America’s highways and Interstates are often untamed and sometimes lawless. Spend enough time on any highway and you’ll find motorcycles splitting traffic at triple-digit speeds, road rage at 80 mph, street racing, and all sorts of other shenanigans. The highest speed limit in America is a highway in Texas with an 85 mph speed limit, while most other regions in America pick a number between 55 mph and 80 mph. These highways are unkind to the slowest cars that you can drive, yet some people are daring enough to try, anyway. What’s the slowest car that you’d be willing to drive on a highway?
This question sounds straightforward, but there are some factors to consider. In my travels across America, I’ve noticed that the highways around certain cities have pretty much two settings: Parking lot and Indy 500. For example, the highways around Los Angeles are frequently like a parking lot, where only motorcyclists are making good forward progress. This would be fine for even the slowest cars. During the worst periods of LA traffic, even a microcar is fast enough to scoot between exits.
However, I’ve noticed that, at least in SoCal and often in Chicago, once traffic dies down, sometimes it’s like you’ve stumbled into a racetrack, as everyone is punching it. I remember driving my 2016 Smart Fortwo home eastward from Los Angeles and getting passed by a straight truck. I looked down, and my speedometer said 83 mph. Yet, the straight truck was getting passed by people going even faster. This would be dangerous for a car incapable of going faster than the speed limit, if that.
“Slow” also has different meanings in this context. There are vehicles that accelerate very slowly but have decent cruising speeds, like semi-tractors, buses, and vintage cars. There are also vehicles that have low top speeds, like Ford Model Ts, some Japanese Kei cars, and Humvees. Highways also have minimum speeds, often numbers like 45 mph or 60 mph. However, going 45 mph on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit is asking for trouble unless you’re a semi hauling a titanic load.
With that in mind, I have more than one answer. If I’m doing a short run between exits in a city, I’d feel pretty comfortable taking my 1997 Honda Life. My Life has a realistic cruising speed of 60 mph, but I have gotten it above 70 mph before. The engine is absolutely screaming at that speed, so I wouldn’t do that for very long. In other words, if I needed to skip between two exits within Chicago, yeah, I’d feel okay doing it in my Kei.
If I have to drive any real distance, the slowest car I’d take is my Smart Fortwo diesel. This thing makes all of 40 HP and takes 20 seconds to get to 60 mph, but will drive at 80 mph all day if it has to. Some of my Canadian Smart friends have driven their diesels across Canada and the United States like that, and their cars had no problem keeping up with most traffic.
The vehicles I would not take out onto a highway are my pint-sized two-wheelers. My 2024 CFMoto Papio SS will top out at 62 mph on a very good day with a tailwind, but that’s absolutely beating on it. My 2005 Genuine Stella also once hit an indicated 70 mph (more like 65 mph actual), but that was downhill with a tailwind, and I was tucked in so hard that I barely saw the road ahead.
Here’s where I turn things over to you. What’s the slowest car you’d dare to take out onto an American expressway?
Top graphic images: Volkswagen; depositphotos.com
I guess it would depend if I was driving a bigger vehicle like a RV or Truck pulling a trailer I would say 55-60mph would be fine but if I am driving a smaller vehicle or a unloaded pickup I would prefer to be able to at least be able to handle 75-80mph steadily.
Nothing that can’t comfortably go 75mph for a stretch. I’m not playing those games with other people’s time.
Many moons ago I drove a Mercury Zephyr Z7 with the 2.3 and a 4 on the floor over the Sierras from Reno to Sacramento at night – it was my friend’s car and they were asleep.
Downshifting into 2nd briefly to get over the pass was slightly harrowing.
But when we arrived at their home, they were not only grateful, but the complemented my smooth driving.
That said – Nowadays, I think an NA Miata is about as slow as I’d want to go.
if it makes anyone feel better, I distinctly recall a modern Honda insight (1st Gen) hybrid barely able to handle 50 mph up Interstate 70, to the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel. But it got 100 mpg on the down slope into Utah. and would easily go 100 Plus mph if you dared.
