Top speed - bit of fun maybe.

Stevo1987

Senior member
Breckland, Norfolk
As I'm new I thought I'd just throw something out there. As I understand it the top speed of my car is limited to 155mph. What do you think would be it's top speed if not limited? That goes for other variants as well. I assume those with a black roof and orange would be slightly slower due to the drag coefficent of the black paint. :D
 
Cool! Now I can tell my wife that my car has a top speed of, say, 175. She baulked when I first told her it was a 3.0l. She doesn't quite share my enthusiasm. :lol:
 
Ok, I heard you the first time....... :roll: :) Defo, not in Norfolk. Have you seen our roads? :(
 
When i had my 23i i was travelling to Hull on the M62 northbound late in the evening. Road was empty, where it crosses the River Ouse you go over a really high bridge, as I topped it I was in top gear and just gently floored it, the car hit 155 really quickly and maintained it easily on the flat for a mile or so.
Nasty surprise came along though, when I had had enough (chicken genes taken over) i just took my foot off the pedal and of course you get a really high reversal of torque which made the car twitch, instant brown undies.
So, if your going to try it take your foot off gently, I should have known better.
Oh, and turn your dashcam off in case you are reported....

p.s. I do not condone illegal high speed driving in any form HONEST :thumbsup: :evil:
 
mcbutler said:
When i had my 23i i was travelling to Hull on the M62 northbound late in the evening. Road was empty, where it crosses the River Ouse you go over a really high bridge, as I topped it I was in top gear and just gently floored it, the car hit 155 really quickly and maintained it easily on the flat for a mile or so.
Nasty surprise came along though, when I had had enough (chicken genes taken over) i just took my foot off the pedal and of course you get a really high reversal of torque which made the car twitch, instant brown undies.
So, if your going to try it take your foot off gently, I should have known better.
Oh, and turn your dashcam off in case you are reported....

p.s. I do not condone illegal high speed driving in any form HONEST :thumbsup: :evil:
Afterthought, if you do it with the roof off it'll save you ages hoovering it out :D
 
Alpina 98 said:
sunnydays said:
E89 CD .34, frontal area 1.96 m2, 335bhp @ 5900rpm
The car is capable in the region of 173 - 177mph.
Is that 173 on winter tyres and 177 on summer tyres?
I would think torque would influence the top speed more than BHP ??
 
mcbutler said:
Alpina 98 said:
sunnydays said:
E89 CD .34, frontal area 1.96 m2, 335bhp @ 5900rpm
The car is capable in the region of 173 - 177mph.
Is that 173 on winter tyres and 177 on summer tyres?
I would think torque would influence the top speed more than BHP ??

You need hp for speed...hence why screaming two strokes with zip torque could go so fast..

A fat torque curve lower down helps the car accelerate faster

A fuller explanation here...

Torque/bhp balance
Every engine designer has to bear in mind the balance between power and torque. He might even move the balance a little away from power and towards torque if enough drivers understood the importance of torque and the generalization that power versus aerodynamic drag determines maximum speed, but torque versus weight determines acceleration.

As the car speeds up, forces other than weight, such as aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance of the tyres , and the friction within the engine and transmission, act on it to try to resist this acceleration. At a certain speed, these drag forces equal the car's driving force, or torque, and there is no excess power left for further acceleration.
 
As a test, I did 150mph on the Autobahn between Bremmen and Hamburg in summer and it was solid as a rock. My foot was not on the floor and there was more left. It did not limit itself at that speed and I chickened out going any faster because, rest assured, 150mph is fast....... 100mph is child's play and not even breaking sweat.
 
150 is fast. The reason for this post - I was chatting to an old friend in Las Vegas who owns a Dodge Challenger 492 Hemi Shaker Scat Pack. (hell of a name) and he recorded 161mph. I don't think his car is limited though so I just wondered what mine would do flat out if unrestricted.
 
Never done more than about 120 on public roads - and with the roof down that's more than fast enough, but I did get to take a police spec Vauxhall Senator around Millbrook bowl flat out at 150. It took about 3 laps to build up the speed and confidence to sit in the outside banked lane, but once there, zipping around at that speed was huge fun.

The worst bit was slowing down. You are supposed to leave the bowl and drive back to the Concept Centre at no more than 30-40 MPH, but I took the corner onto the roundabout at more like 70 - as my speed perception was way out. I wondered why the steering felt a bit vague and twitchy until I glanced at the speedo and then shed some speed pretty damn quickly!
 
I did once nudge 140 in a chipped Ford Escort RS turbo Mk 1 somewhere. That was a long long time ago though. I did have a Porsche 944 turbo a number of years ago and can't remeber what speed I got to in that. It wouldn't have been too hairy. I am not really a top speed sort of guy anymore. I got caught twice over a ton when I was a youngster. I might think of taking my car down to Snetterton for a track day though I have never done that sort of thing before. I would probably be the slowest there. :driving: :D I don`t want to break my car.
 
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