On a race track, where it is perfectly LEGAL to speed.. how fast has every one gone. 130,150?? keep in mind that this is not on a public road!!

 

No offense but its really funny how people seem to think that the allure of the track is around how fast you can go. It really isn't. As my car's namesake once remarked about the speed of the Porsche 917s at LeMans, anyone can do 240 down the Mulsanne straight, its the corner that follows it where things get interesting.

But to answer your question, the fastest speed I've gone is 148 MPH on the back straight at VIR. Going over the hill at that speed is a little disconcerting, but after a few laps it becomes almost matter of fact. The next corner is pretty quick and followed by a really slow right hander so the whole process there is rather non-traumatic. The most scared I've ever been is the 1, 2, 3 combination at Tremblant at 2/3s that speed, but I'd admit that trying to stay flat up through the esses at the Glen is a challenge as well. I have friends who routinely hit in the high 150s and beyond at the end of the WGI back straight.

BTW, the only reason I know how fast I've gone is I have a datalogger to tell me after the fact. On any straight I've ever been on, while I'll check the gauges if theres time, it would be incredibly stupid to be looking at them at the point you end acceleration and begin braking to try to figure out just how high a speed you achieved. At that moment my vision is totally focused as deep into the corner a I can see, a necessity if you're not going to crash.

 

I've been an indicated 140 mph on many occasions, and on public roads in unlimited speed zones (which isn't everywhere here in Germany). When I'm driving on the autobahns, I usually set the cruise on about 110/115, just so I'm doing more overtaking than being overtaken. Sometimes I'll cruise at 120 if the weather is favorable and in light traffic. The MINI is such a pig at those speeds though. At 120 it gets about 16~18 mpg. MINIs delivered in Germany need taller gearing!

 

They could all benifit from it, anthing past 3rd (on an 05 or later) in the US is purely for gas mileage IMO.

 

Around 115 on the front straight at Nashville SS. Not as fun as the estimated...estimate because I was watching the track...30 or 40 I was doing in the infield on the curves.

 

140 around the corner...

In a NASCAR, you didnt mention the MINI in your post.

 

From another perspective ... I think actually that is true ... just worded a bit differently.

Some people will say races are won in the corners but that is because they are really won in the straights. In other words ... If you can get around a corner faster than the next guy ... that means more time flat out at ... 240 MPH which you cannot make back up in slow corners.

in other words ... you want to be as fast as possible in the straights ... but to do that, you need to be as fast as possible around the "slow" parts of the track. Make sense?

The easy way to look at this is that on small, tight circuits, MINIs might do well. Get a bigger circuit and they get killed (is this not true? correct me if I am wrong).

If you read the Elise boards, you think the hype about how well the cornering of MINIs is large here, over there ... they never stop talking about it but ... on the small tight tracks, they do well ... Get a longer track ... well there is no substitute for cubic inches (At least from what they say). There is an interesting video over there were a "race prepared" Elise keeps trying to catch up to a "stock" Vette. It tries hard in the corners and then the Vette just blows him away.

 

Green Elise, silver vette, nurburgring?

 

Maybe. There are so many videos over there they start to all become a blur. I would have to go back and look at them all to remember the colors I know I dont remember the color of the lotus. Vette may have been silver

 

If you read the Elise boards, you think the hype about how well the cornering of MINIs is large here, over there ... they never stop talking about it but ... on the small tight tracks, they do well ... Get a longer track ... well there is no substitute for cubic inches (At least from what they say). There is an interesting video over there were a "race prepared" Elise keeps trying to catch up to a "stock" Vette. It tries hard in the corners and then the Vette just blows him away.
Cubic $$$ always win, just depends on how many cubes you have.....

 

The "allure of the track" is the corners, i whole heartedly agree with you rjamnn...and thats why i bought the mini (and the gti vr6 before that) any idiot can hit the gas and take off. i have had this discussion with some of my friends ( stang 5.0 for starters). they say that the only type of racing that there should be is drag racing. now any monkey can hop in a car and put their foot down, but it takes a real driver to see the corners ahead of time and respond accordingly. if i were after the speed i would have gotten a different car, not saying that the S doesnt do it for me.. it does. just saying. speed is great, but corners are where its at!! as for my original question.. i was just wondering.

 

Not to seem disagreeable (its kind of my style ), but things are never quite so simple sadly. Races are won where ever you take less time to do something than the other guy did. Hence the other old adage, "races are won in the pits". Two cars can exit a corner with exactly the same speed and achieve the same terminal velocity at the end of a straight, but its still possible for one of them to have been a tenth faster through the corner and thus won the corner. Do that in enough corners and you lap a second or two faster than the next guy. Theres a fabulous video that was done a number of years ago by the BBC on Schumacher and Ervine and why Schumacher was faster. They analysed the two men's technique at a single corner at Silverstone. What they found was that Schumi actually entered the corner with slightly less speed than Ervine, but maintained higher speed overall through the corner resulting in him getting through 2 tenths quicker.

So certainly your referring to the notion that maximizing corner exit speed is critical (and certainly it is) for achieving maximum speed on the straight is true. But great drivers (and these are exceedingly rare) max speed in all three phases of the corner, on both entry and midcorner as well as exit. I'd add that its certainly easier and safer to pass in a straight line, but in road racing at least, passing occurs anywhere possible. I'm reminded of Bill Auberlein's spectatular pass in turn 9 during the waning moments of last years race at Watkins Glen. He made a beautiful move diving to the inside, taking the race line away from his competitor and holding the car inside just long enough to get by. In most close racing, spec miata for example, it's passing under braking and making the car wide enough that your competitors can't get back around you that gets the job done.

Certainly if we pitted Schumacher's Ferrari against an MCS at Monaco the outcome would be pretty predicable. On the other hand, which do you think would be faster on a lap of the same circuit, an MC or a Top Fuel Dragster? Clearly power isn't everything. So certainly at say LRP, where power is not at a premium, the average MINI would probably post times that were closer to other non-aero cars having far more HP, whereas at the Glen with its long uphill straights the difference in lap times would be greater given equal driving talent. But I think thats an unfair observation. There aren't many 1.6 liter saloons that can kill a MINI regardless of track configuration and its certainly capable of embarassing some with far more displacement.