Driving cars at full throttle

[oohhh yeah]

How many of you guys drive your cars at full throttle on a daily basis? How often? I'm wondering how much damage does that do? After the car is warmed up I mean. People always tell me that revving it up/full throttle will quickly wear out/break a car, but just how much extra wear does spirited driving do?

I would assume sports cars are "more made" for hard driving, so there would be a lesser negative effects than "normal" cars when driven hard. Is there any truth behind this? For example Camry/Ford Focus vs Mustang/BRZ. I would think that the non sports cars would overheat faster, so can't be driven hard as long. Car experts please explain. I get that there is less incentive to stand on the gas pedal with regular 100-150hp cars, but it still adds a kick of enjoyment when driving. Especially when merging onto the highway or wheelspin launches in the rain/snow

 

[Badasp5.0]

I drive my '96 Legacy at full throttle a lot to merge into traffic. Its got 380k miles so no effect on durability.

 

[Zenith]

Maximum throttle will increase wear on the parts of the engine that are designed to take the load. Bearings and piston rings will wear out more quickly necessitating an engine rebuild. Not too quickly though. In the grand scope of things, it won't make a huge difference to floor the car to merge onto the highway or have a bit of fun. Other parts are more likely to wear out and render the car unworthy of fixing before the engine does.

On the other hand, slamming the throttle, sidestepping the clutch, and hard launches are a great way to break really expensive parts.

 

[xXKingJoshXx]

On the other hand, slamming the throttle, sidestepping the clutch, and hard launches are a great way to break really expensive parts.

And burnouts. My mom's truck is in...not so great of mechanical shape because of hard launching and burnouts a lot, whereas my grandma's truck (same make, year, model, mileage, etc.) is in perfect condition, and is babied as well.

 

[Slash]

Some engines have a more longevity than others due to the qualities of parts used, therefore can take more abuse and withstand wear, but eventually everything is going to get tired out. It could happen in 150k miles or it could happen in 300k miles.

 

[oohhh yeah]

I would also like to add poll option...how!?

 

[Bopop4]

I would also like to add poll option...how!?

I don't think you can after you start the thread.

You can't really drive a normal car all out for more than 5-10 minutes anyways.

Best Motoring did a 20 minute endurance battle test, and almost all the cars had to short shift midway through to avoid overheating. And that was with sports cars, a Civic will just overheat too quickly.

Even race cars are designed to be run all out, and they still break down.


Get a bike, the faster you go, the cooler it runs.

 

[xXKingJoshXx]

Get a bike, the faster you go, the cooler it runs.

 

[Bopop4]

But really, went up to about 100mph, and then pinned it, the temperature started dropping FAST.
Idling runs hotter than going all out for 20 minutes, no joke.

 

[Bluntified]

I open up my Maxima quite often - I work 5pm-5am so it's nothing but wide open roads coming home that early in the morning. It's only got about 120k kilometres on it so it's hard to judge the wear. I do find, however, that my Max likes to be driven hard, it's a nice cruiser too but prefers it hard as I always use the tip gears.

 

[WrxScooby]

I drive my car gently on a daily basis, I'll use my power when I need it. (Someone acting dumb) Not because of the fear of hurting it but just because I don't feel the need to. Something to me is very cool about driving a "fast" car slowly, I do real fat and slow shifts almost everywhere. Plus I'm trying to make the modded scooby scene look a bit better. I see tons of scooby's around here who just drive like idiots and it makes me almost embarrassed sometimes. People judge a lot harder when your car is loud haha, I have had people yell at me when I was driving the speed limit telling me to slow down....

After you put so much effort into something you love you don't want to lose it for something dumb like flooring it all over the place.

 

[Aquarelle]

I drive at full throttle frequently because I practice driving on the mountain pass near my home (Yeah I'm a Fujiwara tryhard, bite me) but generally speaking I drive very economically... mainly because the RB is far from an economical engine - but I've always believed that giving your car a good go every now and then is healthy for the motor.

Besides - what's the fun in having a performance car if you don't let it push you back against your seat every now and then.

 

[MrWednesday]

I don't think you can after you start the thread.

