This is a car forum, chances are good that the majority of the people posting here are car enthusiasts. We're not grandmas in a knitting club. That the majority of these posts condemn driving 170 on a public road ought to tell you something.

 

Roads are never empty.

 

I think he was really doing 150....

 

...because BMW's speedo's are notoriously off

 

 

Right, gravel, tree, cement, potholes, Bambi and all that. As long as there are no other people around him, he can assess the risk by himself so if the worst happens, he dies alone or at least collides with a deer and gives a pack of wolves a free dinner.

Hell, even a track is not safe, yet we tell everyone to take the need for speed there.

 

^^He had a passenger....

 

Irresponsible. You are putting other people at risk doing that. Not just driving that fast, but taking to time to take a photo of it.

 

lol..I figured I'd get responses like I've gotten.

To answer your questions and concerns...if any of you have been in the Plains states in the middle of nowhere, you know for a fact that it's dry open land with more chance of seeing a grizzly bear than a person. My brother had no concerns about being in a car with me at that speed. The M3 is very very stable at high speeds and very poised. My car was in tip-top shape as far as tires and all that go...and in fact, the tires are Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's which have no problems at that speed.

The road was about a 50 mile strech in the west plains with nothing on either side except desert...no farms, no towns no people....very little elevation changes if any at all. I know if I would have hit a deer it would have probably been our death...but we all die at some point, and there is no reason for me to fear it. The day you start fearing death is REALLY the day you stop living.

I am not trying to prove a point or justify what I was doing, but I didn't just randomly go crazy on the interstate near a busy city or any of that. I'm a regular at SCCA track days, drift events, and drag races. I wouldn't recommend or suggest ANYONE do this.

Just an FYI, i've been to several driving schools...Skip Barber, Bob Bondurant, BMW's driving school..my uncle is an owner of a GT series racing team in Europe. I have a lot of experience driving and have driven no most of the European and American race tracks from Nurburg Ring to Monte Carlo. Not in races mind you, but in open sessions for the teams. Not to mention countless hours spent on race tracks with professional drivers and suspension gurus dialing in my own cars.


My BMW is fairly stock at this point, just a couple of bolt ons and an ECU flash to eliminate the top speed limiter. I got to about 172 and I backed down since the winds started blowing dirt on the road. The car had enough in it to probably hit 180+. My redline is at 8,100 RPM and I wasnt close to that. It's not nearly as explosive as my Supra's or my 240s are to that speed, but it didn't struggle at all. The car is brilliantly engineered. It's not a really aerodynamic car..in fact, my E55 has a lower coefficient of drag than the M3, but the overall package is amazing.

It also showed me why, with the stock gearing, Supercharged M3's only tend to pull mid 12s in the quarter mile. The car is going to be a rocket on top end when I get my blower installed, but they aren't ideally geared for 1/4 mile timeslips..nor was the car designed for that to begin with.

Also, for the guy who's posting that my speedo was off, I have another pic of my GPS navigation system showing my speed...which i'm trying to find...the speedo was showing the same speed as my GPS nav.

 

I didn't snap the pic...In fact, I wasn't even paying attention to the speed nearly as much as I was the road.

 

 

So doing 170 was OK then. :shakehead

 

I know ..

I think if his brother agreed to such a thing, and it seems he did since he took a pic, then it's fair game .. If otherwise, I'd be joining the majority as well.

Ahh whatever. I'm mildly playing Devil's Advocate, still doesn't make going 170 mph okay ..

 

you obviously haven't driven around this country months...i've been on roads where i've gone HOURS without seeing a sole

 

btw, aren't BMW speedo's notoriously off?

 

So I've heard.

I vote you rename this thread to be something like "BMW Speedo's Notoriously Off...."

 

170mph on a public road is not stupid. It's galactically asinine.

Stupid is running a yellow and almost getting in an accident. Stupid is trying to replace an electrical outlet with the power on.

 

The fish or the bottom of a shoe?

BMW speedos are notoriously off!

 

If I see another post like this I'm going to start convulsing

 

:seizure:

 

I think this forum has too many "holier than thou" people.

 

its not just this forum...

 

First of all, I'm not impressed at all. Secondly as you can see not many others here are either. This will impress H.S kids however.

Lastly if for whatever reason you, or anyone else did this and lost control crashing into me, my friends, my family and you survived I would kill you with my bare hands.

Back on topic, 170mph is nothing special anymore these days for daily driven cars.

 

eh not trying to impress anyone, nor was that my goal. My goal was to see if the M3 speedometer is optimistic (like Integra's with 140 mph max speedo's) and if the car could come close.

I got my answer and I don't apologize for it.

 

don't have to apologize, glad it worked out for you.

 

lol, so many people here that just like to start shit.

nice shot at that speed

 

It's not that we just like to start shit. Most of us are getting older, and realize that there are consequences to our actions. As, stated before in this thread, we have all done our fair share of speeding (we are after all car enthusiasts). But I get sick of seeing theads like "what cars have beat lately" then the threads like "7 people killed while watching street race". Its something most of us have done in the past,=. I just don't want to see our "younger" members think, this is an ok way to drive. I mean there was that M5 thread a few weeks, where some young kid drives daddy's car and kills himself and some friends. I just think if we help try to curb this shit, we might actually save someone an accident, death, or shit even a hefty speeding ticket.

 

Wait, some of us aren't?

 

You knwo what i ment.. MOST of use are mature adults. But you whiskers, you will always be 65yr old fat guy in the yellow shirt to us!

 

i age backwards...

 

Thanks, I guess....

 

BMW speedos are typically off up top. This is documented in a bunch of places. Even Car and Driver has noted this.

I doubt that your GPS nav is truely reading speed. It's probably just pulling data from the vehicle speed sensor.

 

...

 

btw, aren't BMW GPSs notoriously off? :wink:

 

Impressed with the car's prowess but less so with its driver's judgment.

 

Naw, I was using a Garmin Nuvi to play with it..it just links with the satellite in the sky.


Sheesh..I wonder what response i'll get when I hit 200 mph in my E55 in Montana

 

I sincerly hope you don't try that... especially on another public road.

 

lol... lucky for me there are stretches in Montana that the highway patrol will shut down for people to do high speed runs like in Nevada....clear open straight highway with nothing around. I'll wait for them to do an event like that.


You know, it's funny..Motortrend, Car&Driver, and all these other magazines haul ass on regular roads all the time and nobody writes them and gives them crap..They do testing in controlled area's..but if you read the articles they will be like " we hit 150mph in the Ford GT in a back road of Virginia and it's stunning how fast it got there"

 

They're "professional" drivers and have many years experience in more performance oriented cars than even the M3.

I'm not condoning the fact that they did it either, but something tells me they are better drivers than you

 

lol...considering i've been offered jobs with both of these magazines (along with a couple of european ones) to be a test driver and journalist , maybe..maybe not