formula 500 race car is literally the size of a golf cart and 3/4" off the ground and 120 mph feels like maybe 75 or 80.

130 mph on my Honda 125 GP bike didn't feel that fast nor did 150 mph on a TZ250 at Willow Springs.

The most nervous I've ever been on a motor cycle was on a CB175; I did a slingshot pass of a a Semi and the bike got up to 79 mph, the bike had Dunlop KR73 triangle shaped race tires on it and it was alarmingly darty. 

The fastest I've been in a car was a friend's Maverick with a horribly worn front end. The car was so busy at 65 mph it was near terrifying.

Interior noise in combination with the least bit of instability will make a slow car seem like it's going a million miles an hour.

After backpacking in the Rockies south of Red Lodge, Montana for a week, driving an Escort S/W felt like going very fast.

My BMW and Mercedes weight about the same. The Mercedes has lower gears, straight exhaust and no interior. It feels SOOOOO much slower than the BMW. I think it's because it has a more compliant suspension so I feel the road less. 

My XJ somehow feels slowest of the 3, up until about 85 when wind resistance becomes noticeable. It's quiet, tall geared and very compliant. 

A chevette is terrifying at 60 mph.  Doesn't seem fast, just frightening.