1st Generation Specific (1979-1985) 1979-1985 Discussion including performance modifications and technical support sections

top speed

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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 05:47 PM
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top speed

so I finished my 2GCDFIS set-up today and decided to his up a country road to see how she runs. much cleaner, smoother, minimal backfires. its all good. but thats not the point here... the point is I decided to see how fast i could get going, since the road was clear and it's straight for miles. as i approached 90mph the whole car started shaking with speed wobbles.

so my questions are as follows...

how fast have you all gotten in your 1st. gens?

what causes this wobble? (front end lift? tires?)

what can i do to correct this?
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 05:51 PM
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Tsi_Xtreme's Avatar
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had my first SE to 120, my 2nd SE is having alot of work done to it right now... I'm hoping to push it alot higher!
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 06:12 PM
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130mph in mine. All stock at the time. It was a little scary though. But I have to admit that it was not as bad as my old car(95 z28 vert) at 143mph.

Also mine did not shake that much, at least in comparrison to the domestic.

Z
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 07:08 PM
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haha i would say 135 before i got scraed, had a little more room to go....

wasnt that shaky actually, it was rather smooth, felt liek i was going 90
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 07:15 PM
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107, could have gone faster if I had a better fuel pump for the mikuni. Would bog down by third gear and had to to practically skip fourth. No wobbles, but was a bit scary to change lanes. The only thing that was bugging me was the custom gauge faces that I ordered from Scott, which were rattling louder than you could possibly imagine (they're great other than that ).
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 08:06 PM
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Had mine to 135MPH a few times going down to SS8.
It felt rock solid,however I have many mods which help my high speed stability
Tight R&P steering
Tight suspension
Wide sticky tires
Airdam
Effective wing(at high speeds)
Lots O' Torque(less time spent waiting to reach terminal velocity);-)
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 10:49 PM
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Make sure you have good tires. Get a front end alignment. Balance your tires. That should take care of the shakes as long as your front end pieces are all good.
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Old Oct 25, 2005 | 11:57 PM
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ill see how fast my streetported GSL SE goes hopefully soon, first car ive ever owned "im 16" and have to fix a few things first
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:09 AM
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This has been discussed many times in the past. The big problem is the design of the car. At speeds of 100+ mph, the front end starts to lift, and the rear end also starts to lift. The rear end lift is especially dangerous, because if you need to make a quick lane change at those speeds (or do a quick evasive maneuver), you may find out too late that the rear end is so light that you lose control of the car.. and you do not want that to happen at high speeds.

If you want to do high speeds, you will need a good front air-dam to reduce the air going under the car, and it must be sturdy and stiff so it doesn't collapse from the air pressure. You will also need a good rear spoiler, to keep the rear of the car planted.. it would be perfect if you could find an original RX-7 air-dam that mounts across the rear panel, behind the hatch glass.. but anything similar to that would be fine.

If you don't do those things, you can always concentrate on improving your 0-to-100 acceleration. That's where 99.9% of the fun happens, anyway.
_

Damon's new policy is really stupid.. inserting links in member's posts is very lame and very unethical. My post is not an advertisement.

Last edited by genrex; Oct 26, 2005 at 12:26 AM.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:16 AM
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i hit 140mph once when i still had the 13B bridgeport i my GSLSE.
this was while racing some idiot with a GOLF. not even a GTI. just a GOLF!!
cant believe i wasted my gas on a GOLF. oh well. Fun stuff!
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:35 AM
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been 120 in my SE. having the 6ports open makes a major difference with top speed... feels pretty sturdy too, though I don't do it often, especially since the cold weather is approaching.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 09:40 AM
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The wobbles are definitely from your tires and/or suspension. Check your tires for inflation and balance and then make sure your rubber is all good on your suspension bits. Also, check that your shocks and sways bars are good and working as designed. Your probably not getting any affects areodymanically good or bad until you get above 100+ mph, then all the advice about air dam and rear spoilers should be heeded. Also, make sure your tires are rated for those speeds or higher. Blowouts at those speeds are not pretty and can ruin your pants :-)
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:25 PM
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I hit 118 and about pissed on myself. My car has original suspension, and it felt like my car was floating almost. Scared the **** out of me, but it was a nice adrenaline rush.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:52 PM
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I got arrested for doing 151 (5th gear, 8500rpm) in a 55 back in 2003, in IL, in my 79 Widebody (Small streetported 13B from a 76 Cosmo, RB Streetport exhaust, Weber 48IDA, and Holley Blue fuel pump). That sucked.... but the lawyer was awesome, and got it knocked down to a reckless driving ticket.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 12:58 PM
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well i just drove my car back from dallas and i hit 253 kph according to my pfc when i was following a new c6 vette on the highway not sure what that is in mph... a kilometer is like .6 miles right? if thats correct its 151.8 mph and my car was still accellerating pretty good but we hit traffic and i had to slow down went 170 or so before on my zx10r though
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 01:57 PM
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Ive been 185 MPH, but not in an RX7...
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 03:57 PM
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Originally Posted by t_g_farrell
The wobbles are definitely from your tires and/or suspension. Check your tires for inflation and balance and then make sure your rubber is all good on your suspension bits. Also, check that your shocks and sways bars are good and working as designed. Your probably not getting any affects areodymanically good or bad until you get above 100+ mph, then all the advice about air dam and rear spoilers should be heeded. Also, make sure your tires are rated for those speeds or higher. Blowouts at those speeds are not pretty and can ruin your pants :-)

yeah I kinda thought/hoped aerodynamics werent the problem at just 90mph. I'll be sure to check out all the bushings, etc. soon, maybe now would be a good time to swap in some poly bushings...

thanks for the comment about speed ratings! i just bought the car recently and the old owner had just put new tires and I never even checked them. They're only rated T, which according to TireRack.com is meant for family sedans/vans. That just wont do.... I mean they CAN go up to 118mph, but still.

While we're on the topic, I read somewhere that the sunroof works as a functional spoiler at high speeds... can anybody verify how much it helps?
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 03:58 PM
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Originally Posted by camocarl
Ive been 185 MPH, but not in an RX7...
I've been 650mph in a 747...
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 04:12 PM
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120 mph in my -se a couple weeks ago. Could've pushed it more but it was I-70. You can literally feel the gas pedal lose all responsiveness around that point. I'd love to be able to truly max it out on a deserted road someday.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 05:32 PM
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i dont know the MPH
but i redline my 85 s model in 5th gear and i can do it in about 1 mile.

i love these threads..their usless and everyone calls each other liars.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 06:21 PM
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over 150
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 06:42 PM
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120 in the SP 12A. Car actually felt glued to the ground, and was begging for more.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 06:53 PM
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Originally Posted by inuissus_cendi
While we're on the topic, I read somewhere that the sunroof works as a functional spoiler at high speeds... can anybody verify how much it helps?
I don't have a wind tunnel on me, but if anything I'd guess that would just add drag and disrupt the airflow over the airflow over the back of the car.
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Old Oct 26, 2005 | 11:48 PM
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Originally Posted by mikey D
i dont know the MPH
but i redline my 85 s model in 5th gear and i can do it in about 1 mile.

i love these threads..their usless and everyone calls each other liars.
i didnt mean to make a place for people to brag about their top speeds, i just honestly wanted to know what i should expect and what kind of problems im having.
so it has been usefull to me...

and i think we should actually applaud ourselves that no one has been called a liar yet in this thread...
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Old Oct 27, 2005 | 12:08 AM
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i was over the 85 mph speedometer and i dont know how far after that but it like stopped accellerating at 4500 rpms in 5th...stock no mods idk how fast tho
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