Top Speed in a Unique??

[Aggressor]

As I recall Tony Naumoff ran the quarter mile over 120 with top up a while ago.

- Geary

[Naumoff]

As I recall Tony Naumoff ran the quarter mile over 120 with top up a while ago.

- Geary

That's with babying her off the line.

I have had it faster. The straight at Gateway IR you can pick up a lot of speed even though it is short. Coming off the banked turns you can be at full throttle in high gear as you come into the straight away. You need some big brakes before you enter turn one. It is a fast turn but turn 2 has a late apex and that is where you get into trouble if you don't have either enough speed bled off before you enter one or a go-cart to take it. A few guys lost it there.

[Naumoff]

Geary, I love this picture

[rldunn7]

Looked at the speedo on the back straight at Loews in 4th gear....135+...front end was not touching the ground very hard....touchy steering....then had the ephiphany "I built this thing" going into NASCAR turn one!!!!!

[Aggressor]

Pride in accomplishment is a wonderful thing.

[cal.cheesehead]

I love life and all body parts functional. After 1 year 105. But who knows. maybe 106 some day. The beauty of it its as much fun to me at 45 as it is 105 or more for those with you know what!

[Jerry Cowing]

Quite a few years ago while attending a DSCC event on the Sebring FL race track, the instructor riding with me stated, "this car really pulls hard and you need a larger speedometer." I glanced over at the speedo and it was pegged at over 160 mph (my speedo only reads to 160). Sometimes I was hitting my rev limiter in 4th with a wide ratio top loader transmission with 133 rears.

Have no idea how fast I was going because I glanced at the speedo a second after I took my foot off the gas peddle and was moving my foot to the brake peddle to start braking for the next corner. The car was vibrating so bad at top speed that the road became blurry (I guess the muscles in my eyes couldn't keep up with the vibrations), so I never looked at the speedo on most laps and concentrated on trying to focus on the approaching corner. As soon as I got off the throttle my vision of the road immediately cleared up. The instructor also stated that the car was too fast. At first I had thought that was a compliment, but then realized he meant I was driving the car past it's limits. The 4-piston Willwood brakes with racing fluid couldn't keep up with the speed as I could only make about 3 circuits before my fluid boiled over and I lost partial brakes. That was real scary the first time I lost brakes. Luckily I lost the brakes on one of the much slower straights after coming off one of the long, faster straights. I anticipated it the next couple of times on the track after replacing the fluids. After the thrill wore off, I came to my senses and thought to myself, "Are you crazy? The terrible vibration was probably because the car was getting ready to fly and no brakes? What am I thinking?." The more I thought about it, the more scared I became about what might have happened. That's when I also realized why the instructor said to pull into the pits and let him out and what he meant by "the car was too fast.". I consider myself lucky that I didn't kill myself that day. Have never attempted this again. Pretty much lost my desire to drive anywhere near this fast after that.

[RJacobsen]

Great story Jerry, let me know your tire diameter, your rear end ratio, and what your rev limit was set at and I can calculate your speed.

[Aggressor]

Rod as I recall Jerry runs 133 rears. (Sorry Jerry - Ya missed a typo.)

-Geary

Another image or two for ya'll

-Loading problem & fighting to save it

[RJacobsen]

Rod as I recall Jerry runs 133 rears. (Sorry Jerry - Ya missed a typo.)

-Geary

Alrighty then, lets just use the information we have and some assumptions.
tire size? lets say 26 1/2" diameter
rev limit? lets use 6000
rear end ratio? 1.33
OK then that puts the speed at 356 MPH,