Maximum Speeds of shite?

[Stroller133]

How fast have you been in your shite. Be interested in both pathetically slow examples and surprisingly fast examples.

My first car was a Formel E Mki Polo 1.1. The book speed was about 90mph, I could get 95 in 3rd (weird 3+e box) and normally the same in 4th (E). On a very long downhill run I once got it way off the clock, I would guess nearly 110. I realise the speedo was likely to be reading over, but even still I was excited to have it off the clock!

My most disapointing car for speed was my 1980 Mk1 Golf GLi Cabrio, this had a 1.6 injection engine (110bhp?) but while I had it struggled to get any more than about 85 out of it.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

My Rover 825D managed 130MPH on the clock.

 

I don't think I've owned anything that hasn't managed the ton on the speedo; shite loser.

[Mat.T]

I once got my old 1litre micra k10 off the clock (100!) with 3 passengers, according to my mate who was following with his dad in the car behind we are actually doing a heady 81mph So with their speedo errors probably 77mph. Still exciting at the time

 

and a few years ago in an ex-mini-cab diesel 90bhp pug 406 we had and indicated 120on the speedo on a German autobahn. 4 up with a roof box, the temp gauge was in the red and the engine check light kept flashing

[dollywobbler]

My 2CVs regularly used to get 'off the clock,' which is about 75mph indicated. Once had a Dyane up to 130km/h in the fast lane of the M40. Heady days.

 

Down the quarter mile, my 2CV managed a top speed of 48.8mph. Feel the powah!

 

A Daewoo Matiz will hit the rev limiter at an indicated 100mph. Allegedly. Did 100mph in my first BX, but it seemed to need an oil top up after that so I haven't tried it with this one. Besides, it'd be naughty.

[fiatdaft]

a rather scary 160 on the speedo of a £250 16 valve turbo thema with the boost wound up.

[Alexg]

125 in a Metro GTI most of the way down the M40. The standard gearbox started grumbling soon after

[barefoot]

Whilst clattering along briskly in my 944...

I noticed that I was on an emptyish stretch of the A38 near Burton pulling just under 5,000rpm

& it seemed like as good a time as any to mash it, so I hit the loud pedal

 

At 6,800rpm,full bollock on on the (soft) limiter, cams & balancers howling it sounded absolutely spectacular, but was only doing 125mph.

 

By the time I realized that I'd still got it in 4th there was no more road left.

Despite its miles, I have no doubt that it would do the same again & in 5th would probably show 150mph.

[Lord Sterling]

Just over 140MPH in my 89' 827Si whilst returning from Lincolnshire a couple of years ago, hit similar speeds with my other 800s. I managed to get the K11 Micra upto 93MPH, I think thats all it'll do.

[fordperv]

Ive only pushed my 2.0 capri to an indicated 115mph my speedo reads 3mph under actual speed had my sierra off her 130mph clocks so who knows all on a private test track obdviously

[wuvvum]

153mph in a Daimler Double 6, on the Norwich bypass many years ago. Unfortunately I got caught, and lost my license for a year.

 

Cars I've owned since then which have surprised me with their top speed prowess are the Mazda 121 (Kia Pride shape), which would sit quite happily at an indicated 100mph (and the speedo was pretty accurate on that), and the Toyota Enema - I'd always thought they were gutless piles of crap, but I wound mine (4WD, 2.2TD, automatic) up to an indicated 102mph on the A11. That really was all it had to give, but I was still impressed. The Estelle would also wind up to an indicated ton, but I think it has a slightly optimistic speedo.

 

Slow stuff - I once had a rather tired 2CV which struggled to break 60, and the Innocenti does exactly what it says in the handbook (75). I've also had various slow commercials (Commer Walkthrough being the slowest, at 48mph flat out, although I think the JU250 might have run it close had I ever been brave / stupid enough to take it onto an A-road) but I can't really count them.