Used to have a ’69 VW Bus. Not the best thing for freeway driving, especially if there’s any hills, but doable. I did (and would even today) drive it on the freeways, drove all over the western USA in it back in the day (wouldn’t now), but it can be decidedly Not Fun. All the aerodynamics of a loaf of bread.
I’m driving a ’69 VW Bus currently. Drove it from Michigan to Illinois on the highway, and it was really scary when a semi whooshed past. I could feel the air pushing me out of my lane.
I’ve done inadvertent lane changes or near lane changes on interstate highways due to wind or semis while driving the ’69 VW Bus. Proper anticipation usually is enough to correct for this, but still definitely a little too exciting for comfort.
Generally I’d want to be able to do 60 mph on level ground. Depends on the highway though, and I wouldn’t want to do a daily highway commute in something that slow.
My old Wrangler YJ with the 2.5L 4-cylinder had acceleration you could measure with a sundial. Just enough power to keep up with street traffic but the freeway was another story: it would cruise comfortably at 70-75 on flat ground, depending on which way the wind was blowing (not a joke) but at the mere suggestion of an incline, a downshift was required just to maintain 60mph.
Climbing up some of the steeper sections of the 70 here in Colorado would require a downshift into 3rd, while chugging up the hill at 45-50. Just enough to keep up with the semis. Meanwhile I’m getting passed on the left my Priuses and ratty Subarus, while getting passed on the right by guys training for the Tour de France.
Still, she got me where I needed to go. Every. Damn. Time. Still miss her.
I used to have a ‘72 Blazer. I was very fond of it, but of the relatively few vehicles I’ve owned, it was the least car-like. The day I got it to the orchard where I lived while I had it, the top came off and stayed off.
It was basically a boat for rural landscapes, an open runabout with appropriately boatlike tendencies: ponderous controls, a constant need for upkeep, and total exposure to the elements. “It’s basically a pickup,” I thought, “but a convertible. Best of both worlds!” I was so, so wrong.
One day I filled the bed up with brush and other debris from clearing the barnyard and set off for a nearby ranch that handled that kind of thing. It was about five miles away, down I-5. I hadn’t even made it to the freeway before the worst of my compounding mistakes became apparent. Bits of leaves started peppering my eyes, so I put on my sunglasses, which weren’t much help.
After merging onto the interstate, I realized what a very bad idea I’d undertaken, visual impairment aside. Once I hit an indicated speed of 50 mph (actually a few miles faster because of the 33” tires), the see-saw steering necessary to overcome several degrees of play and keep the truck centered in the slow lane became an active ordeal. Braking was primitive and jerky but no worry because absolutely every other vehicle was blasting past me, often with horns Dopplering ahead. Were they angry about my sluggish pace or the cloud of organic debris fluttering around? Why not both?
That was the last time I took that truck onto a freeway.
25mph with the hazards on in a Hyundai Elantra in which I’d just crashed into the gatehouse of Yosemite National Park the night before. A cop on a motorcycle rapped on the window with a nightstick and and told me to take the next exit.
I’ll take my Yamaha XT250 on the highway but neither of us enjoy it.
I drove my 1990 Pontiac Sunbird LE from my home in northwestern Kentucky to my friend’s home in Detroit, Michigan last September for RADwood Detroit. 8+ hours on interstates and a long highway stretch in Ohio.
It was nerve-wracking for my anxiety-prone self, but not as bad as I thought. The car has the 2.0 OHC Opel-sourced four-cylinder that supposedly made 96 HP when new in 1990. And a 3-speed automatic transmission. No cruise control, of course, since the “LE” is the base model.
I cruised at 70-ish MPH all day and just stayed in the right lane. The 90+ MPH speeders in the Camries and Suburbans/Tahoes (and of course rental Nissan Altimas) were more than happy to fly past me on the left. The Sunbird revs pretty high and loudly at 70, but it’ll do so all day. No idea what RPM it’s actually at when at that speed, since it has no tachometer. I don’t like pushing it past 75-80, since it is very unhappy and floaty at that point.
