Incidentally, for those who are justly concerned about doing this on public roads, please remember that customs are not the same everywhere. Some of the people in the background of my shot are the police. They used to close off streets for us to hold our races. That was not unheard of in some jurisdictions of the U.S. in those days, before the feds began to compel national laws for every state. And I believe it still happens in other countries. Some hate cars, or at least intensely dislike them, like Switzerland. Others still love them as we did in the fifties in the U.S.

Mind you, my MG never got over 150 kph that I remember, but it's all relative. It probably had a corresponding one fourth the braking power of a Carrera as well.

 

This is very interesting as i remember when the speed limit laws were changed . I was a child myself at the time .

I never really thought about the history of speed limits so I looked it up . I don't know how accurate this is but found it interesting. According to this at one period of history two states had no upper limits .
http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/speedlimits1.htm

 

I haven't visited that site because I have my memory. That was indeed the case. Two states explicitly had no state speed limit, and quite a few western states had very flexible interpretations to go with scant enforcement.

I can't be sure, but I think the first oil crisis back in the early seventies was the first time an attempt was made at a national speed limit. They knew they couldn't get it through the federal courts, speeders being no business of the federal government according to the constitution, so they tried an end run. I don't mean to argue the politics of either party you understand. This is a popular technique for both parties: provide lots of federal support in a category and then require states accepting that support to pass "model laws" -- ostensibly to show the money will be used 'properly'. But in fact, the model laws are written to invoke the beliefs of whichever party is pulling the maneuver.

Anyway, the technique was used. Double nickel was the law of the land. Sorta. Nevada and.. I want to say Utah was the other state without limits. They were both very aggrieved at the meddling. At the time, Nevada had speed limits within urban areas and in certain other areas where it was deemed likely that people might be endangered without first being "damned fools" in the thinking of our day. Everywhere else in the state, speed was not itself a ticketable offense. Reckless driving certainly, but the silly notion that speed itself was dangerous had not been accepted widely.

Coerced, Nevada duly passed a speed law. Previous fines to continue as determined by local jurisdiction or special state areas for the reasons above. Everywhere else in the state, anyone caught going over 55 mph was fined ten dollars. Mailed payments accepted. They had no such things as 'points' to be added to a license. They either took your license for a serious offense or they forgot about it when you paid your fine. That was already true, and when combined with the ten dollar fine, it amounted to thumbing their nose at the feds.

This mightily pissed the blue speedometer types that had pushed for the law, and rather annoyed the feds as well. The bureaucrats that is. Nobody likes to have their power flaunted, even if they know they had to sneak around the house to get a power they aren't supposed to have. So they jawboned and hollered and threatened to withhold federal funds (and Nevada threatened to take them to federal court) until it was agreed. Anyone caught going over the national speed limit in Nevada would be scolded harshly and required to pay a fine proportional to the speed. Or some such statement. Nevada had caved. Almost.

Nevada quietly avoided mentioning that they sent highway patrol cars down the major highways only once a day, and down the lesser highways only once a month. Just often enough to collect the dessicated bodies in the latter case. So who the hell was going to catch these wild-eyed speeders? This isn't Connecticut or France or any of those compact jurisdictions. The West is bloody damn big and the desert tends to take its own toll on fools.

Like our own area here in the Mojave, "damned fools" in Nevada often found desert travel to be an easy way to meet their fate, since many cars still could not manage a long grade in temps like ours and almost no car keeps driving when the gas tank is empty. Getting out of the car to walk for gas or water is equally deadly. We still have people die of exposure, though it takes a 'broken' gas gauge to cause that these days when most cars have cooling systems to handle our heat. (Up to 120F in our high desert, and up to 135F in the lower regions inland with less wind. Call it 49C to 55C most of the time.) So Nevada remained a place to go try the top end of your car. With or without police help to shut off the roads.

I remember a famous (or notorious depending on your opinion) race up a rarely traveled road in Nevada. More of a time trial really. One car at a time, one mile separation, or something like that. At 150 and up. Damn fools who never took a skid pad course, let alone acquired a race license, would take their new Ferrari F-umpty-ump to be timed. Now you need to know (and they should have) that what looks like a straight road or a gently curved one on a map is never that way in the desert. You see, the dry watercourses cause those roads to go up and down like a roller coaster at moderate speeds like 75 or so. Hit one of those old watercourse sections at 150 mph and the road goes down but your car keeps going up. For a while.

Car & Driver used to report such things, with shameful glee. One beautiful Ferrari, whose owner had let them test drive it a few months previously, managed to go airborne for some incredible distance. They wrote it all up for the next issue. With pictures.

Times change. Customs change from country to country.

And with no sly grin and no tongue in cheek, let me honestly say I look like a little old lady most of the time to bystanders in other cars. Too many damn fools out there competing to be killed. The only time I act myself is when our desert provides an empty road. Much more fun to be in my car on cruise control remembering the occasional empty road than to be in jail waiting to explain to a judge how "110 is really quite safe on that piece of road for anyone in a Porsche, your honor. You should see the size of my disk brakes."

 

143 mph

 

148 @ Auto Club Speedway on the roval. But I have more fun trying to get my corner exit speeds up rather than going fast in a straight line. Which IMO is not as rewarding.

 

168 mph, so far, i probably could have went faster, but ran out of road....

 

I dont drive fast, I fly flow...

 

I managed 185mph (indicated) on an Autobahn with a .1 C2S. Probably less than indicated in reality.

 

170mph rt 80 west

 

About 10 years ago, a coworker was a victim of a high-speed rear end collision.

If you want to push your car for top speed bragging rights...do it at a track. Stupid doesn't even begin to describe you if you did this on a public road in the USA.

Many innocent drivers in this country lack basic awareness.......but that is no reason to endager them. (especially when it comes knowing what to do when an idiot with a Carrera is closing in at 140mph+.)

 

BTW - 172 at an airport in Texas.