Jul 25, 2023
Okay, it is again time for a puzzler. This might be a little rough. I'm out of practice after our break. But here we go.
A very long time ago, back in the day, I was test driving a BMW with a five-speed manual transmission. I had my son Andrew along with me at the time. He was about 12 years old or so. We were heading to Toys-R-Us, or something. We are driving along on the highway.
So there we are, and he looks over at the speedometer and says, "Gee Daddy, will this thing really go 160 miles per hour?" He always asks this question when we are test driving a car.
I looked down at the speedometer and the dashboard and then I said, "No, it won't."
Small hint. A week later, he and I were again test driving a car. And this time, we were driving in a Mustang with a five-speed manual transmission. And like always, he looks over and says, "Gee Daddy, will this car do 160? Because that's what the speedometer says?"
So, I look down at the dashboard and then I say, "Yes, this one will."
So, the puzzler is, how did I know that?
Good luck.
Okay, answer time.
My young son asked about hitting 160 miles per hour, in both the Mustang and the BMW.
And how did I know that the BMW would not hit that speed, and that the Mustang would?
Because when I looked down at the speedometer, I also looked at the tachometer. Both of these cars redline at about 6000 RPM. Anything past that and you are in danger of your pistons flying right off. So, at 60 miles an hour when I was traveling at that time, the BMW was doing 3100 RPMs. And I knew that at 120 miles an hour, it would be beyond the redline and incapable of doing 160 miles an hour. I knew that if I tried to get to 160, I was going to be well into the red zone and probably decorating the highway with pistons.
And the Mustang I was driving at 60 miles an hour was doing less than 2000 RPM. It was running around 1750 at 60 miles per hour. So at that point, I knew that this car could possibly get to 160 without redlining.
So, that's how I knew that the BMW wouldn't make it, but that the Mustang would.
Good one, right?
