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The fastest speed you have driven at?

I know, I know, we've all done it. Still, it's kinda frightening to read these posts, knowing that pretty much every one of them refers to driving on public roads - yes, perhaps late at night, but public roads nonetheless.

My suggestion? (not that you asked or anything....) Join a club - get to a track. Learn to drive. No, that does not mean learning how much the fine is for parking too close to a stop sign (which is pretty much all you learn in American driver education classes....); just you, your car, and an instructor to actually TEACH you the physics of driving fast. (It's vastly different than getting on a straight stretch of road and planting your foot to the floor....) There is nothing like getting the line JUST RIGHT. I've only done it a few times (in my '88 Carerra Targa) and it's absolutely the most fun I've ever had behind the wheel.

Well, no, actually the most fun I had behind the wheel had nothing to do with speed (insert your own joke here....) - but that's probably another thread topic in the making......

So, for the record:
'88 Carerra Targa - 120+? (you look at the tach and oil gauge, not speedo)
'85 MR-2 - 110 (um, after a party. Stupid, stupid, stupid....)
'89 944S2 - 95 (current ride; I haven't been to the track yet with this one...)
'73 914 1.7 - 85 (felt way faster)


and for my one trip on the autobahn.....
about 60MPH (whatever that is in KPH) in a fully loaded equipment truck...


Also - time to put in a plug for AUTOCROSSING! Find a local autox, pay your fee, and DRIVE YOUR CAR! (The Northern New Jersey region of the Porsche Club of America has a pretty great program, run by some pretty great people. Try pca.org/nnj for starters. You don't need to have a Porsche, either - you can run your '74 Super Beetle if it will pass the brief tech inspection.....) You won't go all that fast (I think the fastest cars hit about 80 - in 2nd gear! - in the parking lot of the Meadowlands....) (yes, the parking lot of the Meadowlands...) but it's safe, easy to try but difficult to master, and way too much fun.


See ya on the road. Or maybe at the track. Or at an autocross. As the PCA folks like to say as you're entering the track:

Keep the shiny side up!

MFK
 
135 MPH... Topless

And friend and I went 135 MPH across the Nevada Desert in my convertible Mustang. We went from my small town south of Denver, CO to Las Vegas in 10 hours. Normally a 13-14 hour trip. :D

Now thinking back, I can't believe we did it. An accident at that speed, in a convertible with the top down... dead meat.
 
Mr. Durden said:
And friend and I went 135 MPH across the Nevada Desert in my convertible Mustang. We went from my small town south of Denver, CO to Las Vegas in 10 hours. Normally a 13-14 hour trip. :D

Now thinking back, I can't believe we did it. An accident at that speed, in a convertible with the top down... dead meat.
Click to expand...

I was moving my sister out to California in her fully jam-packed VW GTI V6... and hit 112mph on a declining straightaway in Nevada... just for fun. To be honest, it was scary as hell.
 
2004 v6 Mustang. 118mph, and that's the fuel cut off. I imagine I'd've kept going to 125, 130?
 
245km/h on the dial in a 5.7-litre V8 Holden Commodore, although at these speeds, the dials are usually a little optimistic so it was probably closer to 235km/h. FWIW, we have unlimited speed limits in the Northern Territory so I wasn't breaking any laws. :cool:
 
Funny story:

I wanted to surprise my grandma for her birthday so I rented a car to get to her place so she didn't have to pick me up from the train station. I took the cheapest car at Sixt (Opel Corsa), but they were out of stock at the time I was supposed to pick it up. So they gave me an upgrade. A Mercedes SLK Kompressor. And on the german autobahn I hit the car's limit at 240 km/h (149 mph).

What I paid for:

106206277_bd4aea35f6_o.jpg


What I got:

106206276_9ec53f4e90.jpg
 
186mph indicated on the speedo of my honda vf1000r on a llllloooooonnnnnnggggg straight stretch of deserted road in the desert southwest of the U.S. 0-60 was less than 3 seconds, 0-100 was in the 8-9 second range in second gear.

made the mistake of trying to sit up while still in the 120mph range, :eek: , and almost got ripped off the bike by the wind.
 
Somewhere between 100-105 MPH in my 1990 Toyota Truck (the gauge only went to 110 MPH). I was driving on the interstate in the middle of nowhere southern Utah on my way to California. The truck started shaking after a few seconds so I quickly decelerated to a more reasonable speed (probably 80-85MPH).

Edit: Normally, these days I don't drive over 70-75 MPH. It's all about trying to still get efficient gas mileage. :)
 
Real speed demon here. :rolleyes:

The fastest I've driven is about 110 km/h. That's the legal limit here and I have no desire to loose my license and/or pay a fine. Also, I've only had my license for about 6 months so I'm still being all safe and responsible. :eek:

The fastest I've actually travelled at is about 220 km/h on a German autobahn, when I was on exchange over there.
 
Not too fast cuz it was a motobike cuz I dont drive cars but probabl 125-135 Km/h on my suzuki DR 125cc 2-stroke.
 
I hope all those who have admitted to breaking the law here get a visit from the cops. Speed limits are in place for a reason. My friend killed his brother by speeding and is doing 2 years for manslaughter. Nuff said!
 