You can't really drive a normal car all out for more than 5-10 minutes anyways.

Best Motoring did a 20 minute endurance battle test, and almost all the cars had to short shift midway through to avoid overheating. And that was with sports cars, a Civic will just overheat too quickly.

Even race cars are designed to be run all out, and they still break down.


Get a bike, the faster you go, the cooler it runs.

As someone involved in amateur endurance racing, I can assure you that there are a large number of normal cars that can be driven all out for up to 24 hours at a time (or more) without overheating.

Honda is one brand that's notorious for not standing up to endurance racing abuse the way you might expect from its street longevity.

 

[Aquarelle]

Honda is one brand that's notorious for not standing up to endurance racing abuse the way you might expect from its street longevity.

*Snickers* if I had a dollar for every time I heard V-TEC YO followed by a horrible grinding noise and a rapid RPM drop.. horribly off-topic and it's likely not true of people who drive them like normal human beings but..

 

[ildd]

The only time I accelerate HARD is switching lanes when mine is at a standstill and I know cars are coming(yes I check my mirrors), and occasionally after I turn onto the highway. Both of which last 5-10 seconds, 1-3 times weekly. My car has yet to have any mechanical problems, but then again it's a Mercedes with 60k miles on it...

I don't know if the car can be driven for long (9+ hours at a time), because there is more heat given off from the hood after a 20 minute drive back from school than my mom's Ford Fusion after 8 hours of constant highway speeds.

 

[Bopop4]

As someone involved in amateur endurance racing, I can assure you that there are a large number of normal cars that can be driven all out for up to 24 hours at a time (or more) without overheating.

Honda is one brand that's notorious for not standing up to endurance racing abuse the way you might expect from its street longevity.

Why did the BMI team experience dangerous overheating then?

 

[MrWednesday]

I'd have to know a lot more about how they tested to do anything more than spitball ideas. Maybe they just got lucky in picking their cars. Maybe they were doing a lot of stop-and-go, on a typical track you're not going below ~30 mph, so getting air through the radiator depends on the aerodynamic design of the car, whereas a stopped car relies on the fan to move enough air. Maybe they were testing all modern cars, my experience only runs through ca. the early 2000s because the series are cost-controlled.

 

[Bopop4]

 

[TrdScionxB2]

I drive at full throttle frequently because I practice driving on the mountain pass near my home (Yeah I'm a Fujiwara tryhard, bite me) but generally speaking I drive very economically... mainly because the RB is far from an economical engine - but I've always believed that giving your car a good go every now and then is healthy for the motor.

Besides - what's the fun in having a performance car if you don't let it push you back against your seat every now and then.

That sounds like me some. lol I love driving & initial D. But on subject, I have a 09 scion xB & sometimes do full throttle. Pulling out, or random times. Sometimes shouldn't hurt it too much.

 

[Doog]

In the month I've had my car, I've floored it...once, on an onramp, which is the only place I'll do so. Most of the time I just drive at the pace of traffic, which means I'm accelerating at a smoother, slower pace and coasting before braking lightly. I generally try to be as smooth as possible.

 

[homeforsummer]

Why did the BMI team experience dangerous overheating then?

It's an interesting one for sure. My best guess is a combination of highly-strung cars and professional racing drivers, who can push a car far harder than the average amateur racer and certainly harder than a street driver.

I know there's a car magazine in Italy (or there was - I can't find it on the internet after a quick search) which has a long-running tradition of picking a bunch of the latest compact cars and then racing them for 24 hours to test reliability.

Essentially, whichever car needs the fewest tire changes, brake changes and oil top-ups, and can hold the highest pace (and survive!) wins. It can throw up some surprising results - I've an Autocar mag from 2005 which covered the event, when it was actually an Alfa Romeo 147 that won, beating a BMW 1-Series and Honda Civic.

Even more impressively, only three cars retired and two of those were due to crashes. The cars were completely standard - no track tires, no special suspension, not even a roll cage. A petrol and diesel of each model was chosen. The drivers were journalists with track experience, but not pro racers. But despite all that, the majority of the cars survived 24 hours without overheating, breaking down etc.

