Speed question.

[DougC]

What!

I can barely hit 60 in 4th, maybe 70 in 5th. I can't even imagine getting to 90. Is this due to gear ratios or what?

[tglancy]

From my days when I had a new 70 spider the top speed in forth was 113 MPH. It was slower in fifth.

My now 1975 has a speedo error of 6% ie 100 on speedo is 94 MPH.

If all is the same then 105 MPH is a good estimate

Terry

[mbouse]

the chances of Henry seeing RCMP from Costa Rica are not good... at least in his Spider. or, have you modified your engine that much .. ??

[Daniel]

I'm thinking with a good tail wind and a really steep down hill straight i can hit the 140 mark !


Daniel

[amsiegel]

Borrow a GPS from someone. Most GPS systems will tell you MPH.

Akai Reel to Reel Next you will be filming something in Super 8 or watching reruns of 3's company

[henry]

I have the solution:

I'll be speeding the weekend in the highway until I get cut by traffic (hopefully with a speed radar) so they can tell me my speed.

And I'll mail you the ticket so every one can make a contribution for the speed limit test.

[mbouse]

works for me. just dunn hold your breath waiting for my share of the payment

[So Cal Mark]

are you guessing the post office will lose the check?

[mbouse]

Henry,

just for you... i hooked up my GPS this weekend and attained the speed of 90 mph according to TOM TOM. at that instant, while in fifth gear, my tachometer was reading roughly 4600 rpm.

[henry]

Thank You Mike.

Henry.

[bwilson27]

I'm thinking with a good tail wind and a really steep down hill straight i can hit the 140 mark !


Daniel

That's exactly what happened in my '71 Spider back in '83.
I was hitting 130 when I blew a rod. When I stopped and opened the hood, the wind coming from behind nearly ripped it off.
It was a very long and straight section of remote highway with a pretty good downhill grade.
So yeah, 130 mph in a stock '71

[Hvnfn]

All I can say is WOW... I think I have a top speed of 70! hrmph!

[Ken]

Your speedometer or any gauge is designed to be accurate in the center, both ends are the error ranges, that is why your speedometer goes to 140, 70 is in the center. At high speed your car is floating and may be making 20 to 40 foot spans between touching the ground (unless that little spoiler is really working??) The only way to really know how fast you are going is GPS.

[MNspiderman]

I am betting that top safe speed for any fiat spider is around 140 then you start to get lift,drag and/or float and everything becomes dangerous, no aerodynamics, short wheel base, skinny width, not a good combo. There are absolutely no undercarriage aerodynamics on this car as well. We all wanna go 200 but it just aint happenin' . I hate to be the one to put a turd in the swimming pool (caddyshack) but thats the way it is. As much as top speed is awesome, I love accelerating even more than top speed. Out in the desert, I had our 07 Eclipse GTV6 up to 147 mph as the limiter kicked in. When your actually in the car going that fast, Its very fast. I cannot see my fiat spider booking at that speed especially with those tiny little rotors zipping round and round pretending that they are going to stop me on a dime, thats if you stretched it 1/2 mile. Thats my 1.8 cents.

[boogiedude]

Wait wait wait, is henry really hitting 90 in 3rd? Or does he have some major speedo error? My stock 78 can do 60 in third at about 5800-6000rpm according to my speedo.

What am I missing here?