ok, remember the thread about how far it took to stop from 70 mph??
well, imagine that you work for a national car magazine, and you have
lots and lots of money laying around, and a big blank spot in next month's
magazine. what do you do? :)

go get a bunch of high-powered cars and see how fast they can go
0-150mph-0. yup. up to 150 miles per hour (240 kph) and then back down to
a complete stop. <bear with me, there's a point involving vanagons in here
somewhere>

so let's just take a look: Car and Driver, August 1998.

                          0-60mph  100mph   150mph   150mph->0mph
                          -------  -------  -------  ------------
Kenny Brown 289RS Cobra:  4.5sec   10.7sec  34.1sec    8.4 sec
$67,500                   216 ft   950 ft   5659 ft    775 ft
                         ( 66 m.   292 m.   1.74 km    238 m.)

Hennessy Venom 600GTS:    3.5sec    7.6sec  18.5sec    8.9 sec
$141,394                  162 ft   656 ft   2902 ft    866 ft
                         ( 50 m.   202 m.    893 m.    266 m. )

Lingenfelter 415 ZR-1:    3.6sec    7.5sec  15.6sec    7.7 sec
$111,871                  170 ft   630 ft   2328 ft    730 ft
                         ( 52 m.   194 m.    716 m.    225 m. )

RENNTech SLR7.4           3,7sec    8.7sec  20.9sec    7.4 sec
$334,500                  183 ft   775 ft   3264 ft    691 ft
                         ( 56 m.   238 m.   1.00 km    213 m. )

Saleen S351               4.4sec    9.5sec  23.0sec    8.1 sec
$61,669                   213 ft   826 ft   3533 ft    781 ft
                         ( 66 m.   254 m.   1.09 km    240 m. )

Steeda Q                  4.1sec    8.6sec  18.3sec    7.8 sec
$40,675                   191 ft    726 ft  2761 ft    736 ft
                         ( 59 m.    223 m.   850 m.    226 m. )

SVSi Viper RT/10          3.6sec    8.5sec  21.0sec    9.1 sec
$108,919                  172 ft    752 ft  3312 ft    923 ft
                         ( 53 m.    231 m.  1.02 km    284 m. )
(and some stock off-the-showroom cars ...)
Acura NSX                 4.5sec    10.6sec 28.2sec    ---
$88,136                   ---       ---     ---        742 ft
                         (                             228 m. )
Porsche 911 Carrera       4.8sec    12.3sec 38.2sec    ---
$74,178                   ---       ---     ---        751 ft
                         (                             231 m. )
BMW 540i Sport            5.5sec    13.2sec 34.7sec    ---
$56,512                   ---       ---     ---        796 ft
                         (                             245 m. )

ok. so what's the point? :)
well, looking the stopping distances from 70 mph, our buses didn't do tooo
bad. what was it? slightly over 200 ft or so? but look what happens when
you double that speed ... the distance increase at least THREE times!!!
think about this for a moment ... you hit the brakes as hard as you can
and it takes you over TWO FOOTBALL FIELDS to stop!!??? whoa momma!! :)

of course, you WERE travelling at 220 feet per second (68 meters per second).
which is 2.5 miles per minute (4 km per minute) or about two football fields
every three seconds. which is a damned sight more than any of our buses will
ever see. :)

point being that going up in speed to 75-80 mph not only increases your
fuel consumption, but also increases your stopping distance quite a bit.
not as much as 150 mph, but it's more than, say, at 65 mph. :)

and no, i don't perzactly know why i typed this in. but it seemed like a
good idea when i started. i thought it was kinda interesting. in an odd
sort of way. i was just rather blown away by those stopping distances.
the acceleration figures don't impress me anymore. the fact that some of
these cars can be doing 150 mph by the time my bus gets up to 60 mph ...
well, so what? if i set up the race to the object is to transport seven
people 100 miles as fast as possible, i'll win. :)

joel