What is the deal with 85MPH speedometers?

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Tornado

Tornado

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I've never been able to figure out what the purpose was behind 85MPH speedometers, particularly how they showed up in the 1980s when cars rapidly began regaining the ability to easily exceed that speed. As I understand it, there was also a bunch of silly exceptions and whatnot where they weren't applied, and some manufacturers went out of their way mock them (like the Turbo Mopars having stickers on the dash that usually extended the range of the cars to 130 or something like that.

Now I assume it is some stupid political grandstanding in response to something, but I don't understand what. Kid of a different era and all that I suppose, but there has to be some base reason behind such nonsense. I grew up listening to the shenanigans my parents did with their 80s cars (I remember one where my dad raced a college friend in an '84 Vette with his Scirocco, and after he they got to the spot they were going to they both got out and joked "How fast did you get it up to?" "85."). I also assume it has something to do with the idiotic National Speed Limit, but 85 seems like an arbitrary number to slap on to that.
 
From what I've been told by those older than me the reason it was set at 85mph was to trick people into thinking their cars couldn't go any faster then that.
 
Toronado
like the Turbo Mopars having stickers on the dash that usually extended the range of the cars to 130 or something like that.
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86ovrlay.jpg


87ovrlay.jpg


Lol, awesome.
 
Real and True Answer:

At the time the Nationally Mandated Speed Limit (from the Nixon era) was 55 mph, and the cars had 85mph speedometers mandated to make the 55 "look fast," putting it well past the halfway part of the sweep.

The federal government had (and still has) no right to tell the states what their speed limits should be, so they tied it in with federal road funds. If your state did not demonstrate enforcement of 55mph on rural highways and Interstates, then they lost highway money. Set whatever you want, but if you want us to pay for your roads, we'll see 55, thank you.

It was supposed to be a response to an energy crisis, slowing cars down to save gas, but the safety nazis noticed that highway deaths dropped and automatically associated it with speed, without really caring whether it was actually fewer people travelling, or more, or whether speed was actually a factor in any accidents they looked at. Everybody knows that speed kills, right? So when deaths dropped after 55, that had to be the reason.

When limits were relaxed to 65, then 70 on Interstates (and higher some places - I've seen 75 in Colorado, and western Texas has 80 on I-10 and I-20) the safety folks gave dire predictions of carnage, but the death rates still kept dropping. You still see people preaching "55, stay alive" in some Eastern states (Maryland comes to mind) but for the most part we've gotten past the B.S.
 
ND4SPD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

There's the explanation.
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That just confuses me more. If NHTSA said screw it to the idea in 1981, why did cars have them for so much longer? For example, the digital speedometers that GM loaded into all of their performance cars in the mid to late 80s. Especially in the C4 Vette, which had the Digital/Analog hybrid speedometer that went up to 85 and the normal digital readout that would happily go above 85.

ND4SPD
Haha, check this out. Ferrari 308 US speedo when that law was in effect.
http://ferrari308gtsi.multiply.com/photos/album/2/1980_Ferrari_308_GTSi_2003_2008#photo=60
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I'd heard about those too. The gauge cluster was literally just the normal one with all of the numbers obscured. Ferrari supposedly did that so their customers could swap them out without requiring recalibration.
 
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wfooshee
and western Texas has 80 on I-10 and I-20)
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Yep, that's actually the highest Speed Limit in the USA! And if the Trans-Texas Corridor is built, then it would see spped limits of 85-90mph, and even an Autobahn type setup with some sections having no speed limit!

Toronado
That just confuses me more. If NHTSA said screw it to the idea in 1981, why did cars have them for so much longer? For example, the digital speedometers that GM loaded into all of their performance cars in the mid to late 80s. Especially in the C4 Vette, which had the Digital/Analog hybrid speedometer that went up to 85 and the normal digital readout that would happily go above 85.
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Yeah, infact my '91 Ranger only goes up to 85, and it has a red line where the 55 is.
 
