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Where can you legally top-out a car?


Guest F14CRAZY

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Guest F14CRAZY

It's kinda vague but I found it.

Reminds me: Ford has their Cologne, Germany V6 family. My '92 Explorer (the legendary 4 door, manual tranny) has the 4.0L based on that design. So they say that these engines were built for the Autobahn. Does that mean my truck is Autobahn material?

Nope. Still shaking a little (working on that one) and at 97 mph, it's "to the flo an dere ain't no mo"

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Don't know about present economic and/or political constraints, but Edwards Air Force Base here in Southern California (where the space shuttle lands) used to allow civilians to use its dry lakebed "flying mile" on weekends provided they had insurance and signed disclaimers. I drove my '57 supercharged F-model Thunderbird through the trap in the late '60s. Fender skirts and hubcaps had to come off; headlights had to be cross-taped. Clocked 154+ m.p.h. with the cheapest set of bias-ply tires you could imagine, available at Pep Boys and desirable only because they had the only wide whitewalls around. It's the same course the pilots used, but they were about 100 feet up and could bust the sound barrier without killing a herd of cows. (Yes...in the old days, there were a lot of things better than now.)

<span style="font-weight: bold">-- ALF</span>

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Guest F14CRAZY

That's cool. Edwards is plenty big enough for it. A nascar (eww) type oval track would work good. 1/4 mile tracks are cool but I wouldn't mind some more or less real racing. Like street racing. But I just pretend to (no worries).

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Guest F14CRAZY

125 is true. A chip re-burn can change it but I've heard that there's just not enough steam to propel the car much faster

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The 124 mph limitation was invoked by the engineering team.

They say the Coefficient of Drag, (CoD), breaks down at 134-5 mph, causing the car to "lift-off". I'd like to try a prom mod, but should add the "Mach 5" style retractable side wings, and maybe a cool functional rear spoiler mod, and maybe even a vertical stabilizer, first. It gets windy out here in "God's Country"!

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Guest DTerry

This is more guess than knowledge, but I suspect the limitation is due to original equipment tires. During the Explorer/Firestone fiasco, I received a recall notice on my Explorer that turned out to be lowering the limit speed.

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Guest imported_barra

Periodically, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway allows people to drive their oval at so much per lap. I don't know the particulars.

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Guest F14CRAZY

Lift off? Like lift off the ground? The car weighs like 3700 pounds; a lot for a 2 seater.

My Explorer didn't really cut out but just wouldn't go any faster.

Indy probably charges waaaaaaay too much blush.gif. Only the ones with supercars can afford it. Besides the GN, the Reatta probably is Buick's supercar if they ever had one.

Screw the "Mach 5" mods. I'd do what 2seater or Greg Ross did if I was planning on going that fast grin.gif

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C'mon F14!

I have 8 Reattae, and need to do something WILD with ONE, at least!

OK, I won't add the vertical stabilizer, but I do want to try some "Speed Racer" wing mods, Even if it looks more like "RacerX" than Mach 5.

I've seen crazier stuff, even if I never get to it, I'm keeping that dream alive!

At least I'm not making it a Funny Car!

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I had an 89 Toronado go through the speed trap at Bonneville Salt Flats at 110 mph.

Everybody was mad because I was going so slow.

On the way back to Salt Lake the Utah Hiway Partol stop me for going 85.

He ask if I know how fast I was going and I told him not as fast as I was.

I showed him the ticket form Bonneville and let me go. Pretty Nice Guy.

But they don't let you do that anymore because it is to busy with REAL FAST CARS.

Always wanted to go 250 but just ran out of money.

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Guest imported_barra

In 1959, Chevy had a Bell-Aire that had little winglets next to the tail lights. They were small in an era noted for big "fins" but big enough to lift the rear wheels at high pursuit speeds as a couple of Florida policemen found out the hard way one afternoon. That brought an end to large air foil devices on cars. Around 1977, Car and Driver magazine did an article that explored the physics of building a 200 mph car. I do not remember the specific speeds but there were about three layers of aerodymic problems between any car doing 100 mph with a big enough engine and the targeted speed. I am sure Mr Padgett can provide the precise answers here but, in the end, the necessary design for such a fast car in the late 1970's was almost "bullet-shaped". This of course was prior to the development of "ground effects" in Indy cars in the early 1980's. Yes, F-14 you can achieve liftoff.

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Guest DTerry

Almost any car is an airfoil of sorts, and when the negative pressure (lift) over the top exceeds the weight of the car it flies. I had a '66 Mustang that would get directionally unstable at speeds over 80 or so.