Plus, it lacks even basic safety features such as airbags and ABS.
Oh, did I mention I’m going back to Detroit in it again this coming September? 🙂
For me, it’s more about the size and mass than it is about the horsepower. My truck isn’t really happy at anything over 65, and it’s a lot more enjoyable at 55, but it’s big, so I don’t feel nervous about just camping out in the right lane and making traffic deal with me. So I don’t think I’d be too worried in something like an old Mercedes diesel.
The MGB GT, while it’s probably faster at the top end (allegedly 105 mph top speed, but I’m not about to test that), is absolutely terrifying on the freeway at any speed. 65 feels like 100, and when a big pickup truck is tailgating you, all you see in the mirror is front bumper and axle.
As far as acceleration goes, they’re both in the teens 0-60, but it seems like I’m always yelling at people to “just effing GO already” on on-ramps, even in a slow car.
Scariest highway ride was in my 71 TR-6 going from Mass to Maine on I-95. It had an overdrive but I kept it around 65. Every time a tractor trailer passed, I would look and see, yep, I could probably fit under that trailer. And the driver probably wouldn’t even notice running over me.
My ’67 MGB never felt slow to me. The non-power assisted brakes was the only part in that car, which made it feel dated compared to modern cars.
I rode my bicycle on highway 101 in central California. Does that count?
Only if it was during an AIDS Ride with hundreds of your closest friends/bears/otters – for which you’d deserve our eternal gratitude.
I have a 55 CJ-5 sitting in the barn I need to put together. Even though it has the rare overdrive transmission, I don’t think I’ll be driving that on the highway.
My buddy has a 49 with the overdrive. I have seen him on the highway. Just don’t.
I took an ’86 Ford Escort onto the 401 years ago, and that was the most terrifying experience of my life. It would get to 120 km/h… eventually. Given the number of people that don’t care to leave space for merging traffic, having a car that is leisurely in its acceleration is stressful at best, dangerous at worst.
So, I think my low bar of “slowest car to drive on the highway” is above that. Something that can get to highway speed here (somewhere around 120 on a 100 km/h highway) in anything over 10 seconds would feel positively dangerous given other drivers.
We had a similar vintage Escort when I was young. If we went to our local ski resort, we had to make sure we were up to speed before we started going up the last hill because it would not make it up otherwise. In retrospect, not at all safe if we had to turn around to go back down for another running start.
I’d happy drive a T28 Super Heavy Tank we built for WW2.
Top Speed = 8 MPH.
I mean, would anyone be able to do anything about it?
https://www.steamscenes.org.uk/pictures/2008/gdsf/DSC_1458.jpg
Same argument, but it does mange 25 mph.
Just yesterday I drove freeways all over L.A. in my 36 horsepower Citroen LNA. Top speed 65-ish and it takes a month to get there. I do it a lot and it’s mostly a hoot and sometimes terrifying. I also used to drive my Subaru 360 (25 hp) on the freeways and that is not something I recommend, but I am still here to talk about it.
Wow, that is brave. The LNA isn’t exactly known for speed or safety.
I once drove a 1988 Ford Mustang LX convertible with the 2.3 and an A4LD transmission that wouldn’t go into 3rd or 4th for a mile on Interstate 35 because the access road ended and I needed to get to a meeting on the other side. All of 48mph while bouncing off the rev-limiter in 2nd gear getting honked at.
(It was a project car that I hadn’t started on and my daily-driven ’87 Mustang GT was broken down, as usual.)
If you are talking 0-60 times, I think the 1981 Diesel Chevy G20 van we had growing up was the slowest thing I’ve ever driven on the highway. I’m sure it took over 20 seconds to get to 60. I’ve taken the MGB on the highway, but with 62.5 hp, it’s screaming the whole time at 70+.
I’ve seen an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile a couple of times and I’ve noticed everyone was treating it with extra courtesy.
Maybe people don’t want to end up embarassed in the news as the guy who destroyed the Wienermobile by recklessly cutting across four lanes of traffic to squeeze into an exit lane, but I think most people get roused from their death slumbers behind the wheel and actually pay attention when they’re driving past it.
