Hi, any body hit 200mph on the track,?

[Jac Mac]

Most Nascar stuff would be well above this now on Daytona/Talledega etc if it was not for the Insurance Companys drawing a line in the sand and saying around 200mph was the no go point. Whether they could accelerate to 200mph in your 2 mile distance is questionable though , but 355 cu in & around 800/830 hp on one 4bbl was/is enough to get the job done.

[Doug Clark]

This thread reminded me of the times the UK back in the day when I got my FZR1000R against the rev limiter in top. All the cats eyes on the M25 would nearly merge nearly into 1 in some sort of tracer fire effect .

When I used to race (TZ250) I never really thought about how fast I was going, what seemed more important at the time was going that bit quicker to beat the bugger in front.

[Jac Mac]

Good point Doug, In all the circuit racing I dont remember ever being particularly concerned about stuff like moving in or out of other cars slipstreams etc, you know its there & you sort of get used to it, yet whenever I ran cars in Flying 1/4 mile events with perhaps a one mile runup to the timed area you have enough time to notice every little movement and 'odd' sound etc. It starts to play on your mind a bit especially if your mechanically inclined and can visualise whats happening. Due to a couple of fairly serious prangs here in NZ these events are now few and far between & several attempts to reinstate them have been scuttled by the insurance requirements.

[Ron Earp]

Marc, what is your rear wheel hp as measured on a Dynojet or Dynapac?

Paul, didn't you reach 186 in the mile? And what was the hp of the motor you and Roy had in the car at that time? It was rather stout as I recall and dynometer tuned/tested if I remember correctly.

Mesa, I agree with that Daytona bumpy comment. Just raced there, first time, and was amazed at how bumpy it was between and through turns 3/4. Too a lot of work to keep doing what it was supposed to do, and that was only around 135mph, slow compared to your bike speeds!

[Mesa]

Doug, Jac -
At least for me, I have racing friends and "other" friends. The other friends are more often astonished to hear a racer may not be a "speed freak" and have no interest in knowing how fast he goes in MPH (that would be me).... as long as he was "going that bit quicker to beat the bugger in front". As said before I think we need "a certain lack of imagination" or maybe it's like Jac says, if we have something else to do our imagination does not have time to go to work on what could happen....hmmmmm. Maybe that explains why I am not a good passenger .... too much time to think!

Ron-
Only went to do the Daytona 200 once, it's a long expensive haul from the west coast. It was one of the highlights and goals of my "career". I am pleased I made the effort but the week was SO full of challenges (story on it's own) I could not bring myself to do it a second time. Honestly, I could not believe I was standing in the riders meeting with Fogarty, Russell, Chandler ..... The thought crossed my mind to ask for autographs.

The engine blew before the start and I never turned a lap in the actual race.

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Originally Posted by Ron Earp

Paul, didn't you reach 186 in the mile? And what was the hp of the motor you and Roy had in the car at that time? It was rather stout as I recall and dynometer tuned/tested if I remember correctly.

Not quite Ron -
We recorded 176 in about 0.8 Mile, but the motor wouldnt rev over 6K and it trashed 5th gear on the UN1.
Following year crown wheel broke.
Following year - with a motor that now pulled happily past 7K, it overheated due to a water flow problem and cracked the alloy block.... doh!!

I've not driven there since... but Nadine did this year and managed 199.65 with 410HP at the wheels in her Viper GTS (1.3M).

Since then we've 'tweeked' it a bit and recorded over 730 at the wheels (Mustang Chassis Dyno @ Raceshack) so it would have been interesting to try it again now.

I also passengered in the Viper Comp Coupe last year to no avail. After removing the rear wing in an attempt to make it more slippery - it did just that and getting somewhat sideways each time it reached 140-150 was 'interesting'.... Guess you need to know what you're doing before playing with aerodynamics....

[cal]

mesa, to put things in perspective, i'm 5'5", 130lbs, so on a R1, half bag of gas, its as close to a UAV as one can get. bigger problem is keeping eyes focused, the groved highways around here make that rather difficult.

frank catt, yep, have definitley flown a 170 with horton stol kit backwards, or at least not moving forward realitive to the ground. alot of fun trying not to drop a wing

[Johan]

I just went to Daytona with Scott Russell as my chief mechanic is his as well. We were trying to get in the back gate and were not successful. As we were leaving the gaurd Scott yelled "Do you know who we were "? We all laughed hard at that one.
There are a couple of tracks to hit 200 on. Road Atlanta before the redesign of the "dip". Road America. Daytona of course. I have never hit 200 because it rained the only time I drove Daytona. If it had not rained, I still might not have had the balls. That is fast. Bob Akin was clocked at 214 there in his T70 coupe at the start/finish line. It would not do the same lap time as a 962 but did go faster at the start/finish as it is such a low drag /low downforce car.

[Randy V]

Originally Posted by Johan

There are a couple of tracks to hit 200 on. Road Atlanta before the redesign of the "dip". Road America. Daytona of course.

Might want to add another track to that - Brainerd International Raceway (formerly known as Donnybrooke)..

With a 4700' front straight that leads into a 9 degree banked sweeper of about 60 degrees - You can experience terminal velocity of almost any car here.. Hence the reason it has been called the fastest dedicated roadrace track in North America.

We just opened up the new track which now allows there to be drag racing and road racing at the same time. The new track uses a Carousel off of Turn 8 and comes back into the old track at the apex of Turn 1.
The Wiki needs updating (which I will take care of) but here you go;

Brainerd International Raceway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia