Agree.

 

I’ve gotten up to 90 on an unpopulated highway one early morning. I’m not a daredevil

 

I did see the needle touching 270km/h / 167mph on the tach in my 4s back in 2018 on the autobahn, Germany. I dont know what that speed is in actual speed, but I would guess maybe around the 260/265km/h / 161/164mph mark. The backstory is a kliché «reach the ferry» scenario with a five hour drive from Nurburgring to the ferry in Kiel and we were a bit short on time for the ferry depature.

We were mostly around 140km/h / 90mph due to traffic but when it was possible, we engaged some longer pulls in 200km/h / 125mph (longest pull maybe +- 45mins at the most).

Once on the ferry, my buddy noticed his rear bumper had melted the paint and plastic around the exhaust. That was impressive and unforeseen after we had that longer 200km/h / 125mph pull to make up time. The 993 had no signs of heat damage on the paint.

Oil temp was fine all along, but after reaching the ferry we saw the oil level had sunk a bit more than normal (1dl) on both cars. Engines was around 190k km, both unopened and just some exhaust upgrades.

Since it was the first time going pretty much full out in my 993, I was impressed by the chassi and how stable it was during high speeds. It handled cofident and swallowed firmly bumps and joints on the concrete sections. Braking was no problemor issue at all, but gaining speed from 220km/h / 135mph and up, requires lot of room and less traffic.

I have driven other cars both old and new in higher speeds on/off track and special vehicle manouvering, that did feel far from that confident as the 993 at those speeds.
When that is said my chassi setup was fresh from an corner and weight balance (roadsport camber/caster #’s, pss10’s @5F/6R, new Michelins PS2 tires on new tramont cup2’s) before the trip.

Its nice to try higher speeds in the 993, but make sure all is ok with your car before attempt such speed. Running off the road at 200+ km/h / 125mph + with those skinny A-pillars makes you probably look and perform like a can of fish in tomatosauch foreced open

Overall the 993 (can only speak of my own 993) is that it handles speed great. If you choose to modify it, im sure it will handle speed even greater than in stock form. I am very impressed with the 993s ability to handle higher speeds with that much confidence, although I suspect the Pss10’s settings is crucial for my experience. I also did nor achive top speed, as I had some rpms left on my most daring pull. My concern was never the engine at those speeds, but main focus was on the chassi/suspension as the engine and gearbox performed flawlessly.

All in all, having a ferry to catch can be lots of fun and mind blowing at the same time

PS, I didnt have the ***** to take pictures during the high speed pulls.



Starting early but a bit late


Great place


Reached the ferry with 5 minutes of slack (and a melted 964 rear bumper)

 

Cool story ClassicAndy!

 

Cheers buddy!

Sorry for the measurements in metrics (as my car is a US car and still have the miles/km speedo in it &#128517

 

Ok
the max speed ... you can get from your gearbox ratio on max rpm; you might reach it on a downhill stretch of the German Autobahn, e.g. Kassler Berge ...
But even on Germany's famous Autobahn, even on a early Sunday morning it is nearly impossible to run full speed for 1/2 hour.

What i can tell you is that even in 40+ Deg Celsius the car runs under extreme pressure for more than 30 minutes without any thermal problems (secondary oil cooler installed); i run my car here 10,000 track km before the engine broke. Max speed on the end of the straights in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, about 210 km/h (with my 4.0L now about 220+ km/h).

Found a nice old add video; listen to the intro from David Davis very carefully

 

Its worth to mention that my fastest run was on a flat stretch, located between Hamburg and Kiel on R 7 and 215. So it is possible, but I agree on that you have to hit that "window of opportunity" for speed due to all the traffic, loads of construction work and countless semi trucks (not on sundays though).
For comparison, on our way down to Nurburgring, we could only reach 160km/h due to the reasons above + heavy rain.

I guess we hit that special window that sunday going home. All joking aside, we had +-200km/h / 125mph in minimum 30 min to max 1 hour, so lets settle on the median ~45mins (and of course with some interruptions of cars changing lanes right in front of you so you have to brake hard in between ).
As zhe Germans is thaught well in driving ethiqs, they were quickly out of our way so we could resume maintain speed.
That melted 964 rear bumper is also a little detail in the story, which I dont think would happen if we had not done that longer pull (I dont know if that is a known problem on 964's?)

My car has hold up well after that trip. Its first now im doing a full rebuild of the engine.

Heat is one thing, but is there any problems with excess sand getting into the engine or moving parts in Dubai, causing more rapid wear on parts?

 

That part isn't even good for 10 minutes full throttle , and you have an about 1.5km long 100km/h restriction in the middle of it, but its relative empty, i would call that one as part of my home run, and the 3.2 does 260km/h on that stretch ... at least on the speedo

As of the sand in Dubai, its mainly on the outside where the visible impact is, paint and glass gets pretty grinded over time. I should have also impact on bushings etc, but seems minor, no problem with the engine. My one blow most possible for other reasons ...


Edit just realized that you said A7 AND A215 between Hamburg and Kiel ... sorry Andy, i thought about the A215 only. But anyway Traffic and construction brought the A7 most of the last 5 years to a complete standstill anyway; so the A215 it is

 

Folks, I cleaned up this thread. Let's remember to be nice, 'kay? Don't like the thread? Move on and don't answer.

Also, I think the question is valid; real world top speed "tests" by owners are often marred by traffic, topography, nerve, etc.

Oh, 162 MPH here. Over a half hour time span, I'll probably do 90 MPH or so, running Waze and a V1, and insuring with left-foot braking.

 

I'm female, so I don't have *****, but even if I did have 'em, I wouldn't have the ***** to hit that kind of speed. Yowza.

 

Mark and some others: thanks for an actual response!

162 is really moving- what is it like?

 

Happy to help a bit.

It was utterly drama-free. I believe I was in Arkansas at the time with a long, gradual downhill and excellent line of sight. Frankly, the only drama was in my mind, thinking that this was really hauling the mail and that if something bad happened, it would likely be fatal.

This was well before I had any track experience.

 

looks like we'll be crowd-funding our Moderators bail shortly.

Great tales of the autobahn though. My autobahn memories are of cars suddenly appearing in the rear view mirror flashing their lights as I was trying to pass trucks in my old beater.
Good times.

 

Way back in 2003, I organised timed runs down the long straight at Bruntingthorpe former RAF base .. we had the timing gear set up 2/3rds the way down the 2+ mile straight.

I well remember a Turbo S driver running in front of me .. when we got together afterwards he was desperately trying to light a cigarette, but his hands were shaking too much to get it lit !

Mine was one of the fastest n/a cars at 163,, the fastest cars were getting close to 200 ..

cheers, Maurice

 

Personally I found it tiresome as you are on full alert and full focus the entire time, trying not to crash or drive off the road from bumps.
What may seem like a smooth surface road at 100mph / 160km/h may be a completly different experience at 155mph / 250km/h. I had to come down from speed several times just to avoid running off the road at some bumpy places.
It also makes you speedblind over time, so if you are coming to a halt, you would be very suprised on how much more braking distance you actually need to stop or coming down from speed.
Another thing I recall is it seemed like I could almost see the fuelgauge needle move downwards when speeding.

And as Mark states, most of the drama is inside your head (except the excessive noise from windrestiance).

Oh, and be prepared to spend a lot of time afterwards removing bugs that have injected and bonded themselves into the paint at those speeds.