Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Part of safety is being able to accelerate out of trouble. There's a point at which a car is too underpowered to be safe. That's just my opinion though.
ZV
I can accelerate out of trouble on my motorcycle. I have yet to drive a car which is able to accelerate out of trouble quickly enough to make much of a difference...and certainly nothing that can do it while towing. (No, I have not driven anything with more than ~250 hp)
In my mind, unless you have enough acceleration to put your entire vehicle a full car-length in front of the space it was previously occupying within a second or two, you're never going to be able to accelerate out of trouble. The loose tire bouncing down the road, guy merging into you, random flying debris that you are trying to avoid etc. will still clip your door, instead of your rear quarter panel, if you aren't able to get your whole vehicle ahead of it in time. Not much better, and certainly not enough to avoid an accident. So...only sports cars need apply. The acceleration performance of average economy cars is so craptastic that they might as well tow...in much the same way that semi tractors aren't going to try and beat people to the merge when they're empty, even though they in theory can accelerate much more quickly now.
Doubling the speed of a turtle does not give you a hare, and halving the speed of a turtle does not significantly compromise its survival abilities. Halving the speed of a hare, on the other hand...
Mind you, I do concede that maybe Average Joe Moron needs the safety cushion of gobs of extra power and braking while towing, since he seems incapable of paying attention to the road and planning ahead. But the semi trucks do fine with dog-slow vehicles.