What is my cars real-life top speed?


figure a windless day... perfectly flat road... 70 degrees... half tank of gas... so on and so forth


i know there are online calucators that tell you your theoritcal top speed with gearing and wheel diameter and such

but i wanna know the real thing... ya know... where drag and friction come into play

i've had it to 145 a few times... and i know it had a good bit left in it... but that was just fast enough for the moment



mods in sig... remember stall isn't in yet

oh yeah... also... being a ws6... my car has stock 3:23 rearend gears

also... post up how much more you think i'll gain by putting in the stall?


thank ya!

Jared

 

I would guess that a SS/WS6/Firehawk should be able to pull off 170mph+ without a limiter.

And the reason I say SS/WS6/Firehawk is due to the suspension upgrades over Z28/Trans Am/Formula. I'll take all of the handling I can get at 170mph.

 

does my car have a limiter above 145?

 

i believe they are all set at 160mph, add momentum most of the time they would shutdown at 163mph. i knew a guy who had his firehawk to 172. even with upgraded suspension he said it wanted to lift and it was scary as hell.

 

Limiters are set at 155 and will realistically let you see btw 157 and 160 before fuel cutoff.. without any limiter, you will only see about 162ish..

Add power and you may go a tad bit more.. not much tho..
Links!
Vid of a car going 166..Quite a few mods on this car..

Its down right now but it may be back up some time.. Texas Mile. (http://www.texasmile.com)
This place lets you top out your car. Its pretty kewl. They even have a results page so you can see what similar cars are topping out at..
The video above is from the texas mile..

 

i got it to 160 once... scared the hell out of me... never do it again.. anything 130+ scares me...

 

I would guess high 160s low to 170s. With the A4 gearing, 200mph comes at 59XX rpms. So, who knows. Get rid of the top speed limiter and find a nice spot in the desert sometime and find out.

 

because your car is DRAG limited it will not acheive theoretical top speeds.. Wind produces so much force on the car at those speeds that we top out at 162ish without a speed limiter. Add much power as the video above and you get a tad bit more speed.

You can also tape up all your seams and try to smooth up your car so it slips through the air a tad bit more and perhaps gain 1-2 mph but, in reality, thats it.. Now add a boatload of power, and then you may see 175+

 

I think you'll pull into the high 150s no prob and may even crack 160. I'll bet with a splitter, belly-pan and other aero tweaks, an F-body could get near the Vette's top speed of 170ish.

 

I had a Z28 to 140 before but it was an LT1. Scared the crap out of me... especially while on bald tires.

 

I know this is off topic, but I think I rememberreading about a highly modified LS1 Camaro that did 224 before. Anybody see this?

 

I heard the limiter was above 160? on LS1

Secondly, what tire sizes were you all running?
what tire pressure are you supposed to run on the 275s? The book says for speeds above 1XX (i forget the number, 120?) to use a certain tire pressure, but I dont; where where the # is.

 

I heard about that. top speed with 3.23 gears will be around 165mph assuming no limiter and stock verter. With your 3600 stall, you'll be lucky to reach 160mph. If you have 2.73 gears, then you'll reach whatever speed third can take you to, you wont have any pull left in overdrive.

I was able to do crack 165mph with full boltons in my lt1 before heads and cam, so you might hit 170mph in OD if your power peak is around 5500rpm and you have 3.23s.

 

An LS1 M6 car will run between 165 and 170 stock. I have seen a stock '02 SS run 148 in one mile from a standing start.

You get used to speeds over 130,

 

has nothing to do with electronic limiters, has to do with the aerodynamic limits of the car, which is around 165 in stock trim, which for all intents & purposes, yours is. WS6/SS cars are even LESS aerodynamic so - a few MPH there, you'll GAIN nothing with a stall, you'll lose a few mph. I'm saying around 160. with 500+ rwhp you'd only be looking at around 180-190. Our cars, despite the way they look, are only as aerodynamic as a crysler town & country minivan (exactly the same drag coeff., around .34) Figure with full suspension, a top end package, and engine mods allowing for 7000+ redline, you might see 200mph with a blown 427 ls1. Most cars that hit the 200+ mark are very low with aerodynamic packages that keep their car "safe" at those speeds. An fbody hitting those speeds without the proper equipment might just fly right off the road-- literally. You'll also note that most exotics come with boatloads of power to push them to high speeds, the power is necessary to overcome the extra drag created by top-speed aerodynamic packages and the force of the wind is increased exponentially as higher speeds are achieved.

Not sure about an fbody doing 224mph, but the lingenfelter twin turbo 427 c5 did 220. Only took 750bhp, and a slippery aerodynamic car.

There are 8 people who voted in this poll who have no clue what top speeds require, and 3 that are just absolutely smoking crack.