had the 8 at 145 tonight
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LOVE FORUM

 

hey pooman,was wondring if you heared any strange noise at around 115 or 120.had mine at 115 today and heared a noise that sounded like paper flaping in the wind.checked the car and found nothing loose or anything and thought it might just be the wind under the car or threw the scoop that leads to the raidator.im not to worried about it,i have 900 miles and no problems to report,just the wiered hi speed noise.

 

I suspect 5th, correct?

 

Someone commented on this. If I recall, he mentioned something about some type of "flappy" plastic up around the front wheel control bar? I hadn't noticed when I reached those speeds myself. Then 'wakeech' mentioned something about it being there possibly to displace airflow (though I doubt it's supposed to flap). Check it out and let us know if I'm in the ballpark or not..

 

i dont recall any strange noises

and yeah, 5th gear

noise coulda been these air deflector things in front of the wheels, they are like 1x1x6ish or so, i think that is what brother voodoo is talking about but im not sure, again, i dont recall hearing any strang sounds
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Extreme Vaporizer

 

If I ownerd an RX-8 I would be here say that the RX-8 is supposed to be taken through twisties and top speed nor straight line acceleration matter, but I don't, so I won't.

Ike

 

I'm glad to see someone got over 130mph - another thread was worrying about top speed being much lower than expected. No doubt you did this on a 'closed course with a professional driver' assisting.

Today on my morning commute to work I got up to 112mph (break-in is officially over)- it was so quiet and drama free I thought I heard a siren in the distance...

 

of course its not about top speed and straight lines, but sometimes its fun to go really really fast!

i too was amazed at how drama-less it was
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VIDEO REVIEWS

 

Driving in the 3 digit speed, turning and braking isn't a pleasant experience! DSC kicked in and scared the hell out of me! Car was pulling left to right. :o Does anyone ever experience braking at high speed and DSC kicked in?

 

weak sauce:p

 

my brother was driving (went some place, he always drives when we go someplace, as a family, decided to take my car..long story)

anyway, dsc was completely off, and when he hit the breaks, and hit them hard to slow down (didnt lock em up or activate the anti-lock, just good hard breaking) and there was no pull whatsoever
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MARY JANE

 

Im sort of wondering if the HP issue was a 1st or even early first allocation problem? Pooman do you think you can go dyno your car ?

 

thanks for the info brothervoodoo,im going to do the first oil change this weekend and take a good long look underneath for this.not to go off topic but is there a good area underneath to jack this thing up in front to get some jackstands under?also i wanted to say that 115 is nothing for this car,i feel poomans 145 topspeed is very abtainable.

 

Would be interesting with data on top speed from those owners who did dyno low.

Still, I can't see how a 204-207whp car with a Cd of 0.31 can reach 145mph. Tailwind? Decline? Overstated Cd? Understated whp?

/Elak

 

I had mine up to 135 MPH in PA last week shortly after break in. It pulls very well up to that speed. I stopped accelerating and slowed down out of fear of going to jail. I have alot of experience cruising at fast speeds (3 years of German autobahn driving) and can tell you the car feels very stable and solid at those speeds, similiar to late model BMW's. I didn't hear any flapping noise, either.

 

Why don't you do anything against those stupid laws that prevent you from driving fast cars adequately fast on highways. I consider it absolutely dangerous to drive a fast and temporary car constantly with low speed of lets say 70 MPH. The first thing that will happen to me under those driving conditions is that I fall asleep. Second is crashing into something while sleeping.

Belief me there is nothing bad or dangerous about cruising on an autobahn with 120 MPH. It is comfortable and safe (Look at Germany). A gouvernement which considers this as a criminal act and puts you to jail for speeding is not worth to be supported IMHO. Off topic though, I know, but it had to be said.

 

It's easy to criticize, but there are some of us who are doing just that already. The fact that there are a lot of laws to be amended doesnt mean it's a bad governemnt BTW. It means it's a young government. Be thankful you dont have to go through the same.

And no, it didnt have to be said.

 

Slow driving puts lives in jeopardize. Laws that require slow driving kill. Is free speech no longer allowed?

 

Rotarota, do you mean kmh? A speed of 70mph isn't all that fast, but 120mph? I doubt that many people would be able to control any car very well at 120 mph. I've only been up to about 125 myself, and that was when I was a very stupid teenager and on a very long, straight road, and I scared the bejeezus out of myself. While I realize the autobahn has no real speed limit, I seriously doubt that many people go 120mph on it. And yes, I have been on it before.

I'd be more inclined to agree with your posts, at least somewhat, if that is indeed what you mean.

 

Tell that to the idiots that run this place .. (UK).

If I see another 'Speed Kills' propoganda campaign, I think i'll "cruise" through Parliament Square at 145mph!


-andy-

 

rotarota,

Not all states have a maximum speed limit. Montana for instance does not. I found that German drivers were far more likely to obey all the traffic laws on the Autobahn. In the states, a day doesn't go by that you don't get passed on the right by some jerk. Well, not in my 8 anymore, but you know what I mean.

Driver skill and courtesy are really the issue here. While I may be capable of driving at 100 mph, the other drivers on the road may not react in the way that I expect. As an example, think back on some of the major autobahn accidents. I would imagine a disproportiate number were caused by American not following the rules! My 2 cents worth.

 

You know what I find funny about that? When I was in the UK a year and a half ago, I thought everyone was driving much slower than I was used to here in the US. Not that that means it was true, it just seemed like that where we were!

 

The average level of driving skill and education in the USA is WAY lower than in Europe, or probably most other rich countries. That has something to do with the silly speed limits here. If 'we' could fix driver education first then things might change in about 20 years...

 

Elara,

You're a little wrong on both the 120mph thing and the autobahn point.

Now, most of the guys I spend time in a car with do have at least some formal racing experience, but I would not doubt for a second that any of them could drive at over 120mph without any difficulty whatsoever provided they have a car capable of doing so comfortably.

Also, I drive on the autobahn several times each year as I drive over to Switzerland. I'll usually cruise at well in advance of 100mph and regularly be only keeping up with traffic and be overtaken by a fair number of cars too.


rx-ache is getting towards the real point that surounds this whole issue. Speed is not the danger, nor is limiting speed the solution the real answer comes somewhere between a combination of good drivers and cars combined with a sensible set of laws regarding public road driving.
What makes the German autobahns safe is not the high (unlimited) speed-limit, but the fact that all the other drivers know they aren't going to be the fastest car on the road, so they make decisions carefully, sometimes you'll find people in speed-limited areas pull out without checking their mirrors just because they assume if they're doing the speed limit no-one will be catching on them, that's incredibly dangerous. I also don't like the US concept of being able to overtake in any lane as it makes checking lanes before manouvering very difficult and if someone is catching from behind quickly you can't just judge which side you need to leave them space on.

So, what we need ultimately is a bunch of cars that can all achieve high speeds and yet still have handling and braking greater than their speed, drivers who are fully capable of using those vehicles and finally, a sensible set of traffic laws which eliminate the other opportunitied for confusion.

 

Slow driving makes you take a little longer to get home. Does not kill. That is a rather stupid thing to say I think.

This was a auto top speed chat, not a politics discussion. If all roads where like the autobahn it might be different, but here in the US it's not the case, nor are all cars/people capable of such high speeds. A lot of people in this country would kill themselves in very short order if they drove over 80MPH. Forgive the US for not having 100% excellent high speed drivers and starting out slowly.

BTW Jon, in the US you can only legally overtake on the left hand, which is our high speed lane. Slow vehicles to the right please. It's sad that a lot of people ignore this and block high speed lanes, forcing others to pass on the right, but it's not suposed to be that way. Now imagine if we aplied Mr. Autobahns ideas without going through the whole slow education process (made much more difficult from the huge amount of imigrants this country has) we would have a rather huge deathtoll in a couple hours. I would love it to be able to legally drive 140MPH on a regular basis, but I have taken the time to get the proper training for it and am trying to help make it a requierment for a license so we might have that one day.