Without facing legal consequences, I mean. What I’m interested in is places where “speeding”, as its known, is either not illegal (you know, no true speed limits), or is largely ignored (speed limits are high, or the local constabulary just doesn’t consider it much of an issue). I’ve heard of Montana’s speed laws, (certain roads having no speed limits during certain times of day), the German Autobahn (which I understand as having no effective speed limit), etc. Any more info on this? Anyone have any experiences to report?
(I understand this is veering close to the IMHO/Polling line, so feel free to move it if it plummets over the edge.)
There’s no place in the states that allow you to drive as fast as you want. Montana’s limit was put back in a couple of years ago. The autobahn does have speed limits around cities.
as for being left alone? Nevada is supposed to be pretty good and I’ve followed people going pretty fast, ie 100+, with no problems. You can still get into trouble though.
Some racetracks will permit you to utilize their facilities for a fee. If you are a member of a car club they may offer events in which you can participate at either regular racetracks or temporary ones such as autocross events.
Yeah, I’m aware of the local tracks and such, but I’m more interested in actual locations where fast travel is accepted. I’d heard that Montana had scaled back their no-speed-limits…was this due to an increase in accidents, or just a general “ok, this is just too risky to play around with” kind of mentality?
Montana definitely does have a speed limit now. I was there over the summer. I seem to remember hearing that they reinstated it because auto insurance rates rose so sharply. Chronos or one of our other Montana dopers may be able to tell us the reason.
“To race at the Bonneville Salt Flats at a Bonneville Nationals event, you must be a member of BNI.”
“Guest entries are allowed at El Mirage Dry Lakes events, but are limited to vehicles which meet strict safety requirements and which do not exceed 125 mph on the race course. Primarily the restrictions are necessary because of our liability insurance limitations.”
The German Autobahn has speed limits for certain stretches, but they’re not necessarily around cities. The speed restrictions are based on how much traffic usually uses that stretch, if there are many on/off ramps close together, and whether or not you are able to judge the “situation” (curves, hills, valleys, etc). Temporary speed limits are in effect during road works and such (as they are everywhere).
The Ruhrgebiet has all of these beauties. Large cities up the wazoo, a highway interchange or exit every couple of miles and a lot of people who want to go somewhere.
The heavy traffic loads occur mostly around cities, so it’s only logical that main arteries have speed limits. But then we’re still talking 120 or 100 km/h (75 & 62 mph).
For all other stretches of Autobahn there is an advisory speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph). You are allowed to drive faster, but then you also become fully responsible for any accident you might cause due to your excessive speed.
In general, the Germans don’t abuse this system much. Sure, you’ll be doing 110 mph once in a while - and be very proud your car can actually handle that - and then some Porsche or Alfa Romeo GTV passes you like you’re going backwards. But that’s mainly on three (or more) lane Autobahns. Stretches for good speeding that come to mind are the [1] north from Dortmund to Bremen, the [2] from Dortmund to Hannover and the [3] south from Köln. I suppose the [7] which runs from Denmark to Austria (some 600 miles) will have its good spots as well.
I understand that this information is not going to help you much, because although you might want to drive really fast for once, I don’t think you’ll spring for the airline ticket that fast.
Go to France and take the Lamborghini driver’s courses. They did a story about this on CBS’ 60 Minutes. If you take special training, apparently you are entitled to drive up to about 170MPH. France doesn’t have speed limits in rural areas, but you’ll still get arrested for reckless driving without proof of special training.
Oh… I should mention that some stretches of the Interstate in Kansas are good and flat, and perfect for insanely fast driving. About 20 years ago, I took my '65 Mustang GT convertible (with 2 passengers and luggage) halfway across Kansas at an AVERAGE speed of 135mph. But this was in the heyday of CB radio, and I had assistance from all the truckers to keep an eye out for me. About halfway through the state, I boasted of my speed on the CB. And about 2 minutes later, the other truckers reported several Highway Patrolmen were jumping on the road. Obviously they were monitoring the CB and were after me. But I escaped.
But I should mention, driving at these speeds is very difficult. No matter how flat and straight the road is, the horizon is 4 seconds away, you have probably 2 seconds to react to any car in your lane. And you’ll come up on cars going 70 and pass them at an additional 65mph beyond that, it’s like they are sitting in the road and you are driving 65. Make one mistake and you are dead. Do that for an hour or two and you will be dead tired.
Large expanses in Mali and Algeria are flat hard, fairly sandless desert. While some automotive testing is indeed done there, mostly by Renault, it is not a place for small groups, being fairly lawless.
A pal used to live in New Mexico and said in the desert states there’s lots of remote highways where you have the opportunity to go very fast and the liklihood of getting caught is minimal. A couple pointers I remember:
Get Z rated tires only: cheap tires have a nasty tendency to fail at speeds much lower than what they’re “rated” for, or while driving at high speeds for sustained periods of time. You also have to get the tires shaved, which trims away most of the tire’s tread. If you don’t, the tire will fall apart at high speed.
Among the canyon-running crowd, late-model Corvettes are king. They are the [lowest-priced] + [best high-speed] car you can get in the US. Corvettes have good high-speed handling, and that’s something that ancient Detroit iron with a big-block won’t have. - MC
My brother lived in Montana a while. The law was that on certain highways driving over the speed limit was a $5 ticket for waste of fuel (not a moving violation). You could buy a book of $5 coupons that you could just hand the officer if you got pulled over. If someone was driving excessively fast the police could pull them over for driving at an unsafe speed and give them a regular ticket.
Some race car driver got a ticket for doing something like 120 on a highway. Instead of just paying the ticket, he fought it all the way to the state’s supreme court, saying that it was not an unsafe speed for him because he raced cars for a living. The court decided that the law had to be changed because of this lawsuit. I’m sure a lot of Montanans who enjoyed being able to drive 90 would like to get their hands around the throat of that asshole who ruined things for them.
I remember seeing 80 MPH speed limit signs when I was a child in the '70s. My Dad says that in Kansas when he was growing up there were several highways that had no speed limit.
I can’t remember where it is, but a few months ago Motor Trend was talking about a government dry lake bed in the west that was open to the public. Not Bonneville. They said just drive off the highway onto it and go as fast as you dare.
We spent some time on the Autobahn last summer. Sometimes we were crawling along, due to construction and in one case an accident. But when things were moving, they were movin’, and we had no problems maintaining 120-130km/h, as fast as our trusty Toyota could take us. Some drivers with newer and more powerful cars were driving considerably faster. It generally worked well; fella bilong missus flodnak drove, and checked the rear-view mirror a little more frequently than usual. If we were in the left lane and saw a car approaching from behind, he pulled into the right lane and the other guy blew past without incident.
Could that be the Black Rock Desert in Nevada? That’s where the recent land speed record trials were run, not Bonneville, which apparently has a decaying surface.
In the DC area, the interstates are all 55, though most people go 65, traffic permitting. About one county away from DC, the limit goes up to 65, with people only going as fast as 70.
Then this summer I flew to Denver. I-70 east of downtown was marked 75 mph. My wife had to keep goading me to speed up, as I only felt comfortable going 65-70.
If you drive around in the deep mountains in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, you sometimes come across signs that say, ‘End of Speed Limit’ Which basically means that noone wants Juridsidiction over that stretch. The problem is on most of those roads you’d need a rally car to go over 50 and stay on the road, so there really is a speed limit, it’s just enforced by the laws of physics.