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  • 2 years later...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Cadillac White</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have had my reatta up to 138 on a straight "eisenhower" (Sp?) highway here in Illinois. </div></div>

Pretty sure thats impossible.....there is a speed govoner, tops out at 125.

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Guest F14CRAZY

I don't mean to give negative criticism, but Tommy is right about the 125 mph limit. Even with it removed, I seriously doubt a stock Reatta could do 130. I believe the stock tires are only good for 125 mph anyway

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YES the Autobahn! Been there smile.gif done that! grin.gif I was so excited to get on it and goooooooo. I was not driving, but even with bad jet lag I couldn't miss a minute of that speed. I tell you, at that kind of speed, you have to have excellent BRAKES, and eyes all around you. When you come up on a S L O W E R car, yikes. And when you start to see a little speck coming up on your rear, get OVER.

Oh I will never forget that! what a ride! grin.gif

In my Rx7, at around 80, I would start to get a floating feeling. And I never felt any lift in my '77 Z-28. Most morning's as a Senior, I would go 115-125 on the way to school. Yup, got a heavy foot. smile.gif

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Guest Greg Ross

I suspect these guys are confused and had the metric button pushed....

Let's see, 138 divided by 1.6, that's going to be 86.25 mph.

Dead stock I managed to get Betsy Blue to almost 124 mph as I recall. But on the Dyno with no drag she topped out at 125.

With the S/C she'll cruise at that speed until you break 125 then it's like some gremlin under the hood turned off the ignition.

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I saw 115 at Michigan Intl. Speedway, but the next thing I saw was the fire marshall, he was'nt pleased, as we were'nt supposed to exceed 75 mph. Heck, I was going faster down I-80 on the way home. Shame, can't even top-her-out at a speedway, I'll have to find a long, lonely road in rural cheezeland to see 124.

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EDBSO....link is Faaaar OUT! cool.gif

Check out the shrubs/trees on the left above 180 mph.

At those speeds if anything (twigs/small branches, food wrappers, 1/2 of an uneaten stale Twinkie, etc and so on) other than smooth asphault is encountered by the tires .....

.....LIFE AS THE DRIVER KNEW IT BEFORE....WOULD BE ALL OVER WITH AFTERWARDS..... frown.gif

smile.gif

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Guess they can train the deer in Germany to cross at those signs that say "Deer Crossing". Indiana deer are untrainable, and by the time you saw Bambi it'd be too late. Taking one out at 180 would be spectacular.

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Hey Greg, I hope that you and your Reatta's mechanical parts are doing well.

The car is a BMW 850, I had a '91 850 and it was awsome. Also the most expensive car I have ever owned. Think $$$ and multiply by 4 or 6!!!

The blast to 100 is faster than you can imagine and at 100 mph if the windows are down he computer will put them all up at the same time. 850 owners call it "Going windows up".

Brakes are also beyond belief. Rotors are huge and weigh a ton.

Nic, the biggest surprise is when someone pulls out in front of you! Not even enough time to say oh..poopoo. And you tires better be Z or higher rated and fully inflated.

I would see 100 frequently, often on the on ramp where there would be no radar and you would slow to merge.

An 850 is as solid at 150 as a Reatta is at 85 which is about as fast as I ever had my Reatta.

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Guest F14CRAZY

SOme ZR rated BF Goodrichs on my Mustang rims wouldn't be bad cool.gif

manik: I was wondering what would happen if you put it to the floor at the MIS run. I understood it to be like a parade lap, but I mean, what's a speedway for then? smile.gif

I'd be working on "Project GS" but the loss of my Forester has put that on hold for a short bit. 350 hp at the wheels and not having a torque converter to be unlocked at WOT may result in a rather fast Reatta. I may have to make a run to Utah when I get it done.

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No, THIS is faaast!!!!

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfWPXGnj2o&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfWPXGnj2o&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

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And this is pretty sweet too!!

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHOiBIffVQ&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHOiBIffVQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: F14CRAZY</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Veyron is pretty sweet, along with the Exige and Ariel Atom, but none are a personal luxury, hand crafted, FWD Buick</div></div>

Very true, though the Veryon is hand crafted. I think they only make 4 or 5 per week. Then again, when you shovel out 1.25 MILLION DOLLARS for a base(average) model, you would expect it to be somewhat decent, wouldn't you?

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Guest Reatta1

We have some loooong straightaway strecthes of road here in Central Oregon's high desert. A lot of times there isn't much traffic and I've had Black Beauty at the 'magic' 125 mark on them a couple times. Didn't cut out, but wouldn't give me any more either. I thought she felt pretty solid at that speed. Luckily there were no cops around either time cause here in Oregon, triple digit speed is looked at the same as murder by the cops. blush.gifgrin.gif

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