[CIH]

Manta GTE Coupe, 120 pantaloons a few years ago. Probably had a little more but I didn't fancy it.

[Albert Ross]

An indicated 72mph. 1970 Land Rover 109 Diesel. 2 years ago.

Indicated 136. Scorpio Cosworth. 7 months ago.

Lamborghini Miura. Many moons ago. M4.... Sunny summer Saturday. I kept my licence.

Jaguar E-Type. Same weekend. Same road. Nothing happened. Move along.

[rml2345]

Did 110+mph in a 2 litre Volvo 850 once, which was quite good fun since all the wheels were way out of balance, and the two rears had started to deform from standing. Above 105mph it didn't seem to matter...

Fastest the 740 has been is 100mph, up a hill on the M8. I bet it'll do more but it takes a helluva lot of road to get it up there!

[dollywobbler]

I drove an Austin Seven at 45mph a few years ago. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done!

[Jonnyvalenta]

132MPH in a 900 turbo,admittedly down the Inverness drop on the A9,it wouldn't do much more than 120 on the flat but it had done 250k by then...

At the other end of the scale,80MPH in a 1.0 Talbot Sunbeam!

[eddyramrod]

My 740 estate, then 20 years old, regularly clocked 100+ on the M6/M58. Same road, opposite direction: I had our 2006 Suzuki Ignis 1.3 wound up to getting on for the ton in the third lane one evening when I noticed a navy blue Porsche Boxster on my left. We kept pace for a few miles until he obviously decided enough was enough, and surged off into the gathering gloom.

 

Cyprus has a blanket 100kmh limit, 62 mph, but I do know of a certain restored Ford that sits very happily at rather higher speeds on the coast road to Coral Bay...

[wuvvum]

80MPH in a 1.0 Talbot Sunbeam!

That really must have been flat out - mine would never get past 77 on the clock, and that had only done 38K.

[dollywobbler]

I think I must have got old, because I don't max anything these days, or speed. The 2CV even gets it 'easy' as I tend to 'cruise' at 65mph. Guess I'm too scared of endangering my licence - a year long ban would leave me a broken man! Reading Wuv's tale has truly scared me.

 

A few years back, I did hit 100mph in an Austin-Healey 3000 overtaking someone, but my cool move was rather thwarted as my hat blew off. To make it worse, it was on string so preceded to strangle me! I feel that was fate teaching me a lesson...

[cort16]

86mph in my 1.6 mk5 cortina. How I longed for 90.

The most terrifying turn of speed was my 1977 w116 Merc S-Class 350, which was probably capable of 130+mph and could easily out drag most normo modern mondeo and BMW diesels. It had plenty straight ahead power but the steering box had been replaced with an out of date tin of bean (or similiar) sas the blasted thing wouldn't keep a straight line.

[Pillock]

The most determined effort was 101mph (GPS reading - 110 on the speedo) in a Tourneo. Took about 5 miles of the A42 to get there, with 8 bodies on board and 10 crates of lager.

 

Other than that I seem to have grown out of my speeding days. I'll occasionally try to Vmax a hire car but my own stuff, naaah. I'm too mechanically sympathetic, and scared of it breaking.

[pogweasel]

Am indicated 145mph in my (breathed-on) BMW 325i, achieved on the downhill of my private test track , just south of Poggleswade at 5am.

My underpants had to be incinerated, and the nail marks in the steering wheel never did come out.

[Pete-M]

The Jag doesn't hang about. All I'm saying is that in Germany it sat at 120 (satnav not speedo) on cruise for about two hours and didn't miss a beat.

 

Didn't take it much above about 140 on the whole trip, but that was remarkably easy to do.

 

The Cherokee gets a bit nervous much above 70, and it's shite on fuel above 60ish so that tends to be driven boringly.

