How fast have you driven?

Just thinking about my days of doing crazy stuff.

My top speed in a car: 145 [MPH] and then a little, maybe 148.
On a motorcycle: 130+ [not sure of top speed anymore]

I was driving a 240Z on a slight downhill grade with a passenger, when I hit 145. I didn't have an air dam. As a result, I could hardly keep the car on the road. Slowly it tended to drift from one side of the road to the other. I could slowly turn the steering wheel and nothing would happen! I think the front wheels were actually coming off the ground and they were acting like rudders. I had to be very careful to not over correct. Eventually the car would start drifting back the other direction. INTENSE!!! Telephone poles were going by like a picket fence.

Another time I did over 120 all the way from Sacramento to Los Angeles. To this day I can't believe I made that trip without getting arrested.

 

not that fast no, in Africa the speed limit is higher than over here, we'd do 95 miles/hour (150km/hour) on average. (speed limit is 120km/hour)

Since I've moved to Australia I slowed down, the speed fines are ridiculous over here, also since I had kids I stick to the speed limit, except for my one corner moment near home where I don't slow down and take it at something ridiculous like 50km/h

 

90 when I was earning my drivers license on the highway.

 

185ish. Top speed is (according to Top Gear) 218.

 

A 240z in stock form does not have the areodynamics for 145 due to lifting. The shape of most cars is the shape of an aircraft wing - low pressure above and high pressure below - both trying to lift the car.

 

A Ferrari?

 

No argument from me! Another time I took a hard 90 degree turn doing about 60 MPH and was late releasing the brake coming into the turn. Damn near flipped the car over the front passenger wheel. Three wheels came off the ground for a moment. Later I learned they were known for doing just that. They would flip before they would slide under the right conditions.

 

Speed is relative to the conditions under which one is driving and the vehicle itself.

Being a gearhead and having owned Ducati's, a Moto Guzzi and 4 Mini Coopers at different points in my life I have driven fast a great deal of the time. Surprisingly enough I have only had a few speeding tickets but it was probably because I chose to do my speeding on rural country and mountain roads where there are not a lot of cops around. I also took the time and trouble to feel out the limits of the vehicles concerned and know when they would be likely to let go.

The fastest that I know I went was just a little over 150 mph on my Guzzi but that was a wide open two lane highway.

On a newly paved mountain pass without any white lines early on a Sunday morning I don't know the actual speed I was doing because the speedo cable on my Ducati had broken and I was just pushing the lines, touching the apexes and gunning out of the curves for the next corner.

Everything was fine until about 3 corners from the top when my wife started banging on my chest. I slowed down and at the next rest stop I asked her what was wrong and she said she was starting to black out in the corners. I asked my buddy who was behind me what speed we were doing and he said that the only time he glanced at his speedo we were over 125 mph and still accelerating.

My Mini's were probably all capable of higher speeds than I was going but I was always having so much fun that I never really cared about the speed, just enjoyed the fun of driving them fast. When a car can put a smile on your face just driving to the corner store it is worth having IMO.

 

My fear will only allow me to do about 90, I dare not push it further..

 

LOL! You must have been pulling over 5Gs!

A friend of mine almost passed out while doing well over 100 on his bike, due to heat. It was probably 110 degrees going through the San Joaquin Valley so he sped up thinking it would cool him down. But when the ambient temp exceeds your body temp, going faster only makes the effects of heat greater. The next thing he knew he was trying to slow down before he passed out. Close call!

 

You know, I've often wondered what would have happened if I had been on a level surface. Because I was on a slight downgrade, the front of the car got a little heavier as it lifted towards the horizontal. Had I been at the horizontal already, the front end would get lighter as it lifts. There is also the angle of attack as the bottom of the car starts catching air. I would be surprised if any stock car could go fast enough to flip strictly due to aerodynamics, but I must have been on the ragged edge. No way to account for wind conditions outside. I remember it being a calm clear night with a bright moon that allowed me to see many miles ahead. But there could have been drafts as I changed elevation.

It was a four-lane hwy and I needed all four lanes.

 

155 miles per hour...scared the hell out of me.

 

My first car was a 1988 Acura Legend and it's top speed was just a hair under 140. That was plenty fast for me.

 

In a car, a little over a hundred as I wanted to see if the digital speedometer had a third digit. In a plane, a little faster but its wheels were not on the ground

 

Many people tell me that complaining about my life is an unhealthy way to deal with my problems and disability.

And yet many people risk their own lives and others lives.

Being Autistic I do not drive.

One of my high school teachers in '84 had an epileptic son who did drive.

 

Please value your life and limb. I have Moderate Autism and Moderate Depression and thus never drive.

 

It is a paradox. Sometimes being close to death makes you feel more alive than you've ever been. In fact, that's why we like thrill rides. They fake danger. I've almost died a number of times doing crazy stuff. While I don't do that sort of thing now, at least very rarely, the times that I did were some of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Being careful to not risk the lives of others is tricky. I was always very careful... less a couple of times in high school, but unforeseen things can always happen.

What I don't understand are the people who rode with me. What a bunch of idiots!

 

I had a "modified" car that registered 155 mph and I maxed it out.

 

Anyone here race the Hill climb in NC in the late 1960s early 1970s?

 

I am not ashamed of having Moderate Autism and Moderate Depression. Sadly many young people cope with problems in very very wrong ways.

 

That isn't generally why we have thrill seekers. Thrill seeking has a genetic component. As it turns out, I probably like to drive fast for the same reason I like to see beautiful young women. Fast cars and fast women really do go together!

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/UCLA-Study-Establishes-Genetic-462

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/scient...ting-promiscuous-sex-habits/story?id=12322891

 

No but I had to look it up. Sounds fun.
http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/12543048/

 

Around 120 in a police car responding to an officer needing help ... several times.

 

130 mph, I had a brand new Ford LTD, it was 3 the morning and I was on an empty Interstate. I remember that I just touched the steering wheel to change direction at speed and yawed out of my lane, I think the vehicle might have turned over if I had turned it the five degrees I wanted to.

I've never done it again. No real thrill in it.

 

Please value your life. And others lives as well.

I am not ashamed of my Autism and Depression.