Yes I am on medication but I’m not sure this idea is totally crazy. States want to raise money, people want to drive fast. Why not close a hiway for a day and let people drive as fast as they want, for 200 or so miles, after they pay a toll of course. I figure $500 is chump change to someone who would pay $75000+ for a car. Besides “everyone knows” you have to burn the gunk out of your engine once in a while so this could be considered vehical maintanence! 
So is this a neat idea or shoud I have my medications increased?
A few spectacular accidents would eat that money away very quickly. Plus, there are already lots of roads in the U.S. where you can drive as fast as you want with little worry. Try West Texas or parts of Montana. Anybody that really wanted to do it could already. There are tracks for that sort of thing as well for less money.
Yeah, people do that.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/08/03/yet-another-ferrari-enzo-destroyed/
Of course, someone managed to wreck their supercar while taking part in this event, so I’m not sure whether they’ll be doing it again…
Have you thought about the people who need that particular road to get to their destination?
Or the health care costs after the crashes?
I nominate this thread for MPSIMS
There are legitimate amateur racing tracks where you can do this kind of stuff. Naturally, Murphy’s law applies, so the kind of folks who can afford big ticket cars tend not to push the envelope. I’m not sure how they deal with wrecks, but they’re not the government, so they can probably say “not my problem” as soon as they get it off the track.
Not to mention all the extra pollution from running a car twice as fast as normal.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I don’t know if it is much of a money maker for the state, but you can run what you brung in Nevada.
You will see everything from rental cars to special built monster cars there.
I ran the race once, averqaged 149.57 MPH which was only good for a 2nd in the 150 mph class. :mad:
Crossed the finish line at 163 MPH (verified by NHP radar)
Medical bills are not an issue for the state, the event is run by a private concern. You should see the waiver you have to sign.
The Octagon has it right. See this thread. Furthermore, you don’t need to be rich or own a supercar. And running on a real race course is safer and more fun than running on a highway. Anyone can go fast on a long, straight, flat, wide road. Going quickly through a twisty stretch of track is much more satisfying.
It’s also an option to fly to Germany, rent a car and drive on the Autobahn. There are speed limits on some parts of it now, but not all. If you really want to splurge, there are companies there that will rent very nice sports cars.
And for a different sort of challenge, there’s the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a racetrack built in the 1920’s, which is open to the public on certain days. If all you want is high speed, don’t bother; too many twists and turns through the hills. But if you want to learn real technique, this is probably the toughest track in the world to test yourself. Even Jackie Stewart called it the Green Hell.
My dad just volunteered as a course marshal for that a couple months ago. It sounds like quite an event. What were you driving?
I prepped a 1994 Volvo 850 turbo.
Roll cage, 5 point harness, rally clocks, and we wore full racing gear. Nomex driving suits, helmets, gloves and shoes. In the engine room, a different control unit (no rev limiter) changed out the air filter, a larger exhaust from the cat back,and a larger oil cooler.
I changed the springs and shocks, but the tires and wheels were stock.
That’s all it took to change out a standard grocery getter into a race car.
Oh and Baffle we left all the factory emission equipment including the converter in place.
I wonder if they’d allow the Thust SSC. 
It gets there twice as fast, thus burns half as long, so nets out the same. :dubious:
Nah - MPG is what we’re talking about here, and the most efficient cruising speed is around 55 mph. Any faster than that, and your MPG goes down, so you’re definitely polluting more than you could be.
And yet, I still do 90+ when I can. I don’t care, apparently.
I kind of like the idea. Would I participate? Probably not, I’m not a car person. OTOH would I mind if it was a road I’d planned to use that day? Maybe, but that already happens. Roads gett closed so people can go biking, roads get closed for street fairs.
Sure, you could enter it. The problem is the that the course is not 100% straight or flat. (Our helmets hit the roof of the car at 150+ in the middle of a 13 mile straight) When you get to the narrows the Thrust might have a bit of an issue with the turns.
But other than than that, come on down.