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Cars you can take off the end of the speedo


Stanky

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37 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

I can add another 998cc mini, a long down hill section of motorway saw the needle go where it had never gone before. 

I was 17 and particularly pleased with myself at the time.

The thread title misled me somewhat. I was expecting a thread about limited mileage insurance shenanigans and speedo disconnection. Take off the end?

Yes my first car was a Mini 1000 and I could get the speedo right into the fuel guage which is at the bottom centre of the dial. I have a (blurred) photo somewhere!

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Along with seemingly most of you, I've been off the top of the speedo on my 2cv many times. Sometimes it just seemed more willing  to go fast than on other days I remember one particular night when I overtook 10 vehicles in one go! Admittedly they were lorries on a down hill section of the M2, but that's just details!   Strangely enough, some years later  on exactly the same stretch, but going the other way, it went from off the clock to 40 mph, to 20mph, to barely moving, despite my foot staying flat on the floor. In a panic I managed to reach the hard shoulder and checked everything. No obvious faults. I was about half a mile to an exit, so limped the first 100 yards, then it was suddenly fine again! Rest of the journey back to normal. As if the car was telling me to treat it with respect!

It doesn't seem nearly as fast anymore, but maybe I've just lost my nerve. Perhaps the years of caning the shit out of my work van everyday got it out of my system anyway.

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58 minutes ago, FakeConcern said:

Yes my first car was a Mini 1000 and I could get the speedo right into the fuel guage which is at the bottom centre of the dial. I have a (blurred) photo somewhere!

This one was a clubman dash, but I did have another one with the big centre speedo. 

The needle in that waved  about like crazy. 

The speeds would be 10/30/10/30, 20/40/20/40, 30/50/30/50 etc. 

So that would probably go off the clock momentarily at about 65!

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My little cbr400 would regularly claw its way to “nippon seiko “

Never got the needle entirely clear of it though.

46C8699A-1525-4258-A2F9-81D7436A439A.thumb.jpeg.ad79411021b34a1cd3a9cdfef6f545f1.jpeg

 

foxbody mustang with the 85mph federal speedo and a 302 cu in v8 would breeze past the 85 mph indication at 3 o’clock and keep going until it hit a stop pointing straight down. Car was good for about 140... 

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On 10/23/2020 at 9:54 PM, Kiltox said:

Cars you really fucking can’t......

90C38E3F-40F2-4E8D-8D74-4FAFEEED7C31.thumb.png.ff6cb3331034939f65ed5d93b9665105.png

Top speed 87mph :lol: 

Yep, I remember the hateful 1980 Escort Mk2 1.1 Popular Plus my parents owned back in the mid 80s would reach 80mph on a good day, downhill with the wind behind it, which was fortunate as it had drum brakes all round and no brake servo. 60 was in practice the safe maximum in order to preserve the cooling system and the driver’s nerves. The speedo though went up to 140mph iirc, presumably due to the RS2000 sharing the same parts bin.

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On 10/23/2020 at 6:40 AM, Skut said:

Fiat Panda 1000  reads up to 100 and on a long downhill straight you could get it to read 100 or slightly over.  Needed commitment and some sort of German premium product to chase.   

Seconded, had a couple of Pandas off the top of the speedo, they did over-read somewhat though. My Y10 used to go off the top of the speedo all the time, just turned the key and off it went, all the way round and started clocking the miles on... . Italian electrics.

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21 hours ago, Grumblespeed said:

Seconded, had a couple of Pandas off the top of the speedo, they did over-read somewhat though. My Y10 used to go off the top of the speedo all the time, just turned the key and off it went, all the way round and started clocking the miles on... . Italian electrics.

It's quite amusing when Y10s do that.  As you say, the odometer racks up miles faster than the enterprise.

 

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On 10/24/2020 at 10:29 AM, Jazoli said:

Most are pretty accurate over 100mph, I spent many years driving through Europe including Germany and the GPS on my nav was never more than a couple of (kmh) out at 200kmh+ so they are more accurate than you would believe, my E300 Merc would hit around 240kmh on the speedo and show 231 on the GPS so maybe 5mph difference at 130mph :)

I know the Rover of Doom became more accurate (percentage wise) the faster you went.  60 was 65 on the clock, but 100 was 107, and 115 was 122.

