[Mstehle]

The other night I was working on setting the shift points at wide open throttle on my car with a 2004R transmission. The only way I know to do it is make the adjustment then take it out on a back road and test it. This gets fun and at the same time a little intimidating with the 540 at WOT through the gears. As you can figure out with 3.73 gears we hit well into triple digits pretty quickly. With the suspension changes she settles in nicely at higher speeds so there is none of that "light" feeling so that is good.

I was running some figures through this calculator http://www.f-body.org/gears/ and with an easy 6500 redline (the motor is good to 7000) and 3.73 gears and 315/35/17 tires the car will technically do 199 MPH. The fastest I have ever been in any car is about 125-130 and we approached that the other night pretty quickly.

So the long winded question is what happens when you start to get up over 130 or so and would the car actually be able to go 199? I would think things change aerodynamically pretty quickly once you get up there toward 150 or so. Just food for thought as I have no intention of finding out unless I install a cage and put her on the track.

Thanks

 

[depley]

my brother once upon a time had his 68 chevelle up to about 140. At that point the front end started getting light and he felt that any faster he might not have control so he backed off.

 

[bones454]

at those speeds, a bump, dip, pothole, or twitch on the steering wheel could lead to disaster

too much air goes under the car actually starts to lift it off the road, look at the nascars, they try to keep the air from going under it, to make downforce to keep traction and control

 

[OrrieG]

What are the tires rated for. I've seen 140 + in cars not originally designed for that and they usually start to get light and squirley in the front end from air building up under the body. If you have set up the suspension right your could go faster but I'd look at sume aero improvements to move air around the car and get you down loading. theory is 199 but you would probably be drag limited to 160 or so in stock form (guess from reading road tests in car mags, etc.) Someone with more aero engineering than me can probably explain how air resistance is not linear but exponential.

 

[Mstehle]

Tires are BFG G Force Ultra High Performance rated to 186 MPH. :thumbsup:

 

[wills65]

depending on the torque the motor makes and the combination of tire height/rear -gear/transmission overdrive gear, you wouldnt expect to see the car go much past 160-165. Thats not to say that it couldnt possibly go faster. I wouldnt try to go much faster than that unless you have some downforce help. Its true what Sam says, a reflector in the road feels like a damn boulder at 140+. One thing you have going for you as far as high speed stability is weight. Obviously, the heavier you are, the more stable you will be at high speeds. Just my $.02

 

[upstate dave]

Mark - It took 3 attempts from exit 35 to 34A after midnight to find that stretch of the NYS t-Way clear of cars. 4200 rpms, 327/350 horse, 700R4, 3.31 gears. 140 + mph. The hood was bouncin, the steering was light and the car was still pulling. 67 Malibu. I did this once, just to see..................

 

[Dave]

I've been up around 140 in My Friend's old Chevelle.......didn't like it much.:noway:


He'd spent all His money under the hood, and none on suspension.:sad: It just didn't feel right, that's the only way I can describe it.

Now in My Chevelle, with lowering spring's, all new front end part's, and good shock's, at 120, it felt O.K. Still like the crash safety of My new Chevy's though.

 

[Mstehle]

Mark - It took 3 attempts from exit 35 to 34A after midnight to find that stretch of the NYS t-Way clear of cars. 4200 rpms, 327/350 horse, 700R4, 3.31 gears. 140 + mph. The hood was bouncin, the steering was light and the car was still pulling. 67 Malibu. I did this once, just to see..................

Dave. Lee Mulroy Rd in Marcellus is less than a mile from my house. Road is wide, real smooth and very light traffic. My wife was with me and was counting and from a soft launch got to 120 in 10 seconds. :hurray: I didn't need much distance either :thumbsup:.

I've been up around 140 in My Friend's old Chevelle.......didn't like it much.:noway:


He'd spent all His money under the hood, and none on suspension.:sad: It just didn't feel right, that's the only way I can describe it.

Now in My Chevelle, with lowering spring's, all new front end part's, and good shock's, at 120, it felt O.K. Still like the crash safety of My new Chevy's though.

Rear is Currie Correc Trac upper and lower control arms with frame tie ins, Eibach coils, Alston two way adjustable shocks and a Global West Sway Bar. Up front is SC&C Stage 2 Plus with tall ball joints lowering the car by about 1.5", Eibach springs over Alston two way adjustable shocks and a 1" sway bar. All suspension components are new except the front sway bar and the bushings on that are new.

The car was very steady up and through 120 MPH and starting to pull real hard as we were at about 4000 in fourth/OD and climbing rapidly. The engine puts out 685 hp at 6200 rpm and 655 torque at 5400 rpm. Haven't taken it up there yet, doesn't really seem like I need to, but I want to . Rear end is 3.73 and the transmission gears 1-4 are 2.76, 1.57, 1.0, and .67.