Straight truck? Thats a new one for me.
My 01 XJ 4.0 5spd with 4.56 gears on 33’s was about as slow as I’d be willing to take on the highway these days. When I drove it to Moab I could do the speed limit, maybe a little more no problem, but on some stretches of I-20 between Amarillo and Albuquerque it felt like the semi trucks were going to run me over (especially up and down the hills).
I’ll take most anything out on the 4-lane if it can hold 60mph, at least around here and only if I have to make it a few exits. The worst so far was probably my ’57 Plymouth. With a 4.11 rear-end, flat-head 6, and 3-on-the-tree, that thing was absolutely wrung-out at 60mph.
I remember driving it home along I-80 from Omaha where I bought it and being so happy to encounter the long stretches of road construction where I could comfortably cruise at 55. I finally reached a good place to switch back to the 2-lane blacktop making the rest of the trip a lot more pleasant.
Classic Cars, even muscle cars, especially those with 3.73 and up gearing are not fun at speeds over 65 for long stretches. Maybe if you add back in an OD unit or something, but so long as you are not driving below the min speed limits I am fine with about anything. I lived with a 71 C25 Chevy with just a 350 and no OD Auto. it could pull about anything it seemed like, it just spun that 350 to 3000 to 4000 rpm at modern freeway speeds. It also was old and heavy, so most people tried hard to avoid it when I took it on a freeway and ran it around 55 mph most of the time.
The ones I think are perhaps problematic are the little flat fender jeeps. they tend to overheat if driven above 45 for too long and the big rigs passing them at 70 or 80 depending on the rigs governor have a tendancy to suck them into their wake, or blow them away from them as they start to pass in a headwind.
I drove my 80 series through town the other day at 6500 feet elevation pulling a 6500 lb boat. It was very stable with that weight and didn’t really struggle with the weight chassis wise, but it was so, SO slow. I would guess that if there were no hills I could maintain 65-70 mph, but any hill would drop me into the 40’s. This is the slowest I thing I would take on the freeway for short trips. I drove it near GCWR once with a 3500 lb trailer to Yellowstone and it was fine. I get to try towing the same 6500 lb boat with the GX next week on the 75 mph freeway for 30 miles or so, we’ll see what thats like at 4500 feet. That vehicle at least can legally tow that much.
What year 80 series? Does it have the ol’ 3FE or the newer twin cam job. I had an early 80 series with the 3FE, and it was just about the slowest and least efficient rig I’ve ever owned. I do love the 3FE though.
Twin cam jobber. I would wouldn’t even bother trying to tow anything with a 3F
No way, it can hardly haul itself!
Sometimes I wish I’d gotten a GX, but I love my 80 series so much that it’s never a real regret. Having a bigger engine makes a big difference, though. My favorite joke about the 1FZ-FE in the 80 is that “it has all the power of a small V6, but with the fuel economy of a large V8”.
I also have a gx…its no comparison. The 80 is on a whole different level off-road.
Same could be applied to the 3FE, but even worse. More like power of a small 4 cylinder, with the fuel economy of a big block. Not even a joke! My stock 80 series got about 12 MPG on average, my 454 powered K2500 gets 11.
You know those semi spotting tractors with the narrow offset cab and 5th wheel that goes up and down? Drove a street legal one (most aren’t), 6BT Cummins was governed to 40 MPH so (barely) freeway legal. Great Chinese carryout was a mile away from the warehouse I switched trailers at, took too long on city streets to make on a half hour lunch. So hopped on the freeway ramp and off at the next, pickup lunch and repeat!
I currently drive a ’96 Isuzu Trooper. I like it well enough, but I say that driving it is like flying an interstellar spaceship. Not because it’s fast, but because you have to spend half your trip getting up to speed and the second half decelerating.
The old girl’s OK at 60, but 70 is pushing it a bit.
That said, every car I’ve purchased since college was built in the same year or a year prior to the previous one. I intend to maintain this trend and retire in a Model A; that being the oldest car that you can reasonably daily drive.