According to Popular Science, the 2007 BMW M6 – with a 5.0-liter V10 capable of 500 horsepower, and an estimated $100,000 price tag – is electronically governed to 155 mph.
Why would BMW do that? 
The Ferrari F430 profiled on the same page has a top speed of 196 mph, and the '06 Corvette Z06 gets up to 198 mph … hell, even the '06 Pontiac Solstice reaches 123 mph! Why would they give a car so much power and then limit its top speed?
155 isn’t fast enough for you?
Does anyone who isn’t a professional racecar driver ever get anywhere NEAR those top speeds on any kind of regular basis (or even any kind of irregular basis)? Who cares if the top speed is limited by a governor if it’s at a point where the average person who buys the car is never going to hit?
Geez…I can’t even imagine going 155 mph in a car. I get nervous at 80…
<Yakov Smirnoff>
In California, governor has $100,000 car!
In reunited Germany, $100,000 car has governor!
</YS>
Is it possible that the handling gets flaky at speeds > 160 or so?
I dunno, if I have the cash to blow on a $100k car, you can bet I’ll pony up however much it costs to go to the racetrack on the weekends and open her up a bit.
Or eat the speeding ticket.
Why buy a car with all that potential without being able to realize it?
I’d say “Exactly” but it’d be coming from the opposite direction… 
Lawsuits? 
<shrug>
I’ll go with Larry. Perhaps it’s nice way to avoid getting called out on some BS. This car can go 300 mph but we’ve limited it to 155.
<shrug> again.
Several German automakers–BMW, Audi, and Mercedes–have a gentlemen’s agreement regarding voluntary speed limitation to preempt government regulation. They settled on 155mph (250km/h) as a limiting number to restrict liability, though in practice there is no public roadway where cars regularly exceed these speeds, not even the famed German Autobahns. Bypassing these restrictions is merely a matter of replacing the engine controller, which can also uptune the engine for greater performance (at the expense of economy and pollution mitigation) which is commonly done by speed-freaks or anyone racing these cars on private racetracks.
So Joe the Wall Street Clone doesn’t need >155mph speeds (actually, all he needs is the badge and the grillwork to impress his “friends”) and Mike the Speed Devil will replace the limiting device as a matter of course. Every regulartory body is happy to pretend that the manufacturers are doing something to limit potential danger, even if it is transparently pointless, and everybody goes home with a bag full of sugar.
One does not, by the way, purchase a car like the M6 strictly for straight-line speed, but rather for handling and control. Whether that’s worth US$100k depends on your pocketbook and interests, I suppose.
Stranger
Way to blow all the fun out of our tinfoil hat contest dude!
Pfft. What speeding ticket? They have to catch you first.
Clearly you’ve been subjected to one too many viewings of Vanishing Point on late night cable. It must be that Barry Newman crush you had in 8th grade. 
Stranger
Good point!
That’s what roadblocks are for.
The ability to ever actually drive the car at its top speed is completely beside the point. 
But … but … then they shouldn’t have given it so much horsepower! 
Amen! But more to the racetrack thing than the speeding ticket thing: going that fast on any road with a posted speed limit would be a little too dangerous even for my driving fantasy. <grin>
Well, at least that makes a kind of sense – and it’s heartening to know that there’s a work-around. Thanks!
Hey, you buy your car for what you want, I’ll buy my car for what I want…
Part of it also might be the speed rating for the tires that are on the car. Even if the car can do >155 the tires might overheat, and fail at high speeds. Basically it is a small bit of insurance for the manufacturer aginst lawsuits. If the car is governed below the speed rating of the tires then there is less chance of the tire failing at high speeds, and less chance for someone suing them for it failing.
Looking on the web it looks like the fastest rating is 186MPH. After that you would have to have special tires made for the car. Limiting at 155 would give a saftey margin. Anyone who wants to go faster than that would know they need rated tires, and if they don’t get em then that is their problem.
-Otanx
Amen, sister! (Hey – can I get a lift?)
Pfft. They’d have to get ahead of me first! (How fast can helicopters go again? As my fellow Californians can attest, once they put the helicopter on you, you may as well just stop the car and prone yourself out. Because whether it’s one hour or seven (all of which will be broadcast on all channels, preempting any other program), the helicopter signals the inevitability of your capture. But at 155 miles an hour, I’m thinking you could make it to Mexico in like three minutes. Then you’d be safe.)
Okay, looked him up. Dude’s like a million years older than my dad (okay, two years, but still). That’s just gross. (Besides, our late night viewing was Duel.)
You know he lights your fire.
Duel? Pffft. Derivative Steven Spielberg dreck. Now Two Lane Blacktop…there’s a film. It’s still not as good as Mad Max, though.
Stranger
I opened this thread thinking it had something to do with my dumb Governor.
Lame.
What does BMW say about the warranty for this 6 figure car for anyone changing the controller chip. I’m guessing it will turn to poo.