One of the greatest joys in driving is being able to max out your vehicle, be it hitting apexes or clocking in low numbers at the drag strip. We often champion the idea of “slow car fast,” or a vehicle you can push to its limit without hitting Warp. Still, the far end of a speedometer is a temptress, and sometimes a car enthusiast just wants to register triple-digit speeds. What’s the fastest you’ve driven? What were you driving or riding when you hit it?
Now, to be clear here, we are not the police. At least, when I pinched myself this morning I was pretty sure I still work at a transportation publication. I’m not going to tattle on you. That said, you should always be careful what you say on the Internet!
I’ve lived with slow vehicles all of my life. My first car, a 2001 Kia Rio, wouldn’t go any faster than 110 mph indicated, which was probably closer to 105 mph actual. Things got slower from there. The fastest I’ve gotten in my 2012 Smart Fortwo was 98 mph, beating the electronic limiter by 8 mph. GPS confirmed that as well as uh … the police officer who pulled me over. As a twist, he was laughing way so hard at the thought of my car going that fast that he didn’t even give me a ticket for it. The Honda Prelude driver that blew by going even faster wasn’t as lucky.
Ok, so Peter made this as the original topshot and I have to put it here. It’s not a 2012 Smart but it makes me giggle:
I’m generally familiar with the far end of the speedometers of everything I drive. I’ve hit 83 mph in my Honda Beat, 70 mph in my Suzuki Every, 70 mph in my bus, and about 130 mph in my Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI.
The absolute fastest I’ve been in a car was about 155 mph behind the wheel of the second-generation Acura NSX. Sadly, the course was too short for more, but there’s only one other time in life when my heart pumped that hard, and that had nothing to do with cars.
Weirdly, I have owned some fast-ish motorcycles, but haven’t gone that fast on them. At one point, I owned a Honda CBR600F3, which could theoretically hit around 173 mph. However, mine never went faster than the speed limit during my ownership. Instead, the fastest I’ve been on a bike was my Triumph Rocket III, which hit a touch over 130 mph before my senses kicked in and I slowed down. Before that, it was 120 mph on a modified and naked 1980 Honda GL1100.
A part of me is afraid to own my “unattainable” dream car, a first-generation Audi R8 V10. Will I bury the needle and end up under a jail somewhere? Will I become an insatiable speed junkie and have to tie myself to faster and faster vehicles? I don’t have the answers to these questions right now. For now, I will happily continue putt-putting around on 20 HP Royal Enfields and giving myself occasional blasts of speed via Triumphs with threatening auras and supercharged Ford trucks that exist to convert rubber into smoke.
What about you? What’s the fastest you’ve gone and in what vehicle?
I am an idiot and should be ashamed. I agree. So with that done, this was years ago (SOL!) on a 2011 GSX-R750. The place I liked to ride usually is this little stretch way out in the country. There’s a bridge on the way outbound with a little lip to it that if I goose the bike it will not really wheelie but the front end will pop up for a moment and it’s kinda fun. I’ve never tried that on the way back, approaching from the other side, I guess because when I’m coming back the demons are out of me and I’m just thinking about getting home. Well this particular day I was kinda still feeling “up” on the way home. The approach to that bridge on the way home is laser straight and you can see literally for miles. It is also ranch country so there’s no cross streets or driveways. Just a long empty road. Nobody was coming or going so I thought, let’s try for it; high speed run, here I go. I wasn’t thinking about the bridge other than I saw it there but the bump l didn’t consider because I was approaching from the other side.
Anyway about the time I steal a fraction of a second to glance and see it pass indicated 170 mph I’m almost on top of the bridge, and see it just long enough to realize what is a little lip on the other side is damn near a little ramp from this side. Well.
The bike didn’t pop up, didn’t bunny hop, it didn’t get a little air: the damn thing launched.
It flew.
The bike dropped under me as we ceased riding and effectively became an unguided missile–a moment locked in my memory is seeing it start to part from my body, whether it was dropping or I was launching harder than it I don’t know. I somehow landed it, not at all through skill, but physics dictating speedy gyro thing wants to stand up, and two things went through my head at once: greatest. moment. ever. and I can’t believe I’m still alive. I started cackle laughing in my helmet and tbh, all these years later I still get a bit of a tingle thinking of it.
Remember, I agree I am a fool. I’ve never ever had the urge to try something like this again, and nobody else should either.
I touched 140 on my Honda Superhawk. On a two-lane road outside of Helena, MT. Without a helmet. Oh to be young and invincible again.
Love the v twin sport bikes. In past life l had a tl1000.
