Re: Today I have...
Here there is a federal law (same in europe) that a car must have a limiter set to a certain point below the tires maximum speed rating. BTW, my insurance IS void if I was to mount an S rated tire on a car that had T or higher rated tires off the line. Tire blow outs are not fun at them kinda speeds.
Yes it would be odd some cars can go faster than others just because of tire ratings, but, it's because of computer controls, limiters, and the lovely laws these days. It's just like my old Intrepid could actually keep up with a v8 police cruiser here, you would think the beastlier car would run circles around the family sedan, but because that cruiser actually came off the line with a very low rated tire (wasn't meant for high speed chases) the intrepid could keep up with it and outrun it, both had the same power, I just had a slightly higher limiter in the computer.
No, I am NOT saying I raced (or ran from) a cop, it was a retired cruiser that a friend purchased and ended up on a 1/2 mile track with it.
If you don't believe me, call your DOT and ask them about tire rating and limiter laws, then call insurance and ask them about their policy if your tires was found to be at fault of an accident, are rated as L, but you was on the interstate doing 80MPH, and your car originally had N rated tires. You would be in a very bad spot then, and the sad part is, most tire shops do not care, they will get w/e the person wants, or worse, sell them tires rated well below the rating that is just above the limit of the cars speeds.
Here is a list of the speed ratings for tires, it's not all of them, most of the ratings aren't even used anymore, or are very rare, like the Y and (Y) ratings.
http://www.tirespeedratings.org/
