Did you mean to type Corvette? 120 in a Chevette… DAAAMN Dude. I would have backed off at about 80 when the doors blew off. A friend of mine’s sister had one and it wasn’t exactly considered fast. (I’m sure there were sportier versions, but this definitely wasn’t one of them).
Or maybe you were being literal that you were going DOWN the Mass Turnpike. That must be one hell of a hill.
Really I’m just trying to have fun with you and, I’m not doubting you it is just the only Chevette I spent any time in was lucky to get up to 70. Obviously this is one of those YMPHMV situations.
OK, I guess I have to tell the tale. It was January 1994 I was headed to Phoenix International Raceway for the first SCCA race of the year. I was driving my demo, a 1994 850 Volvo turbo wagon.
Wife was along to go to the race with me. Anyway I had been teaching new car features for several months on this car where one of the bullet points was the ECU was electronically limited to 152 MPH.
Anyway in the months I had been driving the car, I had not had a chance to get it above about 65 as I had only had it in town.
So here I am headed across the desert toward Phoenix. I’m at about 75 and this car feels as stable as your sofa. So I kick it to 85. If anything it feels even more stable. 95, then 105. Stable as a rock. I am impressed. So I decide to go for the gusto. 125. Still like a rock. The line from the training manual creeps through my head: electronically limited to 152
OK WTF, hit the gas to the floor. 130, 135 (now things are starting to happen a bit quickly, but it still feels stable) 140, 145 now it is accelerating sloooowly, but still accelerating. 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151
At this point my wife looks over and says “Don’t you think you are going a little bit fast?”
“yeah” I replied, “but I have to see something.”
“If you get a ticket I am not bailing your ass out of jail.”
152 and engine stops pulling
Off the gas and back down to 85
Very stable car.
That’s a problem I’m learning to deal with. My car feels more stable cruising at 85 than 65. Somehow it just settles down and grips. I’ve even watched the gas mileage on the computer and it doesn’t really drop any at the higher speed. I don’t think a cop will take that excuse though.
And Rick… someday I hope to grow up and be like you and get paid to teach people how to drive fast.
150+ a few times in the 80’s and 90’s, in a couple of different Corvettes owned by friends of the family who collect and don’t mind lending out for special occasions. Really nice people.
100-120 pretty regularly (for short spurts) when I had my Mustang from late 90’s to early 2000’s. Haven’t had a car since I moved permanently to the city, though. Now it’s just iGO hybrids at the speed limit.
My friends and I were racing down a mountain in our four cylinder cars. Normally, my car could barely go up to 70-75, but the hill made the spedometer top out.
At the bottom of the hill, we all slowed down to get back on the freeway, and suddenly like 6 police cars zoomed past us.
Nope, it was definitely a Chevette and a clunker to boot. I had to really lean on the gas pedal to get it up that far but it did, and even at that young age I knew the sound of a motor pleading “No more, for the love of God!” so I eased up real fast.
95 mph on rare occasions while driving busy parts of I-10 from Baton Rouge to New Orleans… Because I was being tailgated!!! Stuck in the left lane until I could find a spot in the right lane to escape.
I got my old Mitsubish compact pickup truck up to 104 mph once on a lonely stretch of I-95 a few miles south of Houlton, Maine. With every little bump I felt like I was about to lose control, so I backed off to 95 for most of the next 50 miles or so. I found out later that going more than 30 over the limit is considered “criminal speeding” in Maine. If the police catch you going that fast, they’re supposed to arrest you and book you. The maximum theoretical penalty is 6 months in jail but a $1000 fine plus 30 license suspension is more likely. I haven’t gone over 95 since I learned that.
I tend not to drive as fast as I used to, mostly because I fear getting a ticket. I doubt I’ve gone over 80 mph in the last two or three years. If it were legal I wouldn’t hesitate to drive 90 or 95 on some lonely stretches of road in good weather during the day.
There’s a highway that runs from Memphis TN down to Oxford MS (Ole Miss), don’t recall what interstate or hwy number it is. I was 18.
I was driving this, circa 1977. There was no tach in the 12-year-old bomber, so I had the speedometer sitting right on the 120 mark but not flattened out past it.
I am in motion and the other cars on the highway are virtually parked. Until, no kidding, a bald 90 year black man and his wife, riding in this or something very much akin to it, sailed gently and elegantly past me, eased back all comfy in the partially reclined 3-way tilt bench seat.
Curious, I punched it and the big Indian went after its kindred Detroit iron up ahead. After a bit, I gained and passed. Speedometer was vibrating an invisible 2 and a half extra unprinted bars and looking for a way to dive below the bottom edge of the gauge. I’m guessing 135. Close enough to red line even with that 3.08 rear end for me to back it off to 120 — it was one sweet set of wheels and I didn’t want to take it higher than it oughta go. Moments later, that big Caddy with the foldaround-the-side windshield glass oozes past me again. I ceded the highway to the couple and willingly ate their dust and rode onwards to Oxford at a sedate 115 mph.
If you raised the offered poll numbers by 40 or 50 points you’d have about the same answers (and a decent number of lies) that Dopers would offer in an IQ poll.
Me? 225, 193, 13.5
Come and get it, girls.
(The third number is my response to a poll I haven’t seen here yet, but I haven’t looked for it either.)
It was about 15 years ago and I was on California’s 118 Freeway. I was just keeping up with traffic (at an already illegal 85,) when my friend in the passenger seat asked how fast I could get my 1975 Maverick. 15mph later, I had hit the magic triple digits of 100mph. The rebuilt 235 inline six felt like it had more, but the rest of the car was still a 20 year old Ford Maverick.
Just recently,I was cruising to a job site in a 2006 Ford E-250 cargo van. I was on Georgia’s I-75 in the middle of nowhere. I’m in the middle of a group of cars in the fast lane when I notice the speedo is hitting 95. I immediately get into the slow lane and slow it down to 80. Who would’ve guessed that a cargo van with about 1300 pounds of cargo could hit 95? The worst part? It still felt better then my Mav.
260 kmh for the wife and 280 for me. (so that over 160mph) Nice Jag sovereign 4 door with the v12. both of us were old enough to know better. this was going across Saskatchewan in farm country, kinda reminds me of Arizona cept with wheat crops. Lots of nothin… did that speed for hours, lots of fun. Dont tell my kids.
