Posted on 10/11/2010 5:56:09 PM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
I've encountered some pretty courageous people in my time. I once shook John Glenn's hand. I've seen Pierce Brosnan sing in public. But the bravest guy I've met lately is Pierre-Henri Raphanel, the pilote officiel for the Molsheim, France-based car maker Bugatti. It was Mr. Raphanel who, in July, strapped himself into the new Veyron 16.4 Super Sport and circuited Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track at an astonishing 268 mph, setting a new Guinness land-speed record for a production car.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
All I remember about that place is looking over the edges of things into places far below. Is that the same place?
Not the sort of place I'd want to have an XKE on!
That’s the North Carolina part. Southern Virginia is high plateau, rolling hills, less wild and more pastoral with farms dotting the view.
The custom built tires on the Veyron only last 6000 miles and cost $4500 each.
LO-freakin-L
Around 20 years ago, I was driving on I-10 between Crestview, and Pensacola, FL. My pickup was an 86 F250. It had dual exhausts and I had replaced the quirky carburetor with a less expensive Edelbrock. I had also had an older model valve timing gear installed to increase HP and mileage.
A Porsche passed me at a high rate of speed. I thought well I can just tail behind him a few hundred yards and he will get the ticket if a cop shows up. This continued for maybe five miles and he apparently got tired of me following him and took off. For some reason I decided to see if I could keep up with him.
The speedometer only went to 85 but I noticed the RPMs eventually got up to 6000. I later did some calculations and I had to have been doing a bit over 140. The pickup was driving extremely smoothly, really better than at normal speeds but I happened to glance at the heat gauge and it was all the way over to hot. I just let the Porsche go.
My favorite car for a decade. I had a few XJS aged from 85-88. If they had low mileage, at 142 it was so quiet and smooth you could hold a conversation and pass the caviar.:
'95 XJS here. After 130 she was still climbing, but I was done. (she's just turned over 100K mi)
Who needs highspeed rail.
I forgot to mention that that old F-250 had a 460 ci engine.
That's more impressive than the price of the car. Wonder if they replace the engine and trans???
“Had a 1987 XJS up to 120+ out on, appropriately, Racetrack Road, back in the day. The mirrors started vibrating and it felt like it was going to float away.”
Not a good assessment of the XJS. In 1986 I had a BMW 528i running at 140 mph(220 km/h). That was on the Autobahn. Car handled the rod like it was on welded rails. Same went for a Mercedes 300D with an automatic at 200 km/h.
“Had a 1987 XJS up to 120+ out on, appropriately, Racetrack Road, back in the day. The mirrors started vibrating and it felt like it was going to float away.”
Not a good assessment of the XJS. In 1986 I had a BMW 528i running at 140 mph(220 km/h). That was on the Autobahn. Car handled the road like it was on welded rails. Same went for a Mercedes 300D with an automatic at 200 km/h.
Oh, really?
Where can one read about an actual test of this awesome beast?
Oh, you say it hasn't been tested yet?
Sounds like one of those 400mpg Volt thingees.
Standard Veyron does 252, many articles and videos verify it.
Flooring the throttle, on the other hand, made a jet engine sound from the air rushing into the engine, and fuel flow through the lines. But it moved, it surely did. That heavy beast moved. Any you knew it.
/johnny
Never drove an XJS, but I've had a car suddenly "float" on me well over a hundred on the straight. Freaky feeling. When I eased off the gas I felt like I was backing away from the edge of a cliff.
Even if my liquid assets numbered in the billions rather than dollars, I would not want one of these. Just too much trouble.
I would want a high end Mecedes or two and also Porsche. Vehicles I could drive across country without worrying about a breakdown or maintenance.
Back in 1974 the local Mercedes Dealer had one of their sports cars for $18,000. I did some figuring and my wife and I could have bought it tho it would have required cutting things pretty close. Instead we used the money as a down payment on a house. I do wonder how much that Mercedes would be worth today if we had kept it up well.
Instead we bought a new 73 Olds Cutlass. A perfectly nice comfortable car.
A friend had a XJ V12, blew a head gasket, cracked the head. So, a big block 454 with rv cam was installed backed up with a 4 spd auto. Had about 2 inchs of ground clearance. Installed a set of Perellies. Had to reverse the manifolds. At 80 mph we could get 22mph in 4th gear. Installed throttle body injection. We had alot of fun. Took it to Canada on a trip. Going up I90 in the middle of the night, drove really well, speedo buried. Car weighed about 4k. Lots of fun.
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