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?
About 130mph in a Huracan on track during an Xtreme Xperience. Otherwise 119 as a passenger in a Focus RS. which was terrifying. I don’t do over 100mph on public roads as a driver ever on principle, also because I live in one of if not the worst state for speeding in the US, and jail isn’t worth it.
Sounds like Virginia, from what I’ve heard.
Unfortunately you are correct. Gorgeous state (at least the part not near DC, that’s a suburban hellscape) with some absolutely excellent roads, but the most asinine speeding laws and outright ban on Radar detectors makes it a anxiety inducing to have fun even without speeding. This is also why I love Miata as much as I do, a lot harder to get to illegal speeds, and the roads are all twisty anyways!
I forget which auto news site/journalist had their story of a weekend jail stay because of speeding in Virginia. Absolutely nuts.
That was Patrick George! Found the article at the old site from a decade ago, but yep, it’s still a pretty accurate account of how that works here.
That is why you go to West Virginia for driving fun! (NC or TN, depending on location)
Thankfully there are enough good roads nearby me that are secluded enough and high enough speed limit I don’t know of anyone who has had issues, but there are certainly parts of the state where that isn’t the case.
225km/h on the speedo on the Autobahn in my godparents’ rock steady Volkswagen Golf VR6 when I was about 20, in 1998 IIRC. They were with me in the car and told me to floor it.
I had my 1987 Peugeot 505 Turbo S up to an indicated 130mph on I-25 south of Denver; that felt a lot faster, especially when I came across icy patches at the underpasses. Not wise!
Those German cars and their Autobahn-bred manners… I once had a 95bhp diesel Fabia up to 160km/h or so and the car remained thoroughly calm.
Cool, I hit the rev limiter in my dads 97 GTI VR6 at 210. It was a north American Car so maybe it was a lower limit.
Yeah, German-market cars typically have stratospheric gearing whereas US market models have quartermile gearing. According to the internet, a European VR6′ top speed is 224 km/h, but I am sure the speedo was off by the usual 5-10%.
160mph – Dodge Viper @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway main straight
Notably slower but still moving for the vehicle 106mph – 1st Gen Honda Insight
~125-130 on hwy 447(Nevada) in my FiST. Pretty narrow two lane highway that isn’t the smoothest surface… it was stupid, but it happened.
Around 110mph in a Jag XJR, on a long, flat, tree-less road in the middle of nowhere. After about 100mph, the car’s “aerodynamics” strongly suggested we slow down a bit.
Back when I was young and STUPID I drove from Oakland CA to Las Vegas. Its a boring, flat drive. There was some lady in a Jaguar on my ass and as I was bored I wanted to see just how fast I needed to go before she backed off. I got up to 110. At least that is what the maximum on the speedometer so it might have been more. And this was in the small, 4-banger pizza delivery model Tacoma. By the time I got to that speed it felt like the front was about to lift off the ground. That was VERY dumb.
I stretched the legs of my Ninja 500 to slightly over 100mph. It was then I realized I prefer to be a slow rider. I will be topping that number this summer when I go to do a Stock Car Driving experience
110 in my Sonic on a 2-lane country highway in rural NC… In Assetto Corsa
I love the open world tracks, its like flight sim but with cars
Same here, although my reference to the game was for legal reasons 😉
Recall a run in college on I90 between Erie and Cleveland at an indicated 110 in an ’88 Buick Regal.
175+ x 2 130+ ± 50 x =
forgot to say. 350Z, Various Mustangs, and Camaros. Talon TSI, Audi S4 and many other cars.
I can tell you that above a certain speed, the aero on the Z4 gets funny and circulates strongly into the footwells, enough to lift and circulate a compact disc from flat on the floor. (It was a burned CD, I would never do that to an actual disc.)
111 at the dragstrip in my S5. Unfortunately that’s about as fast as I’m gonna go where I live. The only nearby circuit is one of those rich people deals where you need to buy a $300k garage in order to use the track.
