Court Date Set for 182mph Driver - (Lamborghinis are fast)

AP ^ | September 4, 2003 | AP

[Damocles]

Court Date Set for 182mph Driver

LEHIGHTON, PA-September 4, 2003 — Just how fast will a Lamborghini go?

Police in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, charge William Faenza Junior was doing 182 in his Lamborghini Diablo.

Officers also charge Faenza was driving drunk. Police say they caught up with him when he pulled into a gas station.

While Faenza concedes he may have been doing 100, he denies going nearly 200 miles per hour.

He says if he was going that fast, the police would have never caught him.

Besides, Faenza says the wheels on his Lamborghini start to shake when he goes faster than 70.

He's to appear in court next Wednesday.

[PLMerite]

120mph in a MkII Jag on a B-road in North Yorkshire, 1982.

110mph in a '92 Dodge Stealth R/T on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway 1992-1998.

