Speed is one of the universal appeals of the hot rodding world. No matter what types of cars that you are into, the one thing we can all agree on is that going fast in them is fun. This question came up in a conversation I was having with some friends a week or two ago. Most of those guys are drag racers who run anything from super comp style dragsters that can clip 200mph in the quarter mile to small tire door slammers that run 160+. I related Chad’s story about heading through the Bonneville timing traps backwards at 234 MPH several years ago and they were all laughing and agreeing that 234 in any direction (forward or backward) is damned fast and worthy of respect. I’ve personally never gone 200. The best I have ever done is a documented 160mph at Maxton several years ago in a Factory Five GTM for a story in Hot Rod I wrote with Rob Kinnan.
Now it is your turn to spill the beans on your speed exploits. What’s the fastest that you have ever gone in a car? Was it on the track? A lonely stretch of highway? A deserted country road? While we’re going on record right now in saying that the only “safe” place to get your top end on is within the confines of a racing facility, we are virtually certain that everyone reading this right now has laid the hammer down for an extended period on a public road at one time or another…rightly or wrongly. We ain’t here to judge, we want your stories of great top end charges!
BangShift Question Of The Day: What’s The Fastest You’ve Ever Gone In A Car?
160+ in a stock car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Did 120 in 1/4 mile, 130 on Rt95, and 125 at Pocono North.
I went 143.89622 MPH in a 1979 Mercury Capri at the Ohio Mile
160+ in a GTX as a passenger on the way to Brohman raceway in 1973
8.99 @ 160 drag racing. 185 driving a friends 98 Viper just South of the GA/FL line on I-75. The car had more but I didn’t.
195.99….Maxton Mile
237 exit speed at Bonneville. Streamliner, Honda S2000 power
I once went 167 mph in one of the French bullet trains. That was really cool because you could sit casually in your comfy seat and watch the outside world blaze by. It was amazingly smooth as well.
Regarding cars specifically, I would guess somewhere in the 130’s driving a turbo charged BMW.
This is the problem with being a circle track racer who also tends to obey the law when driving on the street. The most I’ve ever done on the STREET was 125 mph in my Monte Carlo when I was young and very stupid.
But since then, I don’t do that sort of stuff on the street, so if/when I ever end up going faster, it will be at Bonneville or the a 1-mile top speed challenge, or something.
But top speed is kinda boring, to be honest. The quickest racecar I’ve driven is an OSCAAR Outlaw Late Model (~650-700 hp, 2500 lbs), around the old Barrie Speedway, only a 1/4 mile oval, where they get up to about 100 mph. It’s faster than most everything people have driven, it was just confined to a real tiny space!
127 in my ’69 6 250ci 6cyl Suburban. Scary as hell, no swaybars, bad shocks, fair tires. Never again it was like going 60 on a couch.
127.5 at the Maxton Mile.
I’ve been 150..my wife has a timing slip that reads 302.179
Fluke timing slip?
If not, all bow down to Michael’s wife!
She has a blue hat that goes with it. She has been 198 on a bike. She kicks butt. 😉
Timing slip not a fluke. I was there. Unlike tigeraid I find top speed at Bonneville to be exciting, give it a try sometime. You may have to drive a little further than 1/4 mile though.
Mike is right, his wife kicks butt!
134.80 MPH at Sacramento Raceway with the engine going lean and quitting at 1000 feet.
Note to self: Always verify fuel flow capability, especially after stepping up horsepower.
Fact: An in-cell filter [hiding] a 1/4-inch diameter fitting will not allow enough fuel flow to supply 700-750 horsepower successfully. Not even with a 400 GPM pump…
Easy 140 in my 84 SVO with a lot of Esslinger goodies. Had a 66 New Yorker 2dr with a wicked 440. Buried the speedo a few time. God only knows how fast that thing would go.
212 in a ex-girlfriends lambo. 7.40s on a built turbo zx14
pegged a mini van at 120 on one of those roads that parallels the freeway. One of the scariest things I have done.
147mph in a 93 z28 on 495 circling D.C. driving 135mph passenger in a nascar ride along and driver got pissed I said I was disappointed how slow the nascar ride was!
185 on 95 into Rhode Island in a Lotus. 160 on a Boss Hoss on 90 in upstate NY.