I bought, and still have, a TLS when my Superchicken was stolen on my first night in Philly.
Ah, yes, the invincibility. I don’t ever think we ever thought we were invincible, it just never crossed out minds that we weren’t. I just recently started riding again after 30 years and I frequently think back to the invincibility and shudder.
I never went nearly as fast as you, but I remember a particular night when a buddy and I were one-upping each other for style points. I think it finally ended when I passed him at 80mph sitting bolt upright atop my bike with arms and legs crossed in front of me.
I’ve been up to about 150mph, in a Ferrari 328 GTS, on the Autobahn between Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and Munich (München) before I backed out due to traffic ahead. I was dating a girl with very wealthy parents, and it was her sister’s Ferrari we borrowed for a long weekend.
I had my own BMW 528i over 130mph on the Nürburgring. I’ve also been up as high as 140mph on track days here in the US. I’ve never had a dedicated race car with a safety cage and racing seat, so I’ve never pushed right up to the limit.
The fastest I’ve ever felt like I was driving was about 95mph on a twisty road course in a 67 Triumph GT6. That was truly stupid, because while the car felt very competent, there were no safety upgrades other than seat belts and a fire extinguisher; it was certainly not safe at that speed.
What part of dating family money/sister’s Ferrari made you think “eh…I can do better”?
It wasn’t my decision. Her family pressured her very openly and relentlessly about every choice she ever made.
Her clothes, make-up, hair, what she had to eat or drink, how she spent her time, who she was with, etc… It seemed she was either going to give up the wealthy lifestyle, escape with an equally wealthy suitor (which I wasn’t) or eventually knuckle under.
You may have dodged a bullet
A GT6 feels a lot less competent once you hit about 105 or thereabouts. The steering becomes erratic as the car wants to follow very grove in the road.
I bounced off the artificial 120MPH (tied to tire rating) in my ’93 Corsica with the Z52 package on I-465 late at night. The 3.1V6 could have kept going faster, enough to make the 140MPH speedometer not overly optimistic. At the time, I’d equipped the car with better Goodrich T/As instead of the stock Goodyears (The Z52 package ran on wider rubber and alloy rims and was slightly lowered from the factory) and mounted a functional rear wing that was keeping the tail nicely planted. Sleepers can be very fun cars…
I had a Yamaha Radian that I bought used, the former owner was a slightly crazy British bike mechanic who’d done some tuning on it. On a back road, I cracked the throttle wide open and was up through the gears and passing 100 faster than I could time; the bike was still accelerating but I was running out of road fast.
I remember the Beretta/Corsica cars as being strangely competent at modestly extralegal speeds. Good vehicles for stretching the speed limits of the American Interstate system, but not by too much. I’m not sure I’d like to be in one going over 100mph.
The standard tires and suspension gave exactly that impression, along with hints that perhaps some better shocks/spring rates and wheels/tires could be worthwhile. I had rented V6-powered Corsicas several times for cross-country trips and felt that way. Also, the Beretta’s tube-section rear suspension member had a reputation for being slightly squidgier in hard cornering than the Corsica’s slightly heavier beam — so there were slight differences between the coupe and the sedan.
GM did some very nice work with the Beretta GTU and some other variants. The Z51 package for the Corsica pretty much flew under the radar unless you know how to put the options list together. If I recall, there was some infighting between Chevy and the rest of GM over the Beretta/Corsica twins. Chevy felt they had a superior platform to the corporate N-body platform (Grand Prix, Regal, Achieva) and insisted on building their own L-body instead. As a result, it’s said that’s why they had to keep the A-body Celebrity until 1990 when they finally got access to the GM10 platform for the Lumina.
I’ve driven all of the above. The Celebrity and its A-body ilk ran the gamut from adequate to awful. The GM10 cars like the Lumina were nice, mainly comfy boulevard cruisers although they could be outfitted to more sporting aspirations well enough to be fun. The N-body cars were all quite nice, typically well-equipped, and offered power and handling that was more than adequate for the average driver to feel safe and in-control. The Chevy L-body cars were just a little different. As if the basic target was a bit more performance than the L-body platform, and just watered-down a bit for production. But playing the options packages could net a very nice car for the day, that didn’t cost a lot.
I long for the days when it was really worth it to carefully choose the options for a built-to-order new car, and there were so many very different cars to choose from even in the same sizes/classes.
I used to race bikes at the club level and regularly went 165-170 mph on the full straight at Utah Motorsports Campus (formerly Miller Motorsports Park) in Utah. Most of the laps were on a KTM RC8R but probably went faster on a BMW S1000RR that I raced for a few seasons. The only reason I know the speed since I never had a GPS lap timer is I raced in a support race for MotoAmerica and they had a speed trap set up at the end of the straight and posted speeds along with lap times.