This was a Federal mandate that any cars manufactured during this time could not display any number above 85. Ford was clever about this and did find a workaround when they produced the 1984 SVO. The law was specific that it could not display numbers higher than 85. Ford installed a speedo that could register a speed up to 140. They just did not display the numbers on the cluster beyond 85 and left the hashes in place. The reason for the 55 being displayed so prominently, this was the national speed limit at the time. This was a law created during the fuel crisis of the 70's in an effort to force people to be more efficient in their cars. By the end of the 80's, States started raising the limits on interstates to 65 and the law shortly died after this.
635770137115608453-1984-Mustang-SVO-Dash.jpg
 
It's just like cars that didn't have a tachometer. My first car was a '95 Civic EX 2dr and it had one. But I had a friend who had an '88 Civic DX which didn't have a tachometer, even though the car had a manual transmission.
 
My car has all the normal gauges but no engine temp gauge. There’s a light that comes on at start up to show it’s cold and I assume there’s one when it overheats, which I haven’t experienced yet. I find it odd not to have a temperature gauge, especially considering where the car was made for and in (the tropics).
 
IMO it is better for a car to have a lower speed on the speedo.

Smaller changes in speed are easier to see.
 
Plus any civilised motorist is rarely gonna go any faster than 85 on public roads anyway.
 
It's been my experience on the Pennsylvania turnpike in the Philly area that if traffic is going above 15mph, you damn well best be prepared to drive at least 90, or consider sticking to the shoulder until the next exit.


My first car was an '87 v6 Camaro and it had one of those 85mph round speedometers. It didn't stop at the end though, just started back round again. Best I could work out, my top speed was about 15-20mph.

Also used to drive an old Celebrity, with the wide horizontal speedometer. That one would just go on past the end until it disappeared under the dashboard. I don't think it would go much faster than that but it was pretty amusing.

Not that I would ever have driven like that, I'm a civilised motorist. :D
 
TenEightyOne
On a quiet clear motorway in good conditions I suspect many people routinely travel closer to "instaban" 100. Not Mrs. Ten, she drives like that everywhere.
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I ruined Lady Sch by borrowing a Golf 5 GTI from a friend for a weekend and finding myself at the wheel on a very empty stretch of road and the fastest the missus had travelled (awake) was the top speed of my old 1.6 Golf 2.

Going flat out in the 5 woke up a monster that wanted to take the wheel and she now keeps on whining that we need to get rid of the Mighty Daihatsu and buy something with a turbo to go fast.
 
McLaren
We have a toll road in South Texas that allows 85Mph. Not a damn person unless they're in a big truck sticks below it. It's a little Texas Autobahn. :D
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The story behind Toll Highway 130 is that it was designed to be a tolled alternate route for Interstate 35 along Round Rock–Austin–San Marcos, but the private entity couldn't get enough travelers to pay for the roads. Despite Austin's woes with backups on I-35 even in free-flowing traffic conditions, the route is too far east of anything other than Circuit of the Americas and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport...it's empty.



So the solution was to raise the speed limit to 85 miles per hour back in 2014.



There's some gentle hills, but the route isn't demanding. The sparse scenery, distance between lanes, and lack of surroundings doesn't really give one much sense of speed. Even 85 seems a bit tame, and it's still quite empty at times.



On the plus side, it has a road sign with a pickle on it:



(fixed, mr. wfooshee)
 
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Did Pupik forget how to post images??? :lol:

EDIT: OK, when I saw Pupik's post earlier today, the images were Links. Now they're images. But he didn't fix it today because it says last edited was 5 days ago.

Still has a hanging '[\url]' though
 
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AlpineMatt
This was a Federal mandate that any cars manufactured during this time could not display any number above 85. Ford was clever about this and did find a workaround when they produced the 1984 SVO. The law was specific that it could not display numbers higher than 85. Ford installed a speedo that could register a speed up to 140. They just did not display the numbers on the cluster beyond 85 and left the hashes in place. The reason for the 55 being displayed so prominently, this was the national speed limit at the time. This was a law created during the fuel crisis of the 70's in an effort to force people to be more efficient in their cars. By the end of the 80's, States started raising the limits on interstates to 65 and the law shortly died after this.
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How on Earth did you find this thread 7 years later to answer the question?! :lol:
 

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