Does it get any better?
Discussion
Do this stuff in France/Germany - the roads are far better, just slow down again for the toll.
I've owned my Chimaera 4.0L for over 3 years and have yet to max it out ... I did 155 on the A16 (France) once - I never keep my foot to the floor for long enough to really see if that's the max - guess it's not. My door seals start jibbering at 140ish though.
All Kmh of course occifer.
Don't forget, your car will be much faster with the roof up.
It was very close to hitting the rev limiter - I had a quick glance down and then braked quickly! I would imagine the speedo is pretty inaccurate at that speed, but it felt like it would go faster. It was all a bit silly really as I was overtaking at nearly 80mph more than the (light) traffic. Never again. (A14 near Ashwell BTW). Interestingly, a friend also had a 4.0L and mine was noticably faster, maybe mine had loosened up a bit more.
Well, how about this then;
1996 Griff 500, Belgium A-road just outside Brussels, 2am, ROOF OFF, very scared passenger, chasing sports bike ... 5200rpm, 5th gear, indicated 178mph on the speedo!
Still had some go left too!! I know that the speedo isn't accurate at that speed but the bike was registering 170+ too (he was completely flat out, 600cc Yamaha something or other).
Seemed like a good idea at the time. Seemed very, very silly afterwards!! His neighbours could hear us from their house which is 2km from the A-road!!
Thought I'd go for a blast along the same road yesterday evening. No traffic. Hit 130 indicated, top off, still pulling like an rhino with a wasp up its nostril. Then I realised the Volvo I was about to blast past had a nice yellow and blue checkered boot. Gave the Griff's anchors a good workout and burbled past plod at 69.9mph. Oh how they must have laughed!
Jarret
Someone who knows more about it than I do will hopefully point out my mistakes, but I figure 5200 rpm in a Griff 500 in 5th is about 147mph:
engine speed = 5200 revs per minute
5th gear ratio = 0.73:1, diff ratio 3.31:1 (from handbook) so the wheels are spinning at 2152 times a minute.
assuming 23" diameter wheels (16" rims plus some for the tyre), means the wheel is covering about six feet with each revolution. So its covering six times 2152 feet per minute which is about 147 mph. I think.
Cheers!
Rich... Thanks for the figures guys. If you give the speedo a +/-10% accuracy then this seems to tie in quite nicely.
Plenty fast enough for me! Amazing thing is that the car was handling fine this close to the limit. No instability and the brakes coped fine with having to slow me down for the off ramp!!
Does anyone know the rev limit for a 4.5 Chimaera (S reg if that makes a difference)? I usually change up at just past 4200 since it seems to "top out" & I am s**t scared of breaking it (only had it a few months in my defence)
Have had it up to 120 so far but do not remember the rev reading as everything seemed to be happening very quickly.
Two things on this thread, firstly regards the roof up comment someone made earlier......I used to own a convertible Vauxhall Cavalier and although the drag factors will be considerably different between the cavalier and my tiv, with the roof up on the Cavalier going down hill and with a following wind and my foot to the boards etc. she would just reach 130 mph. However when the top was down I could not get her over 100 mph, huge drag!
Re the tiv, I've got a 400se and I did 140 mph on the M180 last summer with the top down and there seemed to be plenty still left.
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