But 1.6 petrols and 1.9-2.0-liter diesels aren't the most highly-tuned of vehicles, so they probably have much higher margins, even than dedicated performance cars, for being thrashed constantly. Ultimately carmakers design these things to go on for hundreds of thousands of miles, which probably isn't expected of the average performance car.

---

To answer the question in the OP, when I have a car handy I don't tend to use full throttle on a daily basis, but may do if I'm just driving for fun and will do if I'm in a lower-powered car and pulling onto a motorway or something.

I like to think I'm fairly mechanically sympathetic anyway - I always wait until the engine is warm before venturing higher up the rev counter and tend to drive as smoothly as possible, even when I'm going quickly. It's easier on the car and it's much easier on passengers, if you have any!

 

[Bopop4]

It's an interesting one for sure. My best guess is a combination of highly-strung cars and professional racing drivers, who can push a car far harder than the average amateur racer and certainly harder than a street driver.

After watching a bit of the video again, I agree that it's because of the cars themselves.

A Camry isn't going to be putting nearly as much heat into the engine as something like an Evo.

They even mentioned something near the start of the video that the new BMW with more power was running way hotter than the previous version they tested.




On OP, I floor my car sometimes, just for fun.

(Not that it makes it actually accelerate, 136hp. )

 

[homeforsummer]

It's probably also worth noting that some older cars, like the Beetle further up the page, the Citroen 2CV and a handful of others, were virtually designed to be driven flat out everywhere. Partly because you had to, since they didn't make much power, and partly because they were in such lowly states of tune that pinning your foot everywhere was more or less equivalent to driving a regular car at 1/4 pace.

I was told when I bought my old Beetle that driving it around at low revs like a modern car is actually bad for them. I'm not sure how much truth there is in that, but I suppose when the air cooling system relies on the engine spinning quickly to keep the fan blowing faster then it could be true. Ideally you want to be keeping the revs somewhere in the mid-range at the very least, and your ~70 mph top speed flat out on the motorway is, as @xXKingJoshXx alluded to above, actually the best way to get plenty of air to the engine!

 

[Slash]

^^That makes sense given the cooling system.

I find it interesting how an engine can be built for maximum power and be used only one time versus an engine designed to last. One of the reasons I love cars.

 

[Adamgp]

Used to floor it regularly in the GTP. Never once did the temps go above normal, despite it being a supercharged engine with a cast iron block.

I've floored my Escape a couple times to pass/merge or just to see how surprisingly quick it is.

Besides, it's good for the engine. Blow out all that carbon build up.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Nissan Sunny/Versa is it in NA? Driver here, I almost never floor it(not that it would go anywhere) unless I'm in a real hurry. I like to save fuel as much as I can so that is why but yes I keep my kick downs to a min.

 

[Third Reign]

I don't believe going full throttle is bad at all for a car, what wears out the parts is keeping it at too high RPM for sustained periods. Every time I merge onto a highway, and it happens rather frequent, I floor the pedal. I keep the revs off the limiter and shift early thought.

It is kind of nice to keep my bike in first gear for as long as possible thought. I just rocket off the line at stop lights. But those engines are built for revving, a friends Yamaha YZF-R1 does 120kmh in first O_O. My ER-6 does 70, more than enough to be honest.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I have been building and working on cars / trucks for about 20+ years. Including hundreds of laps of real life road track racing. From my experience......

The harder you drive your car the more strain it puts on EVERYTHING. It will indeed wear out quicker than a car that is taken care of and not "floored" on a daily basis.

 

[phillgt2002]

Now that I think about it, I've gone pretty heavy on the throttle but only on the on ramps. I tend to drive safely other than that. And yes, slamming the throttle will wear out parts on the engine but that's what maintenance is usually for.

 

[Slash]

Used to floor it regularly in the GTP. Never once did the temps go above normal, despite it being a supercharged engine with a cast iron block.

I've floored my Escape a couple times to pass/merge or just to see how surprisingly quick it is.

Besides, it's good for the engine. Blow out all that carbon build up.

The Escape is a lot quicker than I expected it to be.