[autofive]

surely the speeds mentioned must have been on private roads

 

Scimitar reaches about 118 on the speedo before feeling unsafe*

 

2.8 cortina about the same on the speedo then it starts to float at the front a little*

 

2 litre cortina only reached 100 on the speedo, so far*

 

* all these tested on a private road, obviously

[Guest]

C4 will do a rather neat 111 mph on the speedo before wind resistance and frontal area stop the fun.

 

The Amazon did a deafeningly loud (and extremely pungent) GPS verified 100 on a very long run down the A55 between Conwy and Bangor (yes, it did take me that long to wind it out that far). Two up on the M40, Minimad5 and me saw about 88-89 going down to the Ace Cafe. Dai Brace tells me that with a bit of fettling a B20 Amazon with O\D will pull 120 without much bother.

 

Saw 130 from the Piazza trying to piss a Honda Accord driver off, again on the M40 in late 2008. I ran it up to 100 in the pissing rain on the A555 once, on rock hard NCT 2 tyres that expired in 1991. It bucked and shimmied like a bastard when I had to brake for the Heald Green roundabout ; I honestly thought at one point the fucking thing was going to fire me off the flyover backwards.

 

The 480 wound up to a screaming 118 on the sat nav when attempted on the same road. Book top for an ES is 112. Quite well run in then.

 

I've seen some stupid speeds in SCTSH_ANDY'S 9000s as well. Often in the pissing rain or on Brooklands Road. Those times, I wasn't driving. I can also confirm that 100 mph on the back of a Laverda Jota is fucking terrifying.

[Wilko220]

120 in a 1.4 litre Peugeot 309. I thought bits were going to start falling off...

[Shep Shepherd]

An indicated 110mph in The Volvo and an indicated 130mph in TV2, both top speeds being achieved on the German Autobahn

[ChinaTom]

153mph in a Daimler Double 6, on the Norwich bypass many years ago. Unfortunately I got caught, and lost my license for a year.

 

I think your DD6 had the same engine as my XJ12. I saw 135 on the GPS on the M5 in the small hours of the morning, and 143 on the same GPS on an Autobahn near Aachen. Both times had a lot more to go engine-wise, but dodgy front bushes and old tyres (and generally being a wuss) stopped any further heroics.

 

Lost my licence for a month for 127 on the A1 at Huntingdon in a GLSi Sierra in 1991

 

Was 153 flat out or do you think there was a little more? Fellow 6.0 owners claim to have seen over 160 on GPS devices - the speedo showed nearly 160 when I was at 143.

 

Just to set the record straight - I rarely get over 80mph nowadays. Fuel prices and all that.

[gtd2000]

My old Celeste managed an indicated 126mph on the Autobahn but would regularly pull 120mph. I wonder why I only got 28mpg average with that car eh?

 

My old AE86 Corolla managed 134mph (indicated) somewhere that goes round Edinburgh.

 

My last Proton Persona pulled and indicated 100mph somwhere on the road to Antwerp which isn;t bad at all for a miserly 1.3L.

 

These days I have to admit I'm more interested in decent MPG and very rarely travel above the speed limit at all - old age and all that I suppose....

[Negative Creep]

The 120y would do 70mph, but at something like 5000rpm which made it so noisy I stuck to about 55. Got the Vanette off the clock as well, which was around 140kph

[garethj]

My V12 XJ-S did over almost 150 on the speedo one morning, someone pulled into the 3rd lane up ahead so I hit the brakes, quite hard. I'd been braking for a while, squeezing the brake pedal ever harder and I was still catching this van but your brain speeds up at times like this. It felt like I'd been on the brakes for ages, glanced down at the speedo which was still reading 90.....

 

My old commuter bike was very speedy, the bare facts are that it would do the quarter mile in the same time as a Mclaren F1, but it also averaged 48mpg and didn't get stuck in London traffic. I certainly saw north of 160 on the clock, but at that point I thought I'd better look at the road all the time instead. Allegedly it was good for 178mph if I was brave enough. That meant that at 120 it was ambling along, so it was a very relaxing bike to ride unless you popped the throttle hard, when it was terrifying.