The Pot...

I looked at the speedometer on a borrowed Kawasaki Ninja once and it said 140MPH and that was after downshifting twice! The people at the pig roast said all they saw was a yellow streak going down the country road. I soon quit drinking after that. Then once I was late for my tee time so I hit 135 in a turbocharged 4 cylinder Eagle Talon. I started drinking soon after that.

 

Like onerpm, I've grown a lot. I can remember going around 120 on my motorcycle quite a few years ago, and now I'm puckered when I exceed 80 on a bike, which is rarely. I know it sounds weird, but somehow it feels "right" to go fast on a bike, but I feel so guilty when speeding in a car.

 

I know this is off topic, but a cousin of mine has a motorcycle that will go triple-digits, but burns more gas than my Prius!!!. I used to think that mototcycles, being small, burned less gas than cars.

 

Then again, there are some motorcycles that have bigger engines than our Prius.

Also, speaking of motorcycles, there is a twin-turbo Hayabusa out there with something like 700 hp. Top speed is an estimated 320 mph...

 

I count my speed in seconds!

 

My story is:

1982 at University of Florida I was riding "back seat" on what was the biggest bad nice person Kawasaki for that year (and no, I am not a motorcycle rider!). The driver took us to 130 - 140 MPH (like ANYTHING goes wrong and you're dead; but I was 22 so you just CAN'T die at THAT age, right? ;-)) on a long stretch of a two lane road. But it doesn't stop there. Just as we reached that speed a car passed us going the opposite direction, a POLICE CAR! The driver started swearing and screaming that he would be going to jail for sure. Well, the cop never turned around. Never figured out that one. Needless to say we took the long way home.

Legally, in Germany I took a Mercedes 300 up to 200 KPH (about 120 MPH). The car was easily capable of 250 KPH but when you’re not used to those speeds it just gets too nerve-wracking. At those speeds you start squeezing black juice out of the steering wheel.

Rick
Waiting for Jan 1, 2006 Prius, package #4. It's in the lot now, Arrggghh!!

 

When I see guys doing that on public roadways (both city streets and on the freeway) full of rush-hour traffic (usually in mid-afternoon or early evening) I just think of Darwin's theory and the fact that these fellows might not be around much longer to keep doing stupid things like that.

 

Looking back on speeds I have done, I now see they were probably a bit (or more than a bit foolish). None the less I have been up to 151 MPH (speedometer, pegged) in my gen 5 prelude (97') soon as I hit it I never was tempted to do it again. Got pulled over a few days later doing ... well lets just say the police officer was nice enough to say I was doing 89 mph, promised I would never drive that fast again, havent yet and dont plan on it again. All that is out of my system and looking back I wonder what kind of mpg I was getting when I did it, and to think I was driving this way and complaining about premium being at $2.25 <sigh>

 

my Kawasaki got about 54-55 mpg... so it could beat my Prius...sometimes

 

Day before yesterday I passed an unmarked cop car. I was going 40 in a 35 mph zone. I've always figured 5 over was okay. He pulled me over. Asked for my license, my insurance card, and my registration, but before I could get the registration out of the glove box, he asked me not to drive so fast, and let me go. He didn't even run my license through the computer, unless he managed to do it via my plate number in the minute or two it took for me to pull off into a parking lot.

 

I don't know about where you live, but premium is ony $2.35 here right now.

 

that is probably what he did. for security reasons, officers are required to call in your plate and their location before they make initial contact with you. in this case, he was using your speeding as an excuse to pull you over. since you had no other wants or citations, he let you go.

 

He probably just wanted an excuse to peek at your MFD to see what kinda milage you were getting. Anything under 40 MPG and I bet he would have ticketed you.

 

I "chickened out" at 115 mph and I still had some power. Crown Vic w/ light bars can go about 125.

 

Could hae been a slow day or his dept requires so many "stops" per shift. Could have been just "fishing" as well.

 

It was a few years back when we had a short term spike, probably about 5 years ago.