Dear LPG,

I am not that young anymore,, but all my life I have found myself really enthralled by the need for speed. Cars have been around ever since I can remember but their invention only precedes mine by 50 years. 

When I was a young man I used to read about them and watch as the few that were in London drove by really quickly as I remember, although really quickly then is really slowly by today’s measurements.  Did you know that the first ever car, which was developed by one Karl Benz in 1886, sped down the road at a maximum speed of 10 mph?  Electric wheelchairs can manage that nowadays!

Apparently the first speed limits were put in place in the 1860s and cars were only allowed to travel at 2 mph in the city with some needing to have a man with a red flag walking in front of them.  Fifteen times that speed was allowed by 1935, but it never got higher than the 30 mph that we are used to today. 

When I was young, a boy’s toy collection nearly always included a car and I can remember the day that I got my first ever real car as if it were yesterday.  That was a time when driving was something that only men did, but that all changed very quickly too.

So now, even though the world’s fastest car of 2020 is reportedly the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport which can reach 304.77 mph; according to the law, our brains can still only manage 30 mph safely no matter how fast we can get our wheels to turn.

AM, Lee

AM offers some added information on his topic of choice today…

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