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65 is faster than I thought

guruatbol

guruatbol

Always on vacation!
Well, today I had to go to Cedar City. I took the 65. Our on ramp for the interstate is slightly uphill and is about 1/8 mile long. I started from a dead stop and was even with a 09 GT doing about 80 and went through the gears and was dead even with him when I got on the freeway. He started to accelerate as I did. I stayed even with him into 5th gear and up to about 120, then he started to pull away slightly.

Very impressive. :yah I will be changing out the cam and heads some day, so this will then be a thing of the past.

I still had some rpm left and got to about 135 when I shut down. I need more RPM....

I am still grinning ear to ear.

Mel
 
If I'm reading this right, I can only imagine what kind of mess that could of made. 135 in a "65" on the highway would scare the crap out of me. Just sayin. Please be careful Mel.
 
"68bucks" said:
If I'm reading this right, I can only imagine what kind of mess that could of made. 135 in a "65" on the highway would scare the crap out of me. Just sayin. Please be careful Mel.
Click to expand...
+1

I'm not one to shy away from speed but that was a down right dangerous act, Mel. I've had my share of late night or isolated road fun but running a car like yours up to speeds like that on the freeway is both nuts and irresponsible. I used to stretch the legs of my modern Roush mustang on occasion and can tell you from experience a stock 65 mustang is not built for that kind of speed. Control those urges, Mel!
 
I did that about 15 years ago in my fastback. Got it up to about 120 on the highway late one night, nobody else on the road. It was awesome. However, at that time I still had 4 wheel drum brakes, stock steering parts, a relatively stock build on the car all around. The car shook like crazy, and I was so scared to try to go any faster and I definitely never did that again.

Now that my car is rebuilt with power disc brakes, ORP suspension, heavier sway bar, etc, etc, I'd like to get it up there again to see what it will do. Will likely take it to a local track sometime to do it under more controlled conditions.

I had my 03 Mach 1 above 100 and it was so smooth I didn't even realize I was going that fast. Amazing.

I'm not going to jump on Mel for this, he knows his car and the road he was on.
 
I am not sure what the PO did to the front suspension, but it was real smooth. I was not going to push it any harder though. I was surprised to look at my 160 speedo that is 20 mph fast at 155 almost pegged though. It felt more like 90, but I knew I past that just the way stuff was going by me.

In the 80s I had a 66 coupe. Drove from Buena Park, CA to Riverside, CA with the 140 stock speedo pegged all the way. that was basically stock and super scary. This FB seems much more stable.

There are things that need to be done to make it better, like rear suspension and disc brakes, but some of this will have to wait until winter.

Oh, SWMBO's 67 is not even as close to as stable as this one was. Hers scares me at 90. The 65 wasn't scary at all. I was shocked. Thus the post.

Mel
 
A speedo is very seldom a "flat" number off on speed thru the sweep. They run a percentage. If a true speed of 50 reads 70 on yours, the speedo is of by 40%. That would make true 96 read 134.4, true 110 would read 144.4, true speed og 30 would read 42. Just some exzmples of the variance. I have compared many with a GPS and these numbers seem close.

And Mel, doing those speeds, you may be able to meet this famous "Bubba" you talk so much about.
 
I would trap at about 120 (slip verified)in the quarter in my Roush and had opportunity to take it beyond 130 in other "situations". The speedo was fairly accurate compared to my time slips so I have no doubt it was within 5-7 miles per hour at high speed. Here's what I can tell you about it;

A 2002 mustang is much more aero than a 65. Add that mine was lowered and had ground effects and a real rear spoiler to help keep it down. When running with some high dollar types (AMG, VR1, etc) I had enough at about 135. There was a definite float feel when I'd hit a rise in the pavement or a drift on sweeping turns.

That's why with my current project I am doing and investing so much to try and get it to ride like a modern performance car. The Roush spoiled me. I want the same speeds in this one (OK, faster in the QTR) but I also want the same level of confidence in the stability of the car.

I think Pete is probably right about the speedo accuracy. That would explain why Mel is still here to tell us about his fun! Be safe everyone.
 
Mark is right as to figuring what it should read/be. Once that is calculated, convert to % for calculations across the speed range. Makes it easy to get a close reading if one does not bother to change the speedo gears.
 
"silverblueBP" said:
Simple calculations using gear ratios, tire diameters and rpm's will tell you what the speed really was. I don't ever go by the old speedometers, tach only.

http://www.car-videos.net/tools/speedrp ... ecalculate
Click to expand...

That is a nice thing to have. I have always driven by the tach in these cars. the speedo in my car is a digital cobalt, but I need to calibrate it something fierce.

Pete you are exactly right. I do know that 2500 rpm in fifth gear is about 80 mph plus or minus a mile or two. When all is said and done using the table in the link above the best speed I could have achieved is 132. (had to edit this since I found my transmission gear ratios and did a recalc)

So it may not be as fast as I figured in my head, but still darn respectable.

As for float, yep there was some. I watched the new GT with some major float too. Mine was there, but was controllable. There are some low spots in the pavement and the front end was getting pretty light.

I have a list going of what is needed for this car, and as money gets better, they will happen. I will keep you all posted and of course post pics.

I think I will go with sub frame support first, then a dual MC. Discs will have to wait until I can get the MII suspension under it. then I will do the rear discs. Rear suspension mods are a certainty.

I have to say I have never had a Mustang of this vintage that under acceleration that just sat down and took off. Kind of like a Porsche I had driven once.

Last night there seemed to be every LEO out from STG to SLC and back.

Mel
 
Mel, all I have to say is that if you were doing 132 as you calculated and were on an interstate feeling a little front end float and you were watching the front end on the 09 GT..you're nucking futs :wtf
 
Yeah I've had my speedo buried at 120 and the front end definitely gets a little light. What made me the most nervous was the sloppy steering. I felt the car sway back and forth, and at those speeds you need some tight steering to keep things on the straight and narrow.

Mel, sounds like a friggin blast to me! That is pretty impressive for that little 65. Sounds like your car is set up well to handle those speeds and still be stable. Mine still needs some work, thats for sure
 
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