Only vehicles I've had off the clock were a Bedford Rascal and an Austin A35, although the Austin had a rather optimistic speedo and I think I was only doing about 73 in real money.  I reckon the V70 T5 would have gone off the clock though - 155mph limiter and 160mph clock so only needs to be over-reading very slightly to go off the top.  Never had the opportunity to try it however.

@Cavcraft My Iveco 75E15 wouldn't quite go off the top of the tacho - 75 was your lot in that.  Yours must have had a higher ratio axle.

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20 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

Honda C90.

Downhill, ragging the arse off it, hunched over the bars.

I actually had 72 out of my C90 on the flat once - going along the Norwich southern bypass with a force 7 tailwind.  Held it for a good couple of miles too.  The next day the condenser packed up...

2 hours ago, Grumblespeed said:

Seconded, had a couple of Pandas off the top of the speedo, they did over-read somewhat though. My Y10 used to go off the top of the speedo all the time, just turned the key and off it went, all the way round and started clocking the miles on... . Italian electrics.

My last Y10 used to do that too.  Glad it wasn't just me...

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4 hours ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

Yep, I remember the hateful 1980 Escort Mk2 1.1 Popular Plus my parents owned back in the mid 80s would reach 80mph on a good day, downhill with the wind behind it, which was fortunate as it had drum brakes all round and no brake servo. 60 was in practice the safe maximum in order to preserve the cooling system and the driver’s nerves. The speedo though went up to 140mph iirc, presumably due to the RS2000 sharing the same parts bin.

You get a bit more info in an RS though

Dashboard / Dashtop - G S Escorts Ltd

RS 2000 MK2 Escort Instrument Cluster - £366.66 | PicClick UK

Strangely the earlier RS speedo only goes to 120...

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Some happy memories here!

I had a C90 in 1980 and remember “lying prone” and getting it off the scale. Embarrassing really.
My first Herald was a 13/60 estate (with twin SUs) which would show and hold 100mph quite often. No idea what it was really doing though. Then it seized #4 piston on the A1M and it wasn’t so fast but was much more  smokey after that.

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10 hours ago, scdan4 said:

My little cbr400 would regularly claw its way to “nippon seiko “

Never got the needle entirely clear of it though.

46C8699A-1525-4258-A2F9-81D7436A439A.thumb.jpeg.ad79411021b34a1cd3a9cdfef6f545f1.jpeg

 

foxbody mustang with the 85mph federal speedo and a 302 cu in v8 would breeze past the 85 mph indication at 3 o’clock and keep going until it hit a stop pointing straight down. Car was good for about 140... 

ive had a 600 yam point at 3 o clock also

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10 hours ago, scdan4 said:

My little cbr400 would regularly claw its way to “nippon seiko “

Never got the needle entirely clear of it though.

46C8699A-1525-4258-A2F9-81D7436A439A.thumb.jpeg.ad79411021b34a1cd3a9cdfef6f545f1.jpeg

 

 

My wife had one of those years ago exactly like this, brilliant little bike. You had to ride it at 9/10ths everywhere.

OIP.jpg

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1996 Fiat Cinquecento, 899cc. Speedo went up to 100, had it to what would be close to 110- M5 northbound near Birmingham, the big downhill section with the concrete either side, and the large bridge going over, then up and to the right in a gentle, white-knuckle ride sweeping curve with not enough camber to stop you from trying to soil yourself in lane 3 with the car floating like a feather in a breeze.

The other was a 1984 1.0 Metro on the A303 heading down to Newquay. The big long downhill stretch towards Indian Queens. Like the Fiat, hit vMax in top gear, then knock it down a gear to get past the cam and back up into top to accelerate to the moon. At least, that's what it felt like in both cars, they weren't exactly the most stable things on the road at those speeds.  It was all good fun because we were trying to chase the other car in our convoy, a 1985 Escort Laser which had the added advantage of being a 1.3 so could achieve lightning fast speeds.

The Chieftain is fitted with a 100 mph speedo which is laughably optimistic. Top speed before the engine dismantles itself is probably about 75.

 

Phil

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On 10/25/2020 at 9:30 AM, HMC said:

@KruJoe May have achieved this in @RobT’s cavalier at shitefest 2014. It certainly felt like it!

Yeah, soz about that (to Rob, the Cav, and all the survivors).

Wasn't that just the BEST private* test track we had there?

Best wishes to all - Joe_Cleland

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