187 on the Autobahn in a Porsche I rented when I was stationed in Germany. Still grinning 7 years later!
268 mph in a firebird. Record average 260.139
202.5 mph in the 1/4 in 1990, et was like 6.92. Blown BBC in an Altered on 30% Nitro.
112 mph in a Ford Edge (SUV) rental car.
The desert has lots of long straight a ways 😉
143 on a 2.5 mile banked oval in a Pontiac Trans Am
208 and change in a 1971 camaro!!!!
In my 70 Boss 302 I was doing 140+, the speedo needle was bouncing up and down as the tach was still climbing……….and then I was passed by a Pantera.
190 in my Anglia a few times, one hand on the wheel, the other on the chute lever!
160mph in my dodge magnum r/t
around 160m.p.h. normal, little over 130m.p.h. sideways
130 in my Camaro steering with 1 hand filming with the other 🙂
proof for 120mph:
http://www.pro-touring.nl/camaro/martinscamaro1.wmv
250.00 at Indy in 1981. Hoping to improve on that in a couple of weeks.
Fast enough
I’ve been 204.97 in my top dragster at Tulsa raceway park
160 mph on the 294 tri-state
160+ on an english motorway a few years ago in a tweeked z28…..racing an e type jaguar (who was most upset at being beaten by an american car) speeding is a bit of a sore point at moment seen as i just got busted for doing 36mph in a 30 zone (un-signed)….nice to know the british police have got there priorities right…
Winter. 1978. Some 4 lane, Pocono Mountains. Sustained 140 mph. 1970 Chevelle SS w/transplanted Corvette 350/350 LT1 & L-60/15 studded snow tires. So stupid…2 or more quarts low, pumped all the oil to the top of the motor, wasted rods & mains.
When moving to Cali, I stopped at Wendover for.the night. Went over to Bonneville and followed the black line and metal stakes to the end of the 10 mile track. No speedo, but used my watch’s stop watch and did the 10 miles in 4:34. Thats roughly 122 mph in a very rusty 69 Impala with its front fenders flapping away in the wind. I was pacing a C-130 coming into to land at the AF base there. I only later discovered the cars frame rails had rusted away as well. Lucky I am not dead.
I hqve done similar speeds on various parts of I-80 between Omaha and San Franciso.
142 in a ’68 VW Karmann Ghia. 168 on an ’08 Concours14, 2-up with bags and extra tall windscreen. 7.33 @ 184 in a super comp dragster.
I rode 170 in a Ford GT on a 2 lane divided highway. He got a ticket for 147 in a 70.
I was driving a 1987 mustang with boltons and a vortec a trim comming into Lansing Kansas on K-7 my gps said i was going 189 mph 6100 rpm.
I have been in a 96 Impala SS in top gear against the rev limiter for 5 minutes, likely more than 140 plus.
Did 137 in my wife’s ’95 Eagle Talon turbo on Rt 128 at 1 am on a nice November night back in 1997 on my way to pick up my son at a Halloween party.
208.3 record at Maxton
134 mph in a 1960 Oldsmobile in 1968 racing a car west bound on I-10 coming from Palm Springs neither car could beat the other and we were pissed as we could hear the engine pinging but it wouldn’t go any faster
12 laps @ 160+ in Danica Patrick’s car, at Joliet Speedway!
145mph in my ’84 Trans Am H.O.
175mph in 5th, still had all of 6th (200+ with no effort)…. on my ’90 Ninja ZX10!
5.84 ET @ 242.xx MPH in my TA/FC in 1999.
165 mph in my Boss’ ZO6 down the highway.
221 mph – in my 1953 Studebaker, my husband 232 – in his 1932 Roadster…..”salt fever”!
241 maxton track record
don’t actually know the speed. The speedometer (column shift automatic) was pointing at “D”.
Exit speed of 450mph in our family car, home built streamliner that also holds the SCTA class record for AA/BFS at 417.020 and FIA record at 415.896.
Tom Burkland
You win, Tom!
297 average for a mile in a 1923 modified roadster. It was the backup run for a 273mph run the day before at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2012. Car had a 296ci motor with a 94mm Precision Turbo. Shifts at 8700rpm. 4 speed Jerico. Gasoline fueled. Record averaged out to be 285mph.
140, ford focus svt
155 in our SRT magnum wagon. not sayin where,but it was on I-75.