Aygo Restricted?

[Jan van de Wouw]

As I had the A/C on the engine had to work harder, but still managed to get up to 158kmh.

so basically having the A/C is bad?...if the engine has to work harder...

or its good...because is engine is working HARDER with the A/C on...

I wouldn't call A/C a bad thing; I prefer A/C over windows down, especially at higher speeds.

Window(s) down is very noisy at speeds over 80kmh (50mph), so noisy in fact that it CAN result

in premanent hearing damage from prolonged exposure... My previous car was a Nissan 100NX,

with T-bar roof and when I had the tops off I allways used custom fitted hearing protection.

These only filtered out the noise from the wind, so the radio didn't even have to be turned up...

Driving a convertible at 100kmh (or a motorbike with the helmet's visor gapped) for more than

15 minutes infact DOES damage your hearing a little bit. At 140kmh you're down to 3 minutes "safe" exposure...

Soundpressures can get as high as 102dB at 140kmh, while 80dB is the highest level considered safe...!!!

if it's, say, a hot day and your dilemma is "windows down or A/C on?", then if you go fast it's probably

better to turn the A/C on because the aerodynamics get screwed up when you go fast with windows down.

Mythbusters (a great show on Discovery Channel) actually did some testing on this and even "revisited" the tests, but

I'm still not sure on which is more economical. Depending on the way they tested it it was the A/C or the windows down...

Well, I've done the same (some 165km according to the meter, about ten km

less according to the GPS), but it never went much more than 4k rpm...

I did some math on that, as I started doubting myself...

When you're in 5th, driving 70kmh (±43,5mph) you do 2000rpm, so since within one

gear everything is linear at 4000rpm you'd only be doing about 140kmh (or 87mph).

If you draw further on this, at 160kmh (100mph) you'd be at 4600rpm.

In 4th you do 2500rpm at 70kmh, so 5000rpm at 140kmh and 5700rpm at 160kmh;

I guess I was in 4th then, but as I sais; ath those speeds I didn't really pay

attention to the revv-counter. Looking at the road (and mirrors: no speedlimit

on some stretches of "Autobahn" in Germany) is WAY more important :P