Friday, March 23, 2012
Your Turn
The fastest you have ever driven. The fastest you have ever been a passenger in a car? Either one. I once went about 120mph as a driver. I don't think I have ever been a passenger in a car that went faster. Maybe. My dad really liked his booze and one night when I was really young it was getting towards cut off time and the closest place was about five miles away because we were on vacation. He might have gone faster.
127 mph in a borrowed BMW. i needed to get to the waffle house, STAT.
ReplyDelete250 km/h on the autobahn outside of Frankfurt (as a passenger). I think that's ~155 mph? We weren't the fastest on the road, either.
ReplyDeleteMy brother used to drive race cars. When I bought a new Monte Carlo a few years back, I told him that I was driving, looked down at the speedometer, saw 106 and backed off. He asked why, and I said: "I got scared." He laughed. Later that day, my son came home(he'd been driving my car)and someone asked him how fast the car goes. He replied: "At least 120."
ReplyDeleteIt is the best driving car I've ever owned.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy father took me and my brother to the movies but there were only about ten minutes to go before the film started 14 miles away. Sooooo, Daddy stepped on the gas and drove at 110 miles an hour in his battered old Rover. Me and bro were too shocked to scream, especially as we kept seeing the 50 miles an hour road signs. I swear i was nearly bald by the time he parked the car. But we were there in time for lights down! We never told our mother.
ReplyDeletei drove my 112 MPH in my Mini Cooper on an expressway in Chicago. It was very late, so there weren't many cars on the road. It's a VERY different type of driving. One little mistake and you're toast.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know exactly how fast it was, but I know it was heading away from a theatre showing 'Twilight'.
ReplyDelete100 on a highway in Indiana... because I wanted to get through Indiana. A state trooper nipped that in the bud.
ReplyDelete180 down some back country road north of Toronto. Gravel road too. I was pretty scared.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who race. Have been a passenger going 160 on I-5. LOVE that feeling!
ReplyDelete^Have been on the autobahn, too, but don't remember how fast we were going.
Over 100 in a Renault Encore on the Florida Turnpike just because we wanted to see how fast we could get it to.
ReplyDeleteGot popped moments later at 70 when slowing down from that experiment.
Always thanked my lucky stars they didn't catch me 5 minutes earlier.
120 in my first car at 16, I got it up in the high teens/low 20's a few times just to see what my car would top out at. I live out in the country and there is only one road that is paved - but a nice, long stretch so it is often used as a drag strip. Only road I would attempt that on, because it took about half of that distance to slow the car down
ReplyDeleteOver 100 mph during a ride-along with a cop when cops first got those "stealth road-rage" cars. I don't know exactly how fast because I was starting to hyperventilate and closed my eyes! This was on a city street, too.
ReplyDelete140 kph in an '87 Pontiac Sunbird, down a twisty city street at 2:00 am with a car full of friends. We were 18, 19 at the time. We were gathering speed to jump the car over a hump at the bottom of a hill. We hit the hump and got airborne. It scared the shit out of me.
ReplyDeleteIt was a hell of a lot of fun, though! It was also when my brother told me I was a good driver. Very high praise.
My ex went 150km/h I was cowering in the passenger seat with my eyes sealed shut. I don't think I talked to him for the rest of the drive.
ReplyDelete95mph in a Hyundai back in the late '80s. Yes, it WAS possible
ReplyDelete165 mph on I-95 in Ct in an RS6. I didn't even know I was going that fast until my husband was like whoa 165 and I bugged out and let off the gas real fast
ReplyDelete250 km/h I think that's 155 mph. I'm a petrol head. I drive that fast quite regularly.
ReplyDeleteA bunch of us were driving to visit some friends up north late late one friday night. We all fell asleep (I can remember feeling wide awake while everyone else was sleeping)at some point. I woke up seconds before slamming head on into a concrete curb. The needle was buried so I don't know how fast I was going, but there were 4 of us in that car and we still talk about how lucky we were to this day.
ReplyDeletenone of my cars ever went faster then 80-5. :(
ReplyDeletemy buddy bought a Lambo Murcielago and picked me up one summer night, we drove out towards the illinois/wisconsin border where he stopped the car and got out, he told me to drive us back as fast as possible. Down some country road I got the car to 170mph. It was insane with corn on both sides of us for as far as we could see, he wasn't even looking! he was playing with the radio and sitting casually like we were in everyday traffic. Later that year I bettered that on my Suzuki Hayabusa. During a road trip and after extensive motor mods and lowering the bike, we were on a lonely stretch of highway and literally not a car in front of us or behind us. I ducked down and rolled the throttle open, a quick glance down and I saw the needle push past the 185mph mark and then I saw the sign showing my exit was 1 mile away, i let off the throttle and within seconds i blew past my exit ramp lol. Its odd that I feel more comfortable doing that on a bike but I grew up on them. Later on I pushed an aston martin vanquish much harder than that Lambo but I ran out of room at 165mph. Ironically my favorite car to drive fast was this E55 AMG that was tuned to push 617hp. It was such a sleeper, you see this respectable 4 door mercedes and then it devastates a corvette with 3 passengers in the car! good times =)
ReplyDeleteI don't like to drive too fast. I am an extremely law-abiding driver (unless there's a bag of cheetos in the passenger seat).
