Just FYI, I dated a girl whose father is a city planner. The correct terms for when all the streetlights are timed so that you can go all the way without stopping is "ganged". "The streetlights are ganged on that particular street..."

Some useless info for ya!

- Jon

I drive like fricken grandma nowadays. Especially when I have passengers. No more triple digits for me.

110 in a 55 in my Integra. I was in the fast lane and passed a sheriff who was driving in the middle lane. Needless to say I got pulled over, but I didn't get a ticket!

for me, 132 in my 93 passat vr6. ran out of road very quickly. and that was before i rebuilt the motor with all the performance parts. Just need some tires now to go test it again

125 in a 55 in a '96 Eclipse. Two lane road, too. I never did that again. way too scary. a guy I know was doing 80 on the same road a little later. he was taken to the police station for his parents to pick him up and lost his license for a few months. So considering how tough the cops are on that particular road, I was damn lucky I wasn't caught doing what I was.

In reply to:

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One time when I was living in NYC, I hit 70+ mph in an 86 Isuzu Trooper on Broadway.

[...]

Actually looking back now it was really frigging stupid.
What if a cabbie had zipped out from a cross street?
Ah well, better not to think like that.

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Yeah, I once hit 75 mph on Madison Ave. in my '92 Maxima and afterwards swore I'd never do anything so stupid again. My personal record in Manhattan, though, is 100 mph on the Henry Hudson Parkway. No lights or traffic, but the road surface sure left a lot to be desired.

On the subject of light timing in Manhattan, about a third of the cabbies seemed to think the best strategy was to go on Park Ave. which, being two-way, had all the lights in more or less perfect sync. As soon as they'd get a green, they'd go as many blocks as they could before they all changed to red again. Speeds of 60 or so were not uncommon. I never was convinced it was really a win, but if you were willing and able to go fast enough it would be.

--John

P.S. I've seen 224 kts (257 mph) in level flight in my '78 Mooney. Nothing like a 70 kt tailwind to make your day. Wheels can be such a drag.

I've hit 120 quite a few times in my stock 4cyl. '96 Camry. It's actually quite stable at those speeds. My favorite place to do that is on the 163 freeway down here in San Diego. I tend to drive it late at night (like 2am). There's two straight parts that are 2 miles long a piece. Great place to test what your car can do.

I tend to average about 80-85mph in my car during normal freeway driving. If you think that's fast, you should come down to San Diego and see for yourself. If you're going 75, you'll be getting passed quite a bit. I'll follow cops going 80 and occasionally even pass a cop going about 75-80.

fusto: Glad to see you made it away from that alive. I did about 50 on that strip (in my Ford eXcort) but that was like 1am. What time of night could you find so little traffic that you could blaze at 70?

Haha. Yeah, a cabbie or some drunk Village partier. GTA3 anyone?

>In my friend's mom's Benz E320 - 140mph on 695 beltway, racing a Volvo.
>The Volvo did a remarkable job at keeping up but the Benz had it toasted
>for speed and acceleration.

BeachLPB: Ah, you melt my heart with words like that! Mentioning two of my (six) dream cars in a race? Were the E320 and Volvo both wagons? I'd pay to see that kinda action! Once my Volvo V70 died (or 8 years or 200,000 miles, whichever comes first), I'm going to get a early 2000's Benz E320 wagon, in manual, if I can possibly find it.

Gotta be a manual and gotta be a station wagon, or I won't drive it. Oh, and HAS to have an empeg!!

Ah, you melt my heart with words like that! Mentioning two of my (six) dream cars in a race? Were the E320 and Volvo both wagons?

Ahh, sorry man, they were both sedans. My friend's moms Benz was just a sedan - automatic transmission (ick). But it still got up and moved! One day he had it out on the road while his parents were gone, and he turned off all of the computer aided crap (traction control, etc..) and almost swung the back end off the road. It has the "manual shifter" and it will let you rev into the red and it won't shift like automatic transmissions usually do if you put it in a lower gear.

As for the Volvo, I don't remember what it was but it looked like a v70, but it wasn't a wagon. Those volvos are built like tanks and they will go forever as long as you take care of them. I still see a lot of old Volvos (from the "Safety Box" era) out on the road.

Its too easy to speed though, when I take my audi out on the interstate and go to pass people, I'll look down and see that I'm going 110, and it feels like I'm just cruising along at 70 or 80. I was doing about 85 in a 40 a few months ago... so I guess I'm lucky the cop clocked me at only 68. I didn't even know the cop was behind me. I slowed down behind a van, and then a few moments later the cop caught up. Damn van - I didn't even know I was being chased, I was about to turn off onto another road just a few hundred yards later.

Not that I condone running away from cops... but someone I knew several years ago got a brand new 97 firebird WS6, and routinely ran from the cops, and they could never catch up.

Well - I will have to find the photo, but I can state that the Nissan 300ZX is beautifully stable at 187mph, and gets there stupidly fast.

I remember sitting at 90 on cruise control and having the driver (oh, yes - I was not the pilot! Too scary!) flick the control up, turbos & tyres squealed and we hit 150 before taking a breath.

Mmmm - gotta love those roads in Cornwall:-)

Oh yeah - the photo is a lovely shot of the dashboard. Shows some headroom left on the rev counter. I'll try and find it when I get back in the country later this week.

has anyone seen this crazy freakin' guy on a motorcycle running from the cops ?

pretty cool footage, maybe I'll get the movie...

135 in my 2002 Acura RSX Type S.... what sucks is the speed governer at 130-135? I still had another gear to go...

Well - I will have to find the photo, but I can state that the Nissan 300ZX is beautifully stable at 187mph, and gets there stupidly fast.

I would be interested in seeing the photo... one of my friends had a 300zx and it was a very tight car, a sweet ride. It wasnt the twin turbo.. but it was still pretty quick. Unfortunately, it came to its untimely end flipping end over end into a corn field. All 3 occupants survived - fortunately (yes, 3, someone was crammed in the tiny back seats).