[MarcoZandrini]

.....autobahn? What was your top speed?

[BEM-S4]

I have on a number of occasions. Honestly the best thing is not the speed but the lane discipline and courtesy of other drivers. Drove very fast, felt very safe and didn't worry much about others around me doing anything stupid.

[Sportstick]

Originally Posted by MarcoZandrini

.....autobahn? What was your top speed?

Approximately 135mph in a Mercedes C Class.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by MarcoZandrini

.....autobahn? What was your top speed?

153 MPH – Volvo V70R MT – July 2006 – A 7 between Hanover and Hamburg

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

Honestly the best thing is not the speed but the lane discipline and courtesy of other drivers. Drove very fast, felt very safe and didn't worry much about others around me doing anything stupid.

^ This.

In my case, that was 16 years ago. I don't know what it's like today.

Another thing of note when I was on it was the night-and-day difference between the two-lane and three-lane autobahns. With trucks limited to 90 KPH and the right-hand lane, it was frequently the case in the left-hand lane that you had to slow way down for someone going around a truck before moving back into the right-hand lane. I will say that occasionally a driver going around a truck misjudged the closing speed of my car; all of those drivers' cars had Eastern European license plates, so they probably hadn't yet become accustomed to the Germans' routine. On the three-lane autobahns, you were pretty much free to run flat-out for as long as you liked.

[Shadysu]

The canadian autobahn 😏, maxed out speedo on OTS stage 2+

[morphomeman]

On German autobahns, the left lane is for passing. If a large truck is driving at 80 k/h in the right lane and the driver of the vehicle behind wants to pass at 90 k/h, they are entitled to do so as long as the left lane is clear.
This means that a driver going at 200 k/h in the left lane has to be vigilant of the 90 k/h passing vehicle and may have to slow down abruptly.
All German drivers know how this works.
In Italy, at least in the old days, there was an unwritten rule that a Ferrari driver could go as fast as they wanted to, regardless of the posted speed on the autostrada. This made for some interesting moments, such as when one Fiat 600 was passing another at very slow speed and a Ferrari was coming up fast behind. Again, the onus was always on the Ferrari to slow down, sometimes very precipitously.

[German1967]

181 mph in a Porsche 911 Coupe (992).

[dradernh]

Lest anyone think the natives using the autobahn operate without hiccups, a number of years ago there was a video shot by a traffic camera on an overpass looking down a very long autobahn straight at cars coming towards it. At the end of the straight the highway curved away to the left.

Two lanes (IIRC) of traffic with a fair number of cars in them were moving smoothly coming around the bend and down the long straight towards the camera. Suddenly, a P-car pops into view in a fashion that lets you know it's going dramatically faster than the other traffic. The driver fails to complete the turn...I'm working off fuzzy memory now...gets out of shape, hits the median barrier, gets up a bit off the surface...the memory is clearer here...and begins tumbling most of the way down the long straight in an exceptionally dramatic fashion.

He doesn't hit any of the other cars, nor do they hit him as they become aware of what's happening and take appropriate evasive action, none of which looks particularly remarkable from the camera's point of view. The other cars just move around a bit as he tumbles by!

The P-car ends up off the pavement, upside down, and it was startling to see the driver had survived as he crawled out of the car and climbed partway up an embankment that runs along the side of the highway. He then pulls his knees up and puts his head down on them. I think I remember the other cars honking at him as they drove by.

The driver must have been very grateful he wasn't in a lesser ride.

I wonder how the conversations with the police, court, licensing authorities, and his insurance company went!

--------------------------------------

Here's another one...

Early one afternoon we'd gone to the Fürstenwalde train station east of Berlin to take the train into the city. Things run on time in Germany, right? Not that day. Not only did the train not leave the station on time, after 45 minutes sitting around the stationmaster still couldn't tell us what the problem was or when the train would depart. We gave up and found something else to do that day.

On that trip, we were staying near Fürstenwalde with a group of locals, two of whom were Berlin highway patrol sergeants. As we recounted our day over dinner, they said in unison "Oh, we can tell you why your train is still sitting in Fürstenwalde!"

It turned out a P-car driver had made a turn to the right off the autobahn onto a flyover and couldn't complete the turn due to too much speed. The car got airborne and landed on the train tracks, which were a fair distance below. It took quite a few hours for the car to be separated from the tracks, as it had more or less welded itself to them.

[skidplate]

150mph during Euro delivery in my M235ix, after I was over 1000 miles on the OD of course.

[sl0w_N55]

180 mph on the U.S. autobahn..Ps2 full e85

[Heitzer]

A 2 hour evening drive between 150 and 178 mph, it was epic. In a E92 M3 rented from Sixt who put a 178 mph limiter in - a bit less than what the car can do. I thought that was gracious.

It was also north of Hannover, funny . A two lane highway mostly and managing trucks pulling out at 70mph was the greatest challenge.

I grew up in Germany, just a few miles from Hannover. When the wall came down there were indeed lots of challenges with East European drivers who had to learn the way of the autobahn.

You get used to high speed drives quickly. I don't care much for it now. There are more windy sections though in the Alps for example where it gets interesting. My dream is to take my BMW motorcycle there.

[MarcoZandrini]

Well, I've done 120mph on the Autobahn in a rented MB A160. That was about 8 yeas ago. I did 135mph in 4th gear on the front straight of Virginia International Raceway (VIR). Yeah, the tack was in the red zone!!

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by morphomeman

In Italy, at least in the old days, there was an unwritten rule that a Ferrari driver could go as fast as they wanted to, regardless of the posted speed on the autostrada. This made for some interesting moments, such as when one Fiat 600 was passing another at very slow speed and a Ferrari was coming up fast behind.

I learned to drive in a '59 Fiat 600. By far, the principal issue in that exercise was the clutch engagement length. I estimate it as having been around one-half inch, at best. For this learner, clutch release was an on-off switch. From what I recall, the 600's drivetrain was indestructible.

I stalled and bucked that car so many times it was nuts. Fortunately, the owner/instructor was incredibly patient, as he understood that a young man without wheels in San Francisco in the mid-60s was severely limited in his social possibilities.

[Lew Carrum]

166 mph on a Suzuki motorbike, the stability on an unfaired bike was incredible but I was struggling to hold on.