Yeah I like to drive fast, practically hit a higher speed every time on the highway than most peoples reported fastest speed here. Fastest was 175
Indicated 125mph in a 1988 CRX Si.
Cool car!
I got an indicated 130mph out of my 1989 CRX 16i16.
Thanks to the 85mph speedo I don’t really know exactly. That car did have the ~1mph incremental cruise control so I do know I was 20+ clicks past the speedo saying 85mph. Factor in the traditional overstating of speed and I was still probably over 100mph, just not sure how far. That was back in the days of “reasonable and prudent” as the Montana speed “limit”. It was in our 1993 Grand Marquis.
Speedometer pegged, estimate 125 mph from counting telephone poles… Managed this in a 1972 Cadillac Hearse by Superior Motor Coach.
Lonesome road in the wee hours on a late spring evening, 20+ years ago on a familiar road between home and college.
135 in an Audi A6 2.7t. 130 in a 1995 300zx. All at night on what I’ll call “unofficially closed roads”.
The Z was fine (wasn’t a turbo), the Audi hit the rev limiter at 135 and felt like it had plenty of juice left. Underrated car / engine, especially in 6-speed trim.
Strangely enough, mine was also an Audi A6 2.7t – 115 mph on the back straight at Mid-Ohio.
This is blatant entrapment. You need to tell us if you’re a cop.
Really, though, I’m kinda lame–I’ve never removed or defeated the governor in any car I’ve owned. I’ve briefly hit the limit in most of them, but I think they all topped out before 130 mph. Most closer to 100. Honestly, with the exception of my current daily, they all felt like they went fast enough for my uses. (I routinely top out my Niro going up White Bird Pass on my way to see my family, and wish it had a little more power to maintain a speed around 85 on the way up.)
My Citation was the most pleasant to get up to the limit. It just kind of felt like it was getting all the fuel it could. No engine struggles, no shutting off power to drop it back down, just a smooth maximum with the V6 sounding like it should. I don’t know how fast, but I know the speedometer was buried at 85.
The Cavalier felt like a violent lurching as it would hit the limit, drop power, then bounce back to the limit. It was my least favorite.
Others have been known to shake a bit or sound like the engine is struggling, but they pretty much fell somewhere between those two.
Entrapment would be if he asked where it happened…. ))
I really hope that’s a typo. (you used the wrong pronoun)
No offense to Mercedes, I didn’t realize who wrote the article until after I wrote the response.
It’s only entrapment if she got us to commit crimes we wouldn’t have otherwise committed (while also being law enforcement). Getting us to admit to something isn’t entrapment (also, cops are not required to identify themselves as such). I was trying to make two common misconceptions into a joke.
Just north of 240km/h in my old Genesis Coupe. Obviously on the back straight of a really long course.
Can confirm. Pedal to the floor down hill in my 85 Chevy Sprint made my doors flap. I think I hit 75.
I pegged the speedometer of a Mercedes Benz Viano on the autobahn headed to Oktoberfest. It was only 112mph, but still.
I did around 250 kmh (155 mph) in my Alfa 164 Q4, and that was GPS measured. All I can tell you is that if felt really, really, really fast, and that I was sufficiently satisfied with the result not to attempt the feat since. I guess I’m not 18 anymore, and although it was fun, the car felt good and stable, the sense of responsibility and potential danger is just too real, so I’ll go ahead and admit that I’m definitely not a speed junky.
155 in my ’07 911 Turbo. The car still had more to go (supposed top speed of 193). My nerves, on the other hand, definitely chickened out.
I did 85mph once.
In a 29bhp 2CV.
Going fast in something fast doesn’t feel as scary as going too fast in something slow and shit. The tops of the doors were being sucked open, I could see an inch of sky.
It was both very windy and a steep hill. It was off the speedo and I only know the number because my mum was following me. I turned round for another run and could only do 45mph going up the hill.
I tested how fast my girlfriend’s VW Fox would go in Montana, when they didn’t have speed limits in some areas. We got to 100ish before she made me slow down.
2002 VFR800 going 110+ through the desert near Dinosaur, Colorado when a state patrol truck popped over a hill (the only hill for miles) in the opposite lane. I watched him do a smoky high speed J turn in my rearview, it was an impressive Hollywood maneuver. The cop was straight out of Super Troopers: cowboy hat, mustache, mirrored glasses, drill sergeant demeanor. He cut me some slack after chewing me out, I got a ticket for some speed just below impounding my bike.
