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The fastest highway in America - 220.5 miles per hour


Guest Texas Old Car Guy

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Guest Texas Old Car Guy

Driving a Model A Ford in Texas just got more dangerous unless you stay on the "back roads".

Don't you just love it when a kid in a Corvette or Dodge Viper zooms past you and when you top the next hill a State Trooper has him pulled over to the side? Here in Texas they just opened a new tollway (State Highway 130) in late October running along the eastern side of Austin with the legal posted speed limit of 85 mph - and of course everyone drives 10 mph over the limit. At 85 you can feel the tires literally "floating" on the road even on dry pavement! They have proclaimed SH-130 to be "The Fastest Highway in America."

Now add another element to the situation - packs of feral (wild) hogs crossing the toll road! Can you imagine what kind of damage it does to your car when you hit a 300 pound feral hog going 85 mph - can you say "totaled"? Sort of like running into a refrigerator!!! Check out this news video about the first day the new toll road opened and four cars hit feral hogs:

Drivers hit wild hogs on SH 130 | KXAN.com

The day before the toll road opened the state wanted to test the reliability of their "toll tag cameras" and had a company bring in a 1,226 horsepower Cadillac CTV-S Coupe. With the tollway obviously uninhabited since it was going to open the following day, the Caddy ran 220.5 mph with State Troopers supervising the run. Here's a cool video of the 220 mph trip - notice how fast the striped lines are coming at you at that speed!!!

Hennessey Tests the Limits of Texas Toll Road

The company also brought in a ZL-1 Camaro that ran 203.9 mph that same day. It has now been dubbed the "world's fastest Camaro." Check out the video below - I love the way it sounds as they back it out of the trailer before its run.

Where SH-130 runs through my hometown (Georgetown) the speed limit is "only" 80 mph and my wife and I make it to church every Sunday morning just going lickity-split!

Now back to my regularly scheduled Model A drive at 45 mph. :)

Enjoy,

Fred<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Edited by Texas Old Car Guy (see edit history)
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Fred you are a lucky fellow. I wish we had something like that here in California and Arizona because it can get so boring when the distances from A to B take so long. In Germany it is so nice to get from one end of the country to the other either by high speed train or auto. Of course the greeies want to put a stop to all of that and have done so in many places. I hope you Texans learn very quickly that the fast lane is meant only for passing.

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An 85mph semi will make "mincemeat" out of a 300lb feral hog. Quite "greasy", too, I suspect.

It seems the "toll road people" are aware of the hog problem. There might also be some issues with nighttime vision and related lighting in some areas, too, which can compound the hog AND deer issues.

To promote toll road use of that "fast stretch", they allegedly lowered the speed limit on I-35 to 55mph . . . where it might be reasonably safe for the older vehicles to "cruise".

Toll roads seem to be "the in way" to build new roadways in TX. Especially when the main vendor/owner/leasor is a foreign entity (for the next 70 years). I'd better stop there!

Just some observations,

NTX5467

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Guest Texas Old Car Guy
An 85mph semi will make "mincemeat" out of a 300lb feral hog. Quite "greasy", too, I suspect.

It seems the "toll road people" are aware of the hog problem. There might also be some issues with nighttime vision and related lighting in some areas, too, which can compound the hog AND deer issues.

To promote toll road use of that "fast stretch", they allegedly lowered the speed limit on I-35 to 55mph . . . where it might be reasonably safe for the older vehicles to "cruise".

Toll roads seem to be "the in way" to build new roadways in TX. Especially when the main vendor/owner/leasor is a foreign entity (for the next 70 years). I'd better stop there!

Just some observations,

NTX5467

Unfortunately we all aren't driving semi's! Think Ford Expedition or Toyota at 85 mph vs. 300 pound wild hog! :( Come to think of it, a semi at 85 mph will pretty well make mincemeat out of a Toyota!

As an aside since you live in the DFW area, I had the pleasure of driving one of the very first cars through DFW Airport on opening day January 13, 1974 in a Model A Ford. Members of the Dallas Model A Ford Club were invited to help "marry the past with the future" by being the very first vehicles driven through DFW Airport on opening day; they cut the ribbon and about 40 Model A's drove through on the main road separating the terminals on what is now called International Parkway. I lived in Dallas/Richardson/Plano for 30 years before moving to Georgetown 19 years ago and I still belong to the Dallas Model A Ford Club.

You are probably right to end your remarks with "I'd better stop here" to avoid the political issues. Every Sunday morning my wife and I go to church using SH-130 at 80 mph we know our toll tag money is going to Spain. Oh well, were it not for the foreign investors it would have taken about 20 years to build the road using state tax dollars - as it is, the road was built in record time using foreign dollars. It also gets us to the Austin Bergstrom Airport in about 40 minutes from Georgetown vs. driving IH-35 through the heart of Austin which would take probably 1 hour and 15 minutes depending on the time of day.

Regards,

Fred

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