Grimsby to Sandy in under 2 hours...

SL7 3LZ to BB4 9LQ in 1 hr 54 mins, very early morning, xmas day

2003..

Mike P

*Average* of 107 mph? Fuxxake.

Indeed. Won't be something I'll be trying again in a hurry. Saab 900 Turbo, tweaked APC, very, very little traffic. Some sections of the M40 were off-the-clock fast. There are only 5 miles of the entire journey that aren't motorway.

Was gonna say got to be a Saab, for a "new" car back in the day that could average 107 would be very pricey, but any old 900 turbo that was in moderate mechanical fettle would do it pretty easy.

On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:23:16 +0100, Elder yelled loudly:

Aye, it had one of Mr Faulks APCs on it as well. It'd cruise at 125 easily. The air got under it at much over 130 and made it feel really skittish at the front end. First time I drove it with the Faulks stuff on, I had to lift off and brake a bit for an uphill bend I'd previously gone round with the throttle nailed to the floor in 4th.

I *really* want another. The decent looking ones on the bay are silly money - there's a 1993 Auto on for £8995 FFS!! Looks like the days of the £800 worn round the edges ones are gone..

Mike P

Mike P gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

No, but you do need to look a bit harder. There's been several cheap LPTs about UKSaabs lately. Add an APC & intercooler, and it's an FPT.

Mind you, my black 3dr FPT only stood me £500 a couple of years ago...

On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:55:45 +0000, Adrian yelled loudly:

I still have all the bits in my bro's garage to convert an LPT to an FPT, interesting idea. I shall have to keep looking.

Mike P

Remember, my 1984 T16 was =A3300 and passed the mot with a handbrake=20 adjustment each year I had it. It still comes up every now and again,=20 but looking a bit rougher each time.

I wish I had found the oil leak arround the oil cooler before I had=20 agreed to sell it. That titsed me off no end, knowing a guy had come all=20 the way from Carlisle to buy it blind, and I didn't find the leak until=20 I was giving it a proper wash and wax.=20

3 garages looked at the car to try and find the leak, and it never=20 showed itself. It was gradual, and only happened when the engine was=20 running, and the oil coating was blowing off the cooler and directly=20 over the chassis rail/engine/trans mount.=20

The same engine/transmount which would have been rotted by years of hot=20 oil spray, and would most likely of been the cause of it popping out of=20

1/2 sometimes when booted, but normally when the steering was turned a=20 bit either way, hardly never in a straight line, so not the usual=20 gearbox wear, but the whole engine/box moving until pressure when moved=20 the box enough to pull it out of gear with a bang.

Now that was a quick car.

--=20 Carl Robson Get cashback on your purchases Topcashback

Newmarket to Warrington in something I'm not actually going to type here. In a Volvo 760 GLE. Very naughty. 60 litres of fuel used.

Wigan's King Street to near Alder Hey Hospital in 9 minutes. (16 mile). Without using any motorway...

Portmeirion to Liverpool in under 55 minutes (90+) miles.

2003 is 'back in the day'? Christ, I must be old. Pretty sure there have been 2.5l+ engined bangers around for longer than that, mind.

Guildford to Teesside, three hours

Yeah, but what sort of speed would you need to peak at, even on clear roads to average 107.

And what sort of car would you have needed? Roller maybe, bigger engined Merc or BMW? Larger engined Audi? Or possibly a large Rover?

On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:32:52 +0100, Abo yelled loudly:

That's good progress

I've done Northolt to Scotch Corner in a Berlingo van in 3 hours once. That was noisy and unpleasant.

Mike P

Not bad, it was on a Sunday and I was in a white Pug 405. Stayed in the outside lane and flashed my lights in a regular pattern. Factor in the speed I was going and it was amazing how many people moved out of the way.

When I got about an hour away from Teesside the fuel situation was looking dubious so I slowed down to 85 so I wouldn't have to stop...

I bet!

Anlaby to Gatwick. 2hr 15.

To be honest, any bmw, merc, VW, volvo, saab, opel. Any car that sells well in Germany will sit at its Vmax from tank to tank. I've drained the tank (170 miles, 140mph) in a Rover 75. Germans have a word for it, but that's one of the tests, full speed for full time.

If we ever lose the unrestricted autobahns completely it'll be a bad day for mainstream car engineering - even 2.2 Vectras were good for a 130-140 cruise across europe.

The volvo was sublime though. Chipped and delimited it would cruise at 160 and still return 16 mpg.

You need a route that dumps you onto a motorway, and ends just off.

Back in the late 90s and early 00s the business I worked for had a client site on Edge Lane Liverpool, off the end of the motorway. It was seriously frowned upon but was always seen as the quiet challenge to get back to the humber bridge (120 miles) in 1hr. It was done in the following cars: Vectra

2.2, Volvo V70 2.4 170bhp, Audi TT 225bhp, Rover 75 2.0V6, Volvo S60 2.0T, Mitsubishi Galant V6. During that time there were a lot of close shaves and a few tickets for upper 90s... (oops sorry officer) and one for 130 (double oops, sorry mister magistrate). None of this was my doing.

There's anecdotal evidence that one of the directors of said company having come back from a meeting on Man did liverpool docks to the bridge in 1hr.

Strange how now it seems irresponsible and I can't remember last time I was in a car at over 140 mph...

Did a run over the a place on the leicestershire/notts border for the porsche trackday.

Had a pretty clear run from my brothers place, A500/A50/NSL back roads. managed a few spots of 90 when not being slowed by heavy rain or saturday spods, but rarely dropped below 80 on the duals.

Did the calculations for about 2 months of reciepts, and that day, I got the best mpg ever owning it by 5mpg, returning 37mpg. So an IS200 gives it's best mpg when being at a steady cruise at between 70 and 90.

That is almost as good as the 38 I got out of the Octavia, but that was obeying every speedlimit and driving it like a nun because I was out of work and couldn't afford the fuel but needed to visit my mother in hospital 50 miles away.

On an infinitely long clear motorway, just over 107. More realistically probably a smidge over 120 for that sort of distance.

Nothing exotic - a 1.8 vectra will hit 130mph, near as damn it and the

2.5 gives you over 140. Similar story for the Passat and other such dreary wonders.