1.6 miles top speed run - results

Attended my 1st ever top speed run on Sunday held at a disused RAF airforce base. The timing lights were positioned at 1.6 miles leaving about half a mile to stop - no problem. Must say not knowing what to expect the adrenalin rush was amazing, so I ended up doing 10 runs in the day. I have included the top speeds of the various cars in the various classes and deleted drivers details.

Class 1 - 308/Mondial Best MPH
77 Mondial t 147
6 308 gts qd 142.35
1 308 GT/4 139.69
76 Mondial Qv 134.69
2 308 GTB 133.7899933

Class 2 - 328/Mondial 3.2
3 328 GTB 152.22
4 328 GTS 148.15

Class 3 - 360 Modena Spider / Challenge / F1
47 360 Challenge Stradale 177.47
39 360 Modena F1 175.54
45 360 Modena 175.41 (Mine)
36 360 Modena 174.09
41 360 Modena F1 171.62
48 360 Modena 170.98
38 360 Modena F1 170.84
35 360 Modena 170.34
37 360 Modena 170.07
43 360 Spider F1 169.46
44 360 Spider F1 169.31
46 360 Modena 168.42
84 360 Spider 167.77
29 360 Modena 166

Class 4 - Boxer
83 512 BB 156.4

Class 5 - 550 Maranello / 575M
64 575 Maranello F1 179.41
65 575 Maranello F1 177.23
61 550 Maranello 175.09
63 550 Maranello 171.91
66 575 Maranello F1 135.19

Class 6 - 355 GTB/S and F1
28 F355 GTS 166.69
21 F355 GTS 165.95
24 F355 GTS 163.27
17 355 F1 GTS 162.01
27 F355 Spider 161.89
23 F355 GTS 160.99
26 F355 Spider 160.79
22 F355 GTS 156.24

Class 7 - F40
49 F40 192.69

Class 8 - Testarossa
82 Testarossa 159.64

Class 9 - 348 tb / ts / GTB / S
9 348 GT Competizione 162.41
10 348 tb 161.29
12 348 ts 155.10

Class 10 - V12
50 365 GTB/4 Daytona 146.56
55 400 GT Manual 142.42

Class 11 - V12 4-seat
56 456M GT 166.78

Class 12 - F430
71 F430 F1 174.52 (New car being run in)


And to all the 12 cylinder guys in the UK (you know who you are ;o) I wont mention the Testarossa 159.64 (v8 vs v12 debate)

 

just a quick i got 183 mph at brunters with no high octane fuel and on a red hot day with only 4 runs as the brake pads wore out next time 187mph is possible for me so add that to your 8 v 12 cylinder comment

 

At 1.6 Miles. Are these cars hitting Top Speed? Could they have gone faster if there were more road?

 

Any cars other then Fcars run? How'd they compare?

 

Those low speeds on the 12-cly. cars are likely more to do with a nervous foot than anything wrong with the car.

 

I'm sure it varies by model. It took my last 77 GTB about 3.5 miles to top out. But gains were slow after the first 2 miles or so.

 

interesting info, thnx for posting. would have been fun to participate and watch.

 

I'm frankly amazed that the 355s didn't beat the 360s, based on a previous thread...

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69185

Gary

 

Intresting. Thanks for posting. You can really see the difference the F1 tranny makes.

 

Very funny.

 

Wow, 13-18 years old, the F40 is still incredible. 192mph!

 

Chaa, Uh I mean Yah, I thought I read somewhere the 355 was faster than the 360's. Well, it is apparentely faster than 1 of them. I wonder if Pee Wee Herman was driving any of the 355's tested?

BT

 

And literally in a class by itself .

 

Great post--neat info

 

66 575 Maranello F1 135.19


What happened here? I sure hope that it was just the driver getting nervous and not something with the car...

A top speed run is the last place I would want my car to blow up...

 

Now, now. For the same "vintage", the 550/575's averaged 175.91 (excluding the 135 mph run) while the 360's averaged 170.76 and the fastest 575 beat the fastest 360. So 50% more cylinders did help the top speed by about 3% .

Great info BTW.

 

I found this to be a very interesting thread. Thanks for posting it. I am surprised that the 360 wasn't that much faster than the 355. Also I thought the 550 would of been faster.

 

What. I like 6 speeds better though.

 

Feels So Good {C. Mangione, 1978} to see the Mondial well represented!

 

There is NO DIFFERENCE in the top speed of a 6-spd car vs F1. SAME GEARBOX. There might be a very tiny difference in acceleration - the factory says .05 sec in the first kilometer. I get the feeling they had to claim something, since .05 over 1k would be basically impossible to reproduce consistently.

Gary

 

Hm. The fastest 360 (non-Stradale) was about 9 mph faster than the fastest 355, and the difference between the slowest examples was about 10 mph. I'd call that pretty decisive...

Gary

 

Well thats clearly becourse my non standrd car was not there. The for-said thread was about MY car beating the 360. Which is no great drama. Dont be bitter live with it. Does this help clear it up for ya??
MB:And looking at the 9 econd diference between the 355s and the 360s i would have been causing the 360 problems. Remmber in the thread you pointed out above, my 355 was some 8 seconds faster than the standard 355 that was also going down the straight. Come to tearms with what i did guys, get counciling to help you get over it

 

For me it is very clear.
All cars were about 10 mph slower than the speeds as mentioned in our brochures. If you look at the differences (360 vs 355 vs 348) it is very reasonable. So there was just not enough room or to much wind.

That the big boys ( 5,5 litre V12's) need perhaps a bit more room to get the best result is clear. I mean, I have the german magazines here that they do over 300km/h in their tests.

I get easily 155 mph on the SPEEDO of my 348.
To get the highest I've seen (178mph on the SPEEDO) I need a lot of runway.

 

On the last runs of the day we really started right at the very edge (start) of the runway, perhaps 20 meters more run up, this did make about 2mph difference in my car, but you hit 6th and run for at least a 1/4 mile or more just to gain 10 - 12 mph. I reckon that with another mile the 360 might see 180 - 182, but getting the claimed 186 (from memory what ferrari claim) would take a lot and a very flat and very long stretch of road.

As for the wind up for the Testarossa, I agree that it probably was a nervous driver, plenty of drivers were simply running the car into the rev limiter in each gear and then changing (sounded awful and many of us were poined to hear this) perhaps the drivers were not confident to look anywhere other than on the runway. I was changing at around 8000 - 8250 rpm and this is when I got the best speed. The car sure does get light and floaty above 160, but after a few runs you get used to the feel and just let it track its own line. I also have to say that I've been on my bike at an indicated 185mph (so more likely 175) and not sure if the car feel more planted to the raod than the bike did, perhaps its all about the massive wind and noise on the bike that keeps you focused so you dont really have time to notice anything else.

Anyone who has not yet driven their car to its max should, if only for the reason to show you that these kind of speeds cannot safely ever be done on public roads (150 maybe in germany but not much above 170)

 

On a couple of my drives throught Spain last year towards France in the 360 spider i often hit just over 190 on the speedo. And the car felt very stable at these speeds.