Funny, I had a similar experience, also on a VFR800 but in the hill country of Texas- near the “Three Sisters” loop. Coming down a hill chasing a buddy on a KTM 1290 and had it pretty much pegged at 130, slowed a bit for a corner (down to maybe 100), and sheriff in a F150 was in the oncoming lane. Briefly considered just ripping it- clearly a pickup couldn’t keep up, and this was the middle of nowhere, probably the only LEO for a 50 mile radius. If I was a few years dumber I probably would have, but we stopped.
Ultimately wrote us tickets for 84mph (speed limit was 60). Or, 1mph under the limit for it to be elevated to reckless driving. In Texas at 25+ over, the officer *can* declare it reckless driving rather than speeding, which is a misdemeanor and essentially the same as a DUI. Meaning, vehicle impounded and go to jail.
Texas also essentially gives you one freebie per year when it comes to minor tickets. If you do an (online) defensive driving class and pay a court fee, it’s dropped/no points. So ended up getting out of that for a $50 online MSF class (had to be MC specific) and like a $90 court charge, not bad.
I was quite a moron 22 years ago, but I managed to stay out of handcuffs that day!
Miracles never cease.
Edit to add: going fast through mind numbingly flat territory doesn’t feel fast. Kansas or Nebraska at 100MPH has the same hopeless running-in-place feeling as 50MPH. I’ve heard it described as an existential challenge.
I’ve hit 135 in my 2005 CTS-V as well as a 2003 Kawasaki Z1000. Both scared the shit out of me.
On the A5 autobahn back in the day, took my 1986 Saab Turbo to 130 mph indicated. Routinely drove 105-110 on my daily work commute. Perhaps these early high speed miles helped it last over 500,000 miles?
Fastest I’ve ever been, though, was 140 mph indicated on a 1984 Honda CB700SC Nighthawk S. Late at night on a highway in a state that shall not be named. They had one of those roadside speed radar displays that shows you your speed in great big digital numbers, so I decided to see just how fast I could go. Figure that’s why they put those signs up, right? My speedometer read 140 mph and the sign displayed 142 mph when it tripped. The bike could’ve gone faster, but I was way beyond comfort level and backed out. Things happen real fast on a bike at 140 and lying flat out on the tank.
My top 3 list is highly unconventional:
~130 MPH calculated (based on tire size, gear ratio, and engine RPM) in a 1981 Ford Granada with a 302. It was a crap can racer in the World Racing League at Texas World Speedway, a former NASCAR track which no longer exists. At that speed the hood started flapping and the rear of the car started getting light. Fun!125 MPH indicated in my 1985 Ford LTD LX at Auto Club Speedway in California, another track that no longer exists. No idea how accurate that is, but at least I could get a rough idea since I swapped the stock 85 MPH speedo for a cop car 140 MPH unit. That car was set up handle so it was pretty non-eventful.125 MPH indicated in my 1985 Dodge Omni GLH in *looks around* Mexico. Yeah, totally Mexico. Mine had the speedometer from a Shelby GLHS swapped in which hilariously has an overlay sticker that continues the stock speedo past 85. I almost wrapped the needle back to zero but chickened out. https://www.beverlyhillscarclub.com/galleria_images/15647/15647_p22_l.jpg
Oh and 4th place is close behind. Got a rental SEAT Leon up to about 121 MPH on the Autobahn on the way to Munich. I was proud of myself because the official top speed on this was 191 km/h, but on a long downhill stretch I got it up to 195! God driving on the autobahn was such a pleasure. So nice to be around other drivers who know what the hell they’re doing.
Whoa, what happened to the numbered list in my comment above? Oh well.
Every time I’ve made a bulleted or numbered list, I’ve run into that. It’s an annoying quirk of the system.
257km/h / 159mph in a rental car. (2005 MB SLK 230 Kompressor from Sixt, and on the autobahn.) Most of the time kept it around 100 though. Right around 200kph if you had the top down the rear seemingly lost all weight and would float around very scarily.
That’s how rental cars want to be treated!
I did an indicated 120mph in a rented Impala once. The actual speed was much lower because I was doing a burnout in the snow.
Nice Try FBI
as a passenger in my (now sold) Charger Hellcat, 142 in front of a Mormon church in suburban Phoenix and 143 (to break that record) on an interstate highway (at 4000+ elevation while heading uphill.) Hellcats can do the high speed runs very well and there was plenty more left. I erased the top speed from the factory equipped data logger after taking pics for the drivers.