(11 Jul 05)

There's a gentleman's agreement among several manufacturers to limit the top speed of their high-performance models to 155mph, but that may be about to change. Although this may seem to be an academic issue in the UK, it's significant in Germany, where many stretches of autobahn remain unrestricted, and there is some embarrassment about the fact that some cheaper, less powerful models are able to overtake apparently much quicker vehicles on these roads.

Audi, BMW and Lexus are all considering the idea of abandoning the 155mph limit, at least on some models. Porsche has never adhered to the limit at all, while customers of AMG Mercedes-Benz products can request higher limits. In any case, the matter is largely academic - even if it's still politically sensitive - since some buyers fit new ECU chips to bypass the governors as soon as they take delivery of their cars.

(Source: Automotive News Europe)

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