Lexus LS460

Discussion in 'Member Casual Chat' started by Grey Matter, Jul 28, 2024.

  1. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm gonna buy one of these at pretty much the price of a beater.

    182,000 mi 2008 for $7200 specifically for commuting across my local Nascar freeway.

    I'm looking for the mass, suspension and horsepower that I feel will help me make this daily commute not only a smoother ride on this neglected freeway, Texas 225, the Pasadena Freeway as the locals call it: but a safer ride.

    Sometimes, and not all that infrequently, it has been my practice that the best defense while driving on a highway in the US is a good offense, primarily in the form of speeding to get the f out of a cluster of morons.

    Thoughts?

    For example,

    A great counterpoint I'm still somewhat concerned about is a fellow ChE at work, no less than a Madison Wisconsin grad, who actually studied under the profs behind BSL, pointed out that the risk associated with driving faster is fundamentally ke = mvv/2. No doubt about that.

    This means that the available crash energy increases by 200% for a 41% increase in speed. Math, high school math at that, 6th grade math in fact....

    However, there are occasions where having the ability to go from 80 mph to 115 mph and risking that increase in crash energy, I firmly believe, is a risk below that of being in the vicinity of a few knuckleheads playing the equivalent of grab-ass on the freeway at 80 mph.

    ***
    Oh, and the posted limit, 60 I think it might be on 225, not really sure of this though, hahaha, these apparently are a problem for Cali transplants with a slow learning curve. Cops in Houston don't spend much time as surplus tax collectors, but there is a stretch patrolled by LaPorte and apparently on rare occasion they need a little extra funding, which is very easy to score by giving tickets to the folks regularly commuting on 225 at nominal speeds of 80 mph.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2024
  2. Pieces of Malarkey

    Pieces of Malarkey Well-Known Member

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    I'd tend to agree and being an automotive engineer from Detroit by trade (I've spent much of my life driving absolute POSs as long as I could wrench them into running myself), I don't see anything to knock in your analysis. The Lexus is a solid vehicle, even at that high mileage (my top end price would likely be about a quarter of that). The super cheap POS also has the advantage of requiring absolute minimum PL/PD insurance. If it gets whacked hard enough, just call a junkyard and have them come get it.

    The only thing I might suggest is a pickup truck. Higher seating gives you better visibility to cluster f**ks in the distance.

    But that's a minor consideration.

    Good luck.
     
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