~190km/h (120mph) in a 1995 Altima on highway 652 north of Timmins. Used to regularly speed run the 120km between the start of pavement and the first real road in the area in 50-55 minutes.
Seeing the other responses I’m clearly an amateur at this.
This man invented Big Altima Energy.
148mph in an old 4th gen F-body bracket car back in the 90s. The car would consistently run 11.0 @ 130mph, which was great for a bracket car, but with some experimenting it could pick up an additional 5-8mph by the end of the 1/4 mile, albeit very inconsistently. One of the runs I tripped 138mph at the quarter and decided to hold it a bit more before deceleration, hitting 148mph. I was then reminded by the track crew that I need to let off after the 1/4 or get off their property.
I’ve always said 142 mph because I like that number but I was paying more attention to the road and only had a second to glance at the speedo so it was some number just north of 140 in my ’91 Eagle Talon AWD on the freeway in front of my house sometime around 2 or 3AM. I would never do something like this today on an open road and admit I was a stupid kid, does this mean I’m growing up?
126 in a 2003 VW Golf on my way to college one morning. That one I could verify with a speedometer. I am confident I went faster in an ‘88 C1500 but because the speedometer topped out at 80, I’m not sure. All I know is it had rolled back around to 45.
I once did 30mph in a friend’s warehouse. I used my 535i and the trick was to stop before falling off the loading dock.
I’ve did 140mph on my ZX7R once, I’d fitted a new taller screen and the wind blast felt like I was doing 90, then I checked the speedo…
I used to vmax all my cars until I got actual fast cars. The risk isn’t worth the thrill. Even in Germany where it was legal I never felt entirely happy over 120.
I used to do that too. But haven’t done it with my current car. Maybe getting old? ????
I’m not falling for this one. It was 66 in a 65. Nice try, Officer Streeter! 😛
Hypothetically speaking if I had had a long stretch of road in the middle of the night and my friend was in another car next to me I’m sure I could have gone faster than the speed limit and it would have probably been triple digit speeds… Hypothetically speaking of course.
Seriously. Reminds me of late ‘05 when I got pulled over in a Lancer Evo 8 MR.
”SON! Do you know how fast you were going?!”
Honestly, I don’t. … do you?
”……………. <exasperated sigh> No.”
He didn’t ask me what gear I was in at what rpm. I knew that!
I’ve never taken a car past 105 or whatever the shutoff was in my Cavalier back when I was 18.
My ex-wife’s cousin once took me for a ride in his Merciolago and I think I saw 141 on the speedo.
HAHAHAHAHAHA, I did the same in my Cavalier. I know it was close to that speed, I thought it was 114 though. You could be right.
138 in the 1/4 mile in a Nova verifed with a time slip. Well over 140 but unknown on a closed private road in Mexico in a wrx swapped 93 Impreza. The speedo only went to 140 and it stayed there for a long time after letting off. I think the car was capable of at least 160.
~150 mph on the back straight at Gingerman in the Viper.
Any rumors of my previously going a similar speed on I80/90 in a GT500 are just rumors.
Give or take 170 mph, in a G8 GXP. I miss that car sooooo much. But I probably would have been jailed by now if I kept it. Haha
Around 115 mph in a Daihatsu Charade GTti. Not much on paper but felt way faster behind the wheel.
I got pulled over doing 102mph in my 1987 Chevrolet Turbo Sprint (first gen Suzuki Swift) in Colorado and the cop gave me the option of leaving with a warning or going to jail right now. I thought it was a rhetorical question and didn’t say a word; cop said “well which one is it?!”. I opted to leave.
I was over 120 mph in my 1-series on the highway after I found out that my grandpa had passed away. My dad called me when I was at work and I left right away and in my head space needed to get there as fast as possible. I looked down at one point when on I-275 and saw the needle was beyond 120 and I then slowed down under 100.
1970 Road Runner. In 1974. 147mph, according to the Colorado State Trooper.