Personally, I don't drive (too young), but coming back from Phaeno and Autostadt on Saturday, we averaged 200km/h :D
 
rossoUK said:
I hope all those who have admitted to breaking the law here get a visit from the cops. Speed limits are in place for a reason. My friend killed his brother by speeding and is doing 2 years for manslaughter. Nuff said!
Click to expand...

agreed, i cannot speak for anyone else, but the road was empty and i was alone, i would not entertain the idea at driving anywhere near those speeds with passengers purely for the reason you have stated above
 
I once maxed out my '99 Nissan Altima at 120mph on an empty stretch of highway early on a weekend morning....I still had about 1800RPM left when the limiter kicked in...that was a few years before a got a couple speeding tickets :)( ). Now I'm 100% legal. I'm actually toying with the idea of taking the car to a track to do some SCCA solo (timed slalom).
 
I did 90 mph in an '88 Volvo one Sunday about 6 years ago. :eek: That car wanted to die; it was shaking crazily.

Ironically, my Cooper S can probably go faster but I've only gone about 77mph in it.

P.S. For those of you in California who might be interested, my bf joined this laid back group that rents tracks for a day or two... they're well organized and they're very nice to newbies and beginners. Total beginners have a personal driving instructor sitting in their car the entire day (it is a requirement for at least 3 full sessions/days). Unlimitedlaps.com
 
I've done 100 a couple of times. Basically to avoid getting smushed between two semi's or to avoid getting hammered by a full-sized Dodge Ram truck. I usually keep it under 80 (in 65-70 MPH Zones), and between 65-70 in 55 MPH Zones (Except on I-285 in Atlanta, which, if you've driven it, you know you've got to do more to keep from beeing run over by everyone else, including the cops ;) ).

I'd really like to take my car to the track (or the airstrip, empty of course) and see if I can get it up to 130 at least, if not 160 (the max on the speedometer.) It's a 1.8T Passat, so I'm not sure how high it will actually go (but i can do 65 in 2nd gear-not for too long, though).
 
I'm form Germany, grew up there but live now in the US. Back home it's normal to exceed speeds of 200 Km/h quite often given you have a car that can go that fast or faster.

MK1 VW Golf GTI 215Km/h at top speed (takes a little while to get there)
MK2 VW Golf GTI 220Km/h at top speed (takes a little while to get there)
MK4 VW Golf GTI 25th an. edition 220+ at top speed

..and now my favorites

Audi A6 2.8L 30V 250+ Km/h
Audi RS6 4.2L Biturbo 280+ Km/h

..my least favorite

Opel Calibra (spelling)220 Km/h

I live now in the US and it's a little hard to exceed speeds over 70-90mph. ...but this one time I took my (then stock) Audi TT 225 Coupe out to about 130mph. empty roads nowhere to see for miles far far away from the city.
 
jdechko said:
I'd really like to take my car to the track (or the airstrip, empty of course) and see if I can get it up to 130 at least, if not 160 (the max on the speedometer.) It's a 1.8T Passat, so I'm not sure how high it will actually go (but i can do 65 in 2nd gear-not for too long, though).
Click to expand...

I think that Passat will do something in the low 140s...maybe more.

I was at the annual Cleveland car show last Saturday and I noticed that the new Mk.V Golf GTI has a 180mph speedo...a bit silly eh?
 
rossoUK said:
I hope all those who have admitted to breaking the law here get a visit from the cops. Speed limits are in place for a reason. My friend killed his brother by speeding and is doing 2 years for manslaughter. Nuff said!
Click to expand...

I think you're just projecting your grief onto others. This might sound insensitive, but just because one person, in a specific circumstance, had an accident, doesn't mean that other people, in different circumstances are acting as dangerously. And yes, speed limits are made for a reason, so that those on the left side of the bell curve won't kill themselves and others.

That said, I've posted in this thread earlier, but I have since made it my 2006 New Years Resolution to not get traffic tickets. Because of that, I don't speed, and I wear my seat belt, etc. I guess I owe that wake-up call to a police officer who caught me going almost 3X the speed limit, but gave me a break.

Not that I'm minimising that offense, but just to put it into perspective, I was sober, it was 2am on a week night, with no traffic for a kilometer in any direction, with dry roads, so I wasn't endangering anyone else. Well, besides my passenger.
 
In a car, probably 85-90 in my dads car (Discovery- yes a super sporty car- 0 to 60 i about 10 seconds)

One time he was going like 50mph in 4" of unplowed snow.

The most aggressive driver is my friends mom driving her husbands S2000. Its pretty cool.
 
Dangerous driving doesn't come down to outright speed but rather inappropriate speed IMO.

Take my trip up to the Northern Territory as an example. These are long straight roads with nothing around. I felt that at the time I was on these roads, it was safe to do 200km/h plus compared with doing 40km/h past a school at 9:00AM. It all comes down to what's appropriate. :)
 
Tymmz said:
Funny story:

I wanted to surprise my grandma for her birthday so I rented a car to get to her place so she didn't have to pick me up from the train station. I took the cheapest car at Sixt (Opel Corsa), but they were out of stock at the time I was supposed to pick it up. So they gave me an upgrade. A Mercedes SLK Kompressor. And on the german autobahn I hit the car's limit at 240 km/h (149 mph).

What I paid for:

106206277_bd4aea35f6_o.jpg


What I got:

106206276_9ec53f4e90.jpg
Click to expand...

Don't you love that. My neighbor bought a brand new E320 4Matic, about a month after he got it he got hit by deer. He got an SL-500 as a loaner. It was a sick car but it was this ugly brown-bronze color.
 
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