- Or 8 days to be precise; anyone else covered this kind of distance in so short a time?!
Went from S. France to Copenhagen, dropped off the family then rented a Mondeo for 3 days work all over Sweden. Then back to France.
High spot - getting an indicated 145mph out of the S60 on a deserted German motorway in the wee small hours...
Not-so-high-spot - ...then being overtaken by some kind of Porsche 911 which rocketed past, must have been close to 200mph...
We've all read about 200mph supercars, but I didn't think owners had the skills - or the roadspace - to actually get near this figure on the highway?!
Backroom wisdom suggests that long motorway runs are good for modern cars, but what additional wear & tear can I expect after running at 125+mph for a couple of hours?
|
Yup. Same sort of distance in the same sort of time to the Czech Republic and back a few weeks ago. T'was the fourth time we've done it (SWMBO is Czech), this time via Switzerland thankfully before the floods.
I can agree with your high point, too! I software tuned our V70 2.4T earlier in the year so my high point was having the opportunity get a GPS confirmed 159MPH (speedo off the 160MPH scale) with a little more to come but traffic in front rushing up very quickly.
My low point was what I later found out to be the turbo boost solenoid packing up (symptoms = boost/no boost/boost/no boost) in the Czech Republic, which spoiled the party on the run home. BTW noting you have a Volvo too and the speed you write implies one of the turbo models; I now know that failure of these solenoids is common and had nothing to do with the tuning I have done. They are a simple device with three air pressure feeds and one electrical connection. If you look at your air filter box you will see it clipped to the side nearest the engine as a black moulded box with the aforementioned (push fit, so no tools needed) connections. Price is about £40 and thankfully they fail safe so no overboost results.
Back to your question: Wear and tear after 125+ mph for a couple of hours? Quite the opposite. Nice and healthy for the motor so long as the turbo is allowed to cool down before you switch off. I even went so far as to drop the pace a bit when I knew fuel was needed and then cruised gently up to the pump. After one very fast stint of 110-140MPH for a very long time in 38 deg C heat I even chose a pump with a small queue so that I could wait with the engine at idle. Probably OTT but I'm happier that way.
|
|
Was wastching a programme recently about a cannonball run type race in the US. Some nice cars, it showed one Porsche with an indicated 206MPH on its speedo (digital speedo), but the award went to one of those Koenigsegg cars which the driver got to 242MPH!
|
I did a siliar thing in Germany, but was in the middle fo the day so road was never empty for long enough for me to feel confident at anything more than 120ish. I sat at that for a good half hour though, and over 100 pretty much the rest of the time in Germany.
You're asking about possible damage?
Well, since I got back to the UK, I've been getting better mpg than I was before the trip! It appears that the principle of an Italian tune-up really works, and I've cleared out her pipes a little.
|
Cape Town to Johannesburg (via Karoo)to Masai Mara Game Reserve and back (via Garden Route) in a 7 day period .
Mercedes 260E (W124 model).
c 1990.
Lovely scenery.
madf
|
2400 miles in a weekend, Holland, Germany, Austria, Leichenstein, Switzerland, Italy, France, Luxemburg, Belgium.
Ditto hammering down the Autobahn at night - dicovered the old Astra estate has no top speed limit - it just gets faster and faster over time (but at a decreasing rate!).
Not sure how many miles: Dar Es Salam heading for some game reserve. After two days of driving, decided it must be too far away and turned back ;(
|
|
|