ReplyDeleteMy husband got my Sunfire up to 140km/h though. I was terrified.
120 in a 1956 Chevy. I was very young and didn't know about death.
ReplyDeleteI was on a 1st date with some a-hole that was going 95 MPH on the West Side Highway in Manhattan late at night(super dangerous). I begged him to slow down and he wouldn't....he thought it was funny that I was freaking out.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say...he didn't get a 2nd date, but yet he was confused as to why I wouldn't see him again.
The very nice Michigan State police officer said the radar was telling him 147mph. I explained that the speedo said 151. He then began to laugh and told me to get the hell out of there.
ReplyDelete180 mph on the autobahn in germany!! but that's not so unusual there... i wasn't driving, my coworker was, and we only hit that speed for a few minutes (then i made him slow down :)
ReplyDeleteI can relate to Enty's Dad race to beat last call. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI was in a car drag racing on the freeway in San Diego and I'm sure we were going 100+, but for some reason my vision was a little blurry that night. :)
A friend told the story of he and his wife in their his/her Porsches racing down the I-10 Freeway outside of Palm Springs. Highway Patrol gave BOTH tickets, he was 120 mph and she was 105 mph so he claimed the victory.
125 mph in an older Honda Accord (yes really). I was driving from Spokane, WA to Seattle, WA in the middle of summer, trying to get to the airport on time so my boyfriend at the time wouldn't miss his flight. Didn't realize I was going so fast until I looked down, then I backed off a bit. I passed a cop going the other way, but thank god there was no way for him to change directions at that point in the highway otherwise I would have been toast.
ReplyDeleteI drove 130 mph on the autobahn in Germany in a really cheap rental car. But in reading the above, I see I wasn't brave at all :( .
ReplyDeleteLate for work, hit 120 in a 95 5.0
ReplyDeleteMissed a meeting with the boss, hit 110 in a 05 Ford 500
Lastly when my father passed, not giving two shits about anything I did 110 (avg at times a lot faster) from WPB to Miami (2 hr trip done in 45 mins) in an 05 Mustang
130 on average on the Autobahn in a BMW and I was the slow one that cars kept overtaking...I got used to it eventually.
ReplyDeleteIn 1972, my college buddy and I went home to Massachusetts to run the "get out the vote" operations for some state senate candidates in the final week. Both won. The night after the election, we drove back to Washington in his car. A new Oldsmobile 442. Glorious car. we left at 11 PM.
ReplyDeleteAfter dozing the first few hours, we switched places in southern NJ. And handed me the keys. Maryland's highway system was in great shape then. A clear, cool night.
While my friend slept, I pushed past 90. The car groaned slightly and then got a second wind. As it hit the mid-120s, it felt like a thoroughbred.
We were in DC shortly about 4:30. My friend rolled over and mumbled, "where are we?" When I said, Alexandria, he asked what time it was. I responded.
Then he yelled. I didn't tell him how fast until last year.
I have a led foot but not like that. Total wuss & haven't driven over 110 TOPS. I have been with others that liked to drive really, really (140 mph +) fast & hated it. My stomach drops.
ReplyDelete@Audrey .. it was the Stevenson? That thing is so long and straight .. many a late night in high school were spent making speed runs from La Grange Road to First Avenue for me! LOL!!
ReplyDeleteBut .. as a passenger .. on aforementioned stretch of road .. boyfriends 1979 Camero Berlinetta .. last time I looked we were above 115 and heading higher. No idea how fast we went but the speedo in that thing went to 130.
As a driver .. I will never tell - mostly because I don't know! I will simply say that I buried the needle at 125 on the speedo of my 1991 Nissan Maxima on the Stevenson in 1994 and she felt like she wanted to keep going. I chickened out - however! LOL!
Great car .. miss her like I miss a lost body part of mine.
I was a passenger in a Lamborghini Diablo that went 160mph...that's the fastest I've ever gone in a car....I don't drive my Miata over 80, even tho the speedometer goes up to 140mph....Texas drivers be crazy....
ReplyDeleteBack when I was a reporter and before he was Dale Earnhardt, Inc., I was driven around the Michigan International Speedway by Dale Earnhardt in Dick Trickle's show car at 180. We had to sign waivers but it was the coolest thing ever. It wasn't until a few years later when Earnhardt started winning everything that I realized what an opportunity I had had.
ReplyDeleteDriven myself? 120 mph in my brother's Corvette. None of my cars have ever gone that fast.
110 or so in a '72 (?) Dodge Demon with a "straight six", whatever the hell that was. Or was it called a "slant six"? I dunno. It's some kinda motor thingy. I wound up wrecking it while trying to speed through a red light on Halloween...
ReplyDeleteI went 102 on I-65 between Mobile and Montgomery, December 29, 1999, on the first leg home from Christmas in Pensacola.
ReplyDeleteI had been going about 80 in a 70 zone and kept being passed like I was standing still. My Intrepid was still pretty new, so I told my son, then nine, that I was going to see how fast those other people were going. It was 100 before I was able to keep up, but then I decided that, Delaware tags and distinctive nose, I didn't want to get stopped by the police (or have my future ex-wife find out), so I slowed down.
Shit, as a passenger, 190 kph (114 mph) in an Audi cab during a Friday rush hour in suburban Munich.
ReplyDeleteMy traveling partner's wife had recently had twins and they had another infant, and he had a babysitter lined up for the night back home in London, and he wanted to get the 5:20 flight. We left at 4:27, it was 35 miles. He offered the cabbie 150 Euro, twice the going rate, if he made the airport by 5. We ended up getting there at 5:05, but my companion made his 5:20 plane and had his date. I think he gave the cabbie $125 Euro, and he gave me a story.
By the time I was back in the U.S. on Tuesday, everyone in the office knew the story, mainly of my being terrified. Neither of us is with the company anymore, but I'm sure he still tells the story. I know I do.
Not sure, the needle pinned at 135...
ReplyDelete110 mph in my little Volkswagen in Ohio back in the '80s. I wanted to see how fast it would go.
ReplyDelete119 in an Accord, racing a friend home from high school. We went to school 20 miles from where we lived, and to this day I can't believe how lucky we were that we didn't pass a cop, and that nothing happened, so we got home safe. Our parents would've KILLED us if they knew. Stupid youth...but it was fun, I admit :) Never again, though.
ReplyDeleteNever driven (unless you count either a moped or a pedal cycle, in both cases the fastest is about 30 mph).
ReplyDeleteAs a passenger, I don't think I've ever reached 100 mph, been in the 90s a few times though. My ex girlfriend drives like a maniac (intentionally overtaking people in sports cars who are doing the limit, while driving a Skoda, just to prove a point for example), but the most memorable was coming back from where I'd been doing some work. The guy driving was doing about 95, but someone overtook us who must having been pushing 120 given how he pulled away.
Another time I was with my brother and his friend, and we were doing about 90 in an old Fiesta that felt like it would fall apart.
My BMW's speedometer only went up to 140mph and I berried it on the 405 at 2:00am one morning back when I lived in LA. So I was doing at least 170+. I have a need for speed and have been very lucky not to have gotten a speeding ticket in years.
ReplyDeleteFunny story, I received my first speeding ticket in the exact same place my mother did many, many years earlier. I was 19 at the time and she was just about the same age. It was right in front of the Dog Track in Hinsdale, NH. We both lived in Massachusetts at the time.
Driving back from the airport on I-94, I did around 140mph in my Acura all the way to Grosse Pointe. Didn't see another car the whole way. It was very odd.
120? 130? I was about 16 in a Honda on a country road.
ReplyDeleteAbout the same as a passenger in two different friend's cars. I'm a total scaredy cat now and freak when someone drives above 80.
I LOVE to drive fast! I LOVE going fast!
ReplyDeleteFaster ever was probably two-up on a motorcycle. I don't know how fast because I was on back but well over 100mph. I have been known to fall asleep back there too, esp long trips (been all over the USA by motorcycle!) I'd get an arm in the ribs whenever I started to slide off. It's relaxing back there!
I drive an old Saab 95 Aero. She is happiest over 90mph, but I rarely get to drive her that fast because I live in slow land where the locals give you the side eye if you go faster than 55 on the freeway. I always go as fast as possible weather permitting.
Since most generic American cars are shit, I can understand why people would be afraid to go fast. Once you drive a real car you'll never go back.
PS - Also addicted to BBC Top Gear! Best show ever!!!
I LOVE to drive fast! I LOVE going fast!
ReplyDeleteFaster ever was probably two-up on a motorcycle. I don't know how fast because I was on back but well over 100mph. I have been known to fall asleep back there too, esp long trips (been all over the USA by motorcycle!) I'd get an arm in the ribs whenever I started to slide off. It's relaxing back there!
I drive an old Saab 95 Aero. She is happiest over 90mph, but I rarely get to drive her that fast because I live in slow land where the locals give you the side eye if you go faster than 55 on the freeway. I always go as fast as possible weather permitting.
Since most generic American cars are shit, I can understand why people would be afraid to go fast. Once you drive a real car you'll never go back.
PS - Also addicted to BBC Top Gear! Best show ever!!!
I once drove 120. Not the whole time, but I was averaging at least 90 on a 50mph road. That night I went from the beach to my mom's house, back to the beach and then back to my mom's house in one night. Usually a 30-45 min drive, but I made it in 20. My mom was pissed because I had to pack for college, but I was too busy spending time with my British boyfriend at the time. Guys with accents, swoooon.
ReplyDelete