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?
135 gps measured on a BMW K1100RS. T\Specs said top speed was 139.7 mph, I got close. Then I came back to my senses.
120mph (speed limited) in a ’95 Dodge Neon. The car was a hoot to drive, even though it was a base model, but its accountant-induced reliability issues made it arduous to own.
95mph (estimated…speedo only goes to 90) in my ’64 VW Beetle (not the original engine), which was somewhat terrifying because a Beetle’s aerodynamics cause it to get “floaty” at a certain point. How I got from Pueblo to Denver that day without a ticket or dying is beyond me.
About 130mph in a borrowed VW Passat TDI (mid-2000’s). Not on the road of course, it was a closed course that just looked like a motorway. Ahem.
On a track, 141 in an Audi R8 V10. On the road, probably 105-110.
150mph in my ’04 Z4 on the Autobahn.
Side note: the Autobahn sucks, there’s nothing fun about going for your top speed, and there’s always an ass making a dang slow pass forcing your to brake hard AF all the time.
155 mph in a 2018 Porsche 911 on the Autobahn in Germany.
And unlike a top speed on track, this was sustained for miles and miles. Great fun
Not the fastest I’ve been, but definitely the dumbest was taking a ’92 Saturn SL2 up to its aerodynamic limit of about 116, at which point it was generating enough lift that it couldn’t keep accelerating.
Hit 156 in my c5 corvette and managed 130 on my gen 1 suzuki katana. Backed down on both before I hit max speed.
168mph in my stage 3 B5 S4. I was so close to pegging the speedo at 170, but I came to my senses before I hit that speed.
Above 130 on a long, straight, rural, Minnesota 2 lane with my dad’s brother, in another uncle’s bright yellow C3 corvette. It was hard to tell exactly because it was nighttime & I only glanced from the passenger seat. I was amazed how smooth & stable, but things were going by fast.
Then he pulled over and let me drive and I got it up to 120; that was all I dared. I was 14.
“Don’t ever tell your dad”, he said. And I haven’t.
130mph in a 2008 BMW 750iL at the beginning entrance of a highway in Austin Texas (circa 2012). I don’t know if there was a limiter, but the limit wasn’t the car, it was my own guts that made me slow back down.
Went 160 in a Urus, about that (not sure of top speed) in an MP4-12C
Urus felt safer and more in control.
Mike
180kph in a bone stock 1990 Mazda MX-5.
Yes, it took a very long run up.
Yes, it still handled fantastically.
No, I won’t be talking about my location of choice.
In 1972 I went 110 in a 1970 GTO. It felt like it was going to fly apart. I went 130 on a Honda ST1100. Smooth as silk. I think the speedometer was optimistic. Both times I was on a straight section of Interstate highway without another soul in sight.
125 mph before I realized how fast I was going.
Clocked at 90 mph and let off with a warning.
The very first day I got my license, I drove my Dad’s 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo 125 mph across a bridge – I was free.
185ish mph in a McLaren 570S on a track in Nevada.
It was wonderful. I wish there’d been more track so I could have tried to reach the car’s top speed.
For a long time, the fastest I ever went was 172km/h in a 1L 1991 VW Polo while going down a downhill stretch on the Autobahn in Germany with my mom sitting next to me knitting. And in a car like the Polo, that felt Very Fast.
However on two occasions since then I beat that by doing at least 180-190km/h… one time in a 1987 Honda Civic Wagovan and one time in a 2005 Ford Focus Wagon.
The first time was due to a medical emergency and I was racing my then-wife to the hospital as she was bleeding severely.
Another occasion was to catch up to my mom’s partner on the highway. He had dementia. And he forgot he was supposed to keep following me on the highway and decided to pass me and start driving fast. And my mom was with him and she was SUPPOSED to make sure he kept following me. But she didn’t say anything when he stopped following me.
So I had to chase him down.
And after that experience I was PISSED… at both him and my mom.
Thankfully not long after, he had his license taken away and his car sold.
Ok, you win 😉 I only got my 1986 1L Polo up to about 100mph (~160km/h), also downhill.
I guess that facelift of the Polo in 1990 very slightly improved the aerodynamics 😉
That said, although it was pretty sketchy at that speed, it did feel more stable than my friends’ equivalent Fiestas and Metros etc did.
Yeah I actually recall the Polo feeling quite stable at speed for a car that small. Also the 1991 Polo probably had a bit more power as well due to the engine having fuel injection.
Oh and after driving on the Autobahn for a while, when we got to our destination, when I took out our luggage, the luggage that was on the same side as the exhaust pipe felt distinctly warm… LOL.
143mph in a 1992 Subaru SVX, 3am, South Dakota
Having owned a 91 SVX and there being exactly 1 mile of undeveloped road between stop signs right before you got to my parents house, I know you were full throttle for 1.05-1.15 miles to get to that speed. Best I ever did was 140, but I did come to a complete stop. For reference the RX8 I replaced it with got to 148 before I came to a stop. The brakes surprised me by how good they were so I managed to do a 0-65-0 run with the space remaining. Got to my parents house and the car almost looked like it had neon’s as the rotors were still glowing. I may hold the record for being the first RX8 owner in need of new rotors.
About 130mph, on a normal road, legally (Germany), some 30 years ago.
I’ve done 140-ish mph in three different cars: a 1998 Viper R/T-10, in central Michigan; a 2005 SRT-4, in Corcoran Minnesota; and a 2018 Mini Cooper Works rental on the Autobahn somewhere between Munich and Stuttgart. Fun times. I never managed to hit that speed in my actual racecar on any of the various tracks I have run.
112 or so in a friend’s ’01 9-3. Not an exact number, since there was either a bulb out or a glitch with the Night Panel, so the speedometer didn’t light up past 90, but 90 was at two o’clock and the needle was pointing to 3:30ish.
167mph in a tuned, de-restricted Dinan S1 E39 M5. The car itself wasn’t too sketchy at that speed, it was more so that I was running out of straight highway pretty quickly. I was careful to do it on a deserted stretch of highway in a distant suburb at night, so I was truly the only car on the road for as far as I could see. These days I leave the triple digit speeds for the track, it’s a lot more fun when you’re not stressing about getting a felony speeding ticket.
~112 mph or so in my 1997 Grand Marquis, in 100 something degree weather with the AC on. Fancy digital temp reading didn’t budge, was extremely proud of it for that.
98 mph in my 2001 Chevy Tracker, downhill. Very downhill.
150? Or so in a c5 z06 corvette. I stopped glancing at the speedo past 135.
An indicated 105 in a 1963 Valiant convertible in the early 1970s. I doubt it was really that fast, but it sure was stupid.
Also, an indicated 95 in my 2015 Fit in the Dakotas a few years back where there were total sightlines. Fun, but I’m too old for this tomfoolery, so it didn’t last long…each time I did it.