R8 V10 Top Speed... Amazing!

[Jun]

Today in Bangkok Thailand is a public holiday that means fewer cars on the road. I wanted to see how fast this R8 V10 can go, yesterday morning I managed to reach 325 Km/hr (203 MPH) running from Din Daeng using the Express Toll Way to Don Mueng Airport. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to video the top speed so today I took the video with my Blackberry.

The R8 was really powerful and fast but amazingly very stable. Today I was able to reach 327 Km/hr !!! (204 MPH) but then the traffic came ahead so I had to slow down.

At this speed, we are traveling at 90.8 Meters/second (297 Feet/s) I’m sure the cars that I have passed them, speeding around 80-90 MPH, had no idea what the hell was that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF4firO7mso

[mngolfer]

IMHO...Driving like this can get you on a Youtube video of your car burned beyond recognition and a story of death by speed on a public road. Speeds like this are good for the track. Not so much on public roads.

Think about the drunk or little old lady that does not see you coming from behind and turns into your lane. There is no way you can slow down quickly enough to avoid a driver ahead turning into your lane.

You are contributing to why some people want governors limiting the speed of cars on public roads. You obviously have money since you have a V10. Hopefully this money came about from making good decisions in life and business. Driving 200+mph on a public road is not making good decisions...for others that could be involved.

[ianerrid]

Pretty normal on the de-restricted Autobahns in Germany, but they are use to the high closing speeds, but I take your point!!

[Jun]

mngolfer, thanks for the advice, climbing to the top speed on the wrong road won't proof anything. Next time I will get on the track. Thanks again for the warning

[mngolfer]

You have a wonderful car. Enjoy it on the track. There are many tracks around the world where you can get training and instruction on how to properly drive you car on the track. I found that after getting a little instruction on the track I no longer had the impulse to drive at really high speeds on the highway. Tracking your car is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Someone will always want to "take you on" on the highway. I know how fast the car is on the track. I do not have to prove anything on the streets. At a stop light I have been asked to "race". I have responded with "let's go to BIR (race track) and see what you have. The loser pays track fees for both cars. So far I have had no takers for this offer.

[harald]

I'm living in Germany and driving at this speed is depending on the traffic not so much a problem
On a legal holiday at 6 am I was able to drive 191 MPH (307 Km/h) on the speedometer with my R8 V8. Cause I was alone in the car I couldn't take any video. On a length of about 15-20 Km I had seen only 5 cars.
I would like to hear which top speed you guys get with your cars (V8 and V10) whether on track or on the road.

[NR8]

Well, actually this is not that amazing to me at all. Doing 320 km/h with an R8 V10 is no physical act of driving at all, thanks to all electronic systems you just need empty roads.

I have also got a 12 year old 911 Turbo with 450 hp - and I only once drove that car up to 317 km/h (with no electronic supporters in there at all). Doing that speed affords a lot of physical action (holding the steering wheel to match the imperfect autobahn with all its bumps etc), after half an hour I was sweating like hell and I became aware through that drive just HOW dangerous this speed is.

With my R8 I can easily accelerate to 305 km/h but I always bear in mind the danger that suddenly the electronic systems could stop working and this is not worth it. So I rather take the R8 to the countryside, it is a lot of more fun to me.

[mngolfer]

The fastest I have driven my V8 is 154 MPH at BIR in October of 2009. The straight at this track is the longest in the US. I only glanced at the digital speedometer near the end of the straight. Turn one was coming up fast but I was still accelerating after my glance at the speedometer.

[SteveR]

That was an impressive top speed run. It looks like it was still climbing. With enough room perhaps 210 is possible? Anyone know if it will do 200 in the standing mile?

Even as a life long motor-head, I am strangly uninterested in top speed other than as a measure of a cars performance envelope. After 800 miles of mostly highway driving, I'm not sure I have been over 90 mph. When I showed my father the car his first question was how fast can it go? I had no idea. I could quote Hp, 0-60 times and Nurburgring laps, but not top speed.

In my high school years I had two high speed runs. The first was on a country road in my 72' Camaro with it's anemic 307 two barrel. I hit about 135 mph with 4 passengers. The car floated uneasily over the mild bumps of intersections. Another time I hit the same speed in my 69' Camaro on the Ohio Turnpike trying to make a concert. It was equally unsteady at that speed. I'll never forget looking over to see my passenger literally white knuckle gripping the dash. Both runs were interesting, but somewhat unpleasant.

Since then I have seen first hand what happens to a body when it suddenly stops at high speeds, even with the best racing protection. Complete spinal separation, torn aortas, etc., those images have pretty much erased any interest I had left in 150+ mph, except perhaps on a runway or a track.

I don't mean to condemn anyone. It's just a person observation.

[KfabR8]

I believe that there are times and places out in public that one can test the top end of a car - especially if the car is capable of such runs, like our beloved R8's are.

These places and moments are far and few between and I am fully aware of the dangers that go along with doing something like this.

I hit 181 mph out south of Vegas on a long, flat, very open stretch of road. We passed one truck early on and then there was no traffic in either direction. I was very careful in selection of the time and place that I went for it.

One of the things that I was keenly aware of was that I had new rims and tires on the car so I figured that the safety aspect there was "good". I wouldn't dream of doing something like this with tires that had much more than a couple thousand miles on them.

At 181 the R8 was just rock steady stable and we were on our way to seeing just what top end was before I got a false alarm on the V1.

I was more impressed with the ability to go from 181 down to about 70 in what seemed to be the blink of an eye.

Will I try again? Hard to say. The new TT setup does sort of beg the question "How quickly will it hit top end?" Given the correct conditions and place I may have to tempt that fate, but to say I plan on going out and doing it again ... the right conditions must present themselves.

I do believe that a track, an air strip or some place set up just for doing speed runs is the best place to play with this aspect of our cars.