Posted by Buzzman72 on July 25, 2010 at 12:54:55 from (74.129.194.33):
In Reply to: Re: My Calculation. posted by GUIDO on July 25, 2010 at 12:01:43:
I agree with your calculations.
I had a '64 Chevelle with a 283, a Powerglide, and some TALL rear tires, combined with some sort of "airplane gear" in the rear end, as we used to call it. [Car had all this stuff when I traded for it...including the chrome reverse wheels and the coil-over lifts on the rear shocks for tire clearnace. Swapped a bone-stock '46 International pickup in gray primer title-for-title.] Speedo was badly off, so I mounted my tach. Since the car would turn 6000 rpm, and 3000 rpm was 80 mph, THEORETICALLY it would top out at 160. But the only time I tried to see what it would actually top out at, we never made it.
It was around 3 am, and it was on a long stretch of new concrete highway. We were winding it up, and at about 5250 rpm--a calculated 140 mph--we tossed a driveshaft. Actually, best I can tell the rear U-joint broke, the driveshaft got in a bind, and twisted itself in two. The rear half got thrown out from under the car, while the front half stayed connected to the tranny at the slip yoke, beating the everlasting hell out of the floorboards. The two guys riding with me were wide-eyed, with the guy in the middle of the front seat screaming, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" while putting a death grip on my right knee and the other guy's left knee.
When we had coasted down to about 40 mph, I let the engine idle and put the tranny in PARK as I slowed to a stop.
So here we are, 3am, a nearly abandoned stretch of highway, with a disabled car. Faintly, in the distance, we say a set of headlights approaching. We flaggged the guy down, and it turned out to be one of our stoner friends trying to make it home. He gave us a ride back to town.
I got a replacement driveshaft in the Chevelle, and THEN discovered that the tranny tailhousing was cracked a dozen ways and had to replace it. But I never tried to see if the car would do the "theoretical" 160 MPH again. I figured I'd pressed my luck on that ONCE already.
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