>>I imagine there are less people who buy a Ferrari and don’t (at least once) take it up to ‘ludicrous speed’ than those that do.<<
When I was in college, I briefly had a ‘69 Buick Wildcat with the BIG 430 engine (no, it wasn’t new). One night, I was driving on a flat straight highway with no place for Smokey to hide. I floored it and got that sucker up to 195+ MPH. My heart was ALSO going 195, so I slowed down but my heart didn’t.
It was a great rush, but also something 1) you should only do when a college kid on a straight open highway; 2) you should only do once (see 1).
My FRiend, I’m sure that your late night pedal-to-the-medal adventure may have felt like 195 mph, but I assure you that the connecting rods in that 430 Buick would have broken (along with many other parts) long before you reached that speed. The 430 was redlined by the factory at 5000 rpm, and even with the factory 3.07:1 rear axle, the best you could have hoped for would be perhaps 130+ mph at WOT, which is still nothing to sneeze at. But 195? Uh uh, sorry not buyin’ it. That’s NASCAR velocity.
I know I’ve done the same thing, my first car (’63 Ford Galaxie w/406 and 3-2bbl carburetors) was so fast that I had to drive from the back seat due to the excessive G-forces under acceleration - fortunately, that is where the girls usually were, lol