 

[68KMENO]

until you FIX the Aero effects & set ride hight , adjust the steering & speed balance the tires ..... most BOXY american cars can't push through the air much past 150 ....

Several of my friends tried for years to get into the 200 mph club running on the salt flats

 

[hybryd67]

Others might think this is a dumb question, but why would you want to go that fast? I've hit 140 when I was much younger, in a car with all motor and no suspension. Its not worth getting hurt, or worse, hurting someone else. Why don't you re-gear the car so that you are doing 140 at 6200? It sounds like your car could hit the high 120's in the 1/4 and do it in a controlled environment if it were geared right. You will have a lot more fun pulling through the gears faster and harder.

 

[Mstehle]

Others might think this is a dumb question, but why would you want to go that fast? I've hit 140 when I was much younger, in a car with all motor and no suspension. Its not worth getting hurt, or worse, hurting someone else. Why don't you re-gear the car so that you are doing 140 at 6200? It sounds like your car could hit the high 120's in the 1/4 and do it in a controlled environment if it were geared right. You will have a lot more fun pulling through the gears faster and harder.

Joel, we just got done building the car and built it to drive on the street so the 3.73 will give better gas mileage on the highway at 73 MPH and 2300 RPM. I am driving it but still tuning too. The motor likes running a little higher and starts to smooth out nicely about 2700 so I am considering going to 4.11 in the rear. There will be a sacrifice on gas mleage though.

As I said in the original post this is food for thought, but haven't we all wanted to "see what she can do"? At some point after more tuning I will probably take it to the track and let 'er rip, after which I will probably get told to leave because there is no roll cage and I expect to go well under 11.49. I am kind of hoping she will run in the lower to mid 10's but maybe not. It hit 120 in 10 seconds from a soft roll on laying down just a few feet of rubber and then full throttle once she hooked.

Mark

 

[upstate dave]

I wanna go for a ride!

 

[Mstehle]

Come on over this weekend. Actually I need to go out to Camaro Specialties in East Aurora (2.5 hours each way) on Saturday wanna go? We'll take the Chevelle.

 

[fabio]

you guys are crazy, I safer on my streetbike then I do on my car at highspeeds.

 

[Mstehle]

I wanna go for a ride!

Dave, are you going to Grand Island in July? I am going out in the morning on Friday the 11th and staying over, but have to come back on Saturday for a family party. Maybe we can convoy out there.

 

[65belair]

As far as speed , it is scary . Ever time I get above 120 I think of a friend in high school . his friend had one of the first '66/67 440/Chargers . They were out on a famous road known for straight aways . He told me later that at about 125mph they hit a bigger tar strip and went airborne . They found him up under the front wheelwell . They both lived .

 

[Harold Sutton]

Several early Camaros run our shootout series and they seem to be fine until they get to about 175 mph, then they start to get real light in the front end, one bounced back up on the wheelie bars as it approached 180 and he backed out of it at the traps and regained control as it decelerated back under 170. My son's Chevelle didn't exibit any wandering at 169 but never got faster than that. I've driven my old '67 Chevelle to about 143 and it was rock solid. My ex wifes '78 T.A. was all over the road at 125 mph and was unnerving. I think how well your front end is alligned determines how well a car tracks at high speeds. The "a" body cars i've been in are much more stable than the "f" bodies beyond 120.

 

[upstate dave]

Mark - I can't make this Saturday, another time hopefully and yes I am going to the NCG show. We are meeting at the Warners Rest Stop on the NYS T-Way 9AM (+-).

Dave

 

[Harold Sutton]

Joel, we just got done building the car and built it to drive on the street so the 3.73 will give better gas mileage on the highway at 73 MPH and 2300 RPM. I am driving it but still tuning too. The motor likes running a little higher and starts to smooth out nicely about 2700 so I am considering going to 4.11 in the rear. There will be a sacrifice on gas mleage though.

As I said in the original post this is food for thought, but haven't we all wanted to "see what she can do"? At some point after more tuning I will probably take it to the track and let 'er rip, after which I will probably get told to leave because there is no roll cage and I expect to go well under 11.49. I am kind of hoping she will run in the lower to mid 10's but maybe not. It hit 120 in 10 seconds from a soft roll on laying down just a few feet of rubber and then full throttle once she hooked.

Mark

If your only running 2300 at 70+ you must have an overdrive or 34" tires. My old Chevelle ran about 3300 at 73 mph. Going 120 in ten seconds will get you about 11 seconds flat, maybe very high tens.