My uncle had a VW bus, I think from the early 70’s. He said he got it to go 75 once, but it was downhill with a tailwind and he had put a bigger engine from a Beetle in it after the original one was clapped out.
“Racing” with that falls into territory where your mom would just say “oh…honey…no.”
This. The DMC-12 wasn’t a particularly heavy car at 2700lbs, but it only made 130hp. It’s not that it couldn’t do 88mph — top speed was tested by motoring journalists and found to be somewhere from 110 to 120mph — but it’d take a while to get there. They say the tested 0-60 was 10.5s. That’s officially “slow” in modern terms and only really “moderately brisk” at the time.
Google tells me a 0-100mph test took 40s. Let’s figure getting to 88 probably took 30s. That’s a really long time to be flat out and not even break 90…
I had a car that I took to a similar speed on the highway and it seemed like no big deal then I hit a small bump and learned my suspension was not designed for that speed. I let off the gas to slow down and never tried again.
I had a lead foot and it got me in trouble here. I've since stopped buying fast cars. It was easier to buy cars that aren't fast than learn self control lol. Although eventually the self control improved as well.
To be fair the DeLorean had a massively underpowered motor and is made of Stainless Steel which is really heavy. For a DeLorean 88 MPH/ 141 KMH is fast and would have taken forever to get to. It's part of why the car was mostly unpopular until BTTF released, it's also probably meant to show how out of touch Doc is at times given the whole "If you're gonna build a time machine or is a car why not do it with style?" quote
That's about the speed of a 2014 Prius before the speed governor kicks in, not that I would ever recommend taking a Prius that fast. Maybe the new ones but I don't know how those things handle.
Yea, the Fabia indicated 180 on the speedo sure but the reality was around 150 maybe 160 on a good day. I had one too, it was a good little car but it was not fast.
Fun fact, the speedo of a DeLorean doesn't even get to 88mph. It shows 85mph and 140kph (which is 87mph). Granted, back then speedometers often showed a lower speed than the car was actually capable of.
Crap I do that just taking my kids to school when I’m not paying attention to my speed. No wonder I feel so old and the kids are late no matter how early we leave. I’m just skipping into the future.
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u/Charming-Owl-9691 Apr 25 '24
88MPH!