Posted on 12/02/2013 8:23:46 PM PST by grundle
Paul Walker liked his cars fast fast fast -- in fact, he once boasted about hitting a top speed of 185 MPH -- and it wasn't on a racetrack ... it was on a freeway.
"The Fast & The Furious" star -- who died in a fiery car crash on Saturday -- made the revelation on GTChannel back in 2011 ... while taking a Nissan GT-R out for a test spin in Japan.
"The fastest I've ever gone is 184 to 186," Walker says on the video .... and then he reveals how fast he was clocked on an actual racetrack.
As TMZ reported ... law enforcement believes speed was a factor in the crash of the Porsche Carrera GT that killed Walker and his friend Roger Rodas in Santa Clarita, CA ... although it was Rodas -- not Walker -- who was driving at the time of the collision.
(Excerpt) Read more at tmz.com ...
Bird hits windshield of a 180mph Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
The DeThomaso Pantera had a 380HP Ford 351 in it and only weighed about 3,100 lbs. - being Italian in design, it handled the 165 like 65 - only difference was how incredibly fast things fly by you at that speed.
I can’t imagine 200 or more. I have a current 2-seater that will do 169, but have no intention of ever getting close to that.
Wiki says the top speed of the Pantera was 159 - so I guess the speedo
was off - or the one I drove was souped up.....
The driver took out the innocent passenger, didn’t he? Never do foolish things with passengers or where there is bystanders.
If the bug bites you, it’s not a bad way to go. Miss those toys, I may have to get back into it and have my grandkids get a little 80CC centrifugal-clutched round track kart. They are 2, it’s about about time to get them going!
Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the turkey vulture.
Yep.
His daughter, not so much.
If you think your grands might go pro, now is probably the time to start them on the path!
I remember after I finished drivers’ school one of my co-workers was saying to me, “Now you can go pro!” My response was: “I’m over 40. The time for me to choose racing as a career was thirty-five years ago.”
My last two years in Germany were spent driving a Volvo 242GT. I think the fastest I ever went was 110 on the autobahn. Best cruising speed was around 90 mph.
I do recall making it from Kleber Kaserne (K-Town) to Spangdahlem AB in 55 minutes, long before the autobahn to Wittlich was completed. The last 25 miles or so were backroads.
Our Group HQ was at K-Town, and we had a meeting that went long. At 5:05, our new S-3, who had been in country a few weeks, remarked "Damn, my wife's expecting me at 6."
Our other rider (my replacement, as I was heading back to the States) said, "you shouldn't have told him that." I grinned and said, "we'll make it by 6".
As we're hitting 110 on the autobahn, I hear "you know why the radio's not on? We're going too damn fast!"
I had a great time making the drive, poor fellow next to me was white knuckled all the way.
I loved that car, it was a damn tank with some real zip to it.
I can confirm that the windshield of a Mitsubishi Evo can survive a direct hit by a turkey vulture dining on road kill at a speed of just under 150 mph.
Bird hits windshield of a 180mph Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
Thank you, Mitsubishi for the electronic speed limiter
He did.
But Paul’s love of speed may well have contributed to the tragedy by goading the driver to push the envelope, mitigating his innocence in this sad and deadly event.
I’ll miss Paul’s work. His work in the heart-warming Disney film “8 Below” is some of his best.
Going that fast with a Beethoven symphony (2nd movement of the 7th) on the stereo is a thrilling, life-affirming experience.
Surviving is even more so...!
Once hit 137 in a new Trans AM on the Foothill Freeway in La Crescenta, Caifornia just after it opened.
Once got a ticket for going 120+ on the Freeway early one Sunday morning. The car wouldn’t do 120.
The officer wrote, I was going 120 and he was leaving me. From his perspective perhaps, but it wasn’t true. I was probably going around 115, which is bad enough.
Both times there were no other vehicles within a hundred yards, except the highway patrol car I missed in the second incident.
It was modified or the European EVO. The European one has a 100 more HP than the stock US EVO.
'67 Mustang up to 115 (Hwy 163, NorCal) around '80.
I had the exact same experience. The body of the car started to feel like it was floating above the suspension. Not a happy feeling.
140 in a gearhead friend’s bored out ‘68 impala at night with the lights out.
Take drugs overdoses out of play and I can’t recall a more ironic celebrity death.
Not after a visit to Bakauchi :-)
If you ever get a chance, drive across the Black Rock Desert in the middle of the night with the lights off at high speed. It’s quite the experience.
Just watch out for the sand serpents!
Ditto
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