So guys,
Always wanted to know:

What is the fastest topend anyone has got to?

I have a video to prove!

What has anyone else done?

Oh p.s Mine was Just short of 170! On a private road obviously!

Everybody, be very careful what you admit to, especially if you provide video evidence too. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Do it via PM

rather risky post, is that 170 on the speedo or 170 via a GPS unit? I'd guess speedo....which could be out by upto 10%.

I've had mine all the way to 70 (mph that is not kph)! Never driven on an Autobahn so don't know if I could push it any further

Oh Dear what have I dont!
I only meant 170 whilst I was dreaming,
Obviously wouldnt do that kind of speed on a Uk road!

You wouldnt get to a proper (i.e GPS) 170 with only 270bhp, you'd need well over 300 I'd think. Whatever anyone says a proper 170mph is a big speed for any car.

It would be Matt in SA a recorded GPS of 187 IIRC

Oh and 170 on the speedo would be < 160 I would say. As Shabba says you need well over 300 bhp to get 170 actual

The fastest I've done is an unproven 170something at TOTB4. Shame their speed trap timed me at a magic 0mph otherwise I would've won the FWD top speed competition.

I think my car is good for about 190 but it would need a good few miles to do that. Also the rear undertray can't take high speeds and starts to sag down.

I've heard tell that a Moon Grey Plus achieved around 164 on the clocks and that a Snooper displayed the actual speed as 161. Only hearsay, mind you.....

JohnS - I've often wondered about that rear undertray - it doesn't sit flush with the fuel tank at standstill, so I guess its like an airbrake at 150+

Time for some duct-tape mods, I reckon

The fastest PROVEN UK car must be Mavric's 169mph, but if you consider that this was after 1 mile from a standing start (compared with JohnS' 170something after 1.2 miles) then you would have to say that it would probably break 185 or maybe a bit more.

Perhaps we should keep our eyes open for a top speed event - surely our humble little Fiat FWD scrabble-wagons would raise a few eyebrows.

Jimbo - is the Brize Norton airfield day on this year? If so, how about allowing three things:-

1) Enter the top of the runway from a flying start around the apron - pretty sure we could already be doing 70 - 90 when we get on the runway proper
2) Get the local plod there with a radar gun to record the true speed
3) a fccukin great gravel trap at the end of the runway

God knows, I find it incredibly boring to test the top speed. Acceleration that's more like it.

Pinin, I guarantee that it stops getting boring after 170 - the horizon seems to jump at you - great fun

Have to agree - did some top speed stuff with my skyline on airfields - I found the limiter in 5th once at an indicated 170mph (end of gearing at that point)....everything gets very very focussed!

Rememebr folks when doign high speed runs use decent tyres!

I see alot of peiple running utter cr*p tyres.

I got the speedo past 160 and at that speed everything pops up so quickly. Normal gentle curves require you to use several lanes. I didn't find it that comfortable and would be very reluctant to sustain it for more than a few seconds.

I remember when Evo tried to some cars above 200 they said that 'a truck that is a silver of metal in the distance is within a couple of seconds a wall in front of you.' I wasn't nearly that fast but I can relate to it a bit.

Furthermore, when you drop the car down back to about 100 you really do feel like you're at walking pace.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a high speed blast as much as the next guy, but you have to consider the implications if you are caught at those speeds! Also, when you've had a wheel fall off on the motorway, Speeds over the ton just don't seem as fun as they once did

163 on GPS with current coop, and the car is reasonably stable at this speed, if a bit light feeling, all on a trip to Germany obviously

My experience was on a pretty empty autobahn and that was before I read about wheels falling off a Coupe.

I was very cautious at the time. I just took it up gently to about 140 with the aid of a slight decline and without using full pressure. Then when I was comfortable I just planted it for a few seconds to see what I could get up to.

I'll not be doing it again. I just wanted to see how fast I could go till I get an F40

Im sure there would be a few RAF rozzers who would be more than happy to oblige!
Besides i didnt realise RAF stations were allowed cars on the airfield for track events, mine certainly isnt, atlhough some gentle pestering might not go amiss...

Whats this about wheels falling off - the 2nd run I did with the skyline to 170 resulted in a warped manifold.

Oh how I laughed at the bill for pulling the broken stud out...

Wasnt mavrics speed 167mph?

Ross

Only got up to 140 indicated.
Of course this wasn't on a public road lol

pfoe - Yeh Brize Norton bike club have run a 1/4 mile drag event then you follow it round (wait for an all clear) and tear off down the main runway.

Can't remember how long the Brize runway is, but i got to 155 in the wet - and it was chucking it down. Jimbo said it wasn't run last year as they were re-laying the tarmac.

I'm pretty sure that if the 'big guns' went down they would get to 170 easy. In the hall of fame barbz says he got to 178 and chickened out.....

I managed an indicated 159 at Brize Norton, but I was "only" running 300bhp at the time. I'd like to think I could crack 170 now.

Also, I now have brakes to cope with it - last time, I boiled my brake fluid, which let the pedal sink to the floor while still doing over 100

I know that sinking feeling!

theres a track day at RAF Marham on the 14th & 15th of April, £60 I think

idea for you all,join straightliners

How's this being done on a speedo, mine only goes up to 160mph or does the LE's and plus's go up higher to 180 or something?!

In the original autocar article, it reckoned that the speedo was out by 10mph at 100 I think!!! Not checked it out with the GPS though to compare the accuracy of the speedo though with GPS, has anyone else?

LE and Plus speedos do show 180mph.

Mine over reads by about 5% compared with the sat nav figures.

Pete

My speedo is over reading by about 8mph at a true 155 (was reading about 163 - clock only goes to 160, so the 163 is an estimate

LEs, Pluses and very late 20VTs have 180mph clocks

No-one believes me that these things have such a high top end!
Glad to hear that there are some more people that have got to similar figures,
My new L200 has an estimated speed on 100MPH!
SLIGHT DIFFERENCE!

Thats becuase speedo speed and actual speed = upto 10% difference.

The speedo isn't consistent on coupes. Sometimes it reads more over than other times.
Mine under-reads because I have tyres with a larger circumference. At 98mph on the speedo I'm doing 102mph according to GPS. I also have a digital view from my ECU which IS consistent so it is primarily the speedo mechanism that is wrong. I had my old Blitz Power-ID calibrated on a rolling road and we observed at 150mph on the speedo my car was actually doing 155mph
In terms of GPS - in car GPS equipment is not completely accurate and has quite a slow sample rate (so lags) so unless you have something like a V-BOX then at these speeds it is not definitively reliable.

IMHO the best way to work it out without masses of expensive electronics is reading the rev counter and doing the maths to determine what speed you were going. The rev counter only lags very slightly and at the acceleration rates you're talking about at 150mph+ it is almost completely accurate.

But often under-reads by about 100rpm - on one of the ECU's you can calibrate the speedo but I don't recall which

Neil

rev counter is definitely inaccurate - my code reader gives figures that are two or three hundred rpm out (rev counter reads too high)

Barbz has done 180 something in his car which was indicating on his gps!! :o....I was with him!!

WOW!
MAD these Little Italian things arent they!

He would never be that naughty

We should have some big power coops at Jimbo's runway bash, I reckon we could see an official 180+

i will go with the rev counter being inncaurate as i got 6800rpm in top(5 speed box) out of my old coupe with minimal mods.as said no 2 speedos seem to be the same,some are 10mph over at high speed and some are less than 5

Speedos are calibrated by statute at +15%/-0% - that is, they may read fast by up to fifteen percent but they may *not* read slow.

Easiest way to do that on production batches is to make them read fast an average of 7.5%

There's also an issue with most speedos driven by cable in that the mechanism is not linear, so they tend to try for most accuracy at speeds that are legal - 30 and 70 *tend* to be most accurate.

Neil

Maybe not everyones is right then:)
Mine is for whatever reason as my Motec shows more or less exactly the same in a steady state. I accept it does lag when accelerating in low gears but when the acceleration is relatively slow my rev counter is spot on.

I had my fastest top speed run on my Europe trip a couple of years back. It shows on video as reading approx 168mph on the clocks (non GPS), some of you may remember this as part 4 of my holiday video? This was on the Autobahns and I reached this speed three times (sections after Stutgart heading north), but each time traffic or corners haltd progress.
TBH I don't think I would have got much more, as I was two up, with a weeks luggage, in 100 degree heat, only at 1 bar boost (approx 265bhp) and was selling the car three days later!

On a cool winters day at 1.3 bar by myself i would have got more for certain.

Are 16vts originally fitted with rear undertrays? Had to cobble together the front one once after pulling it to pieces trying to reverse out of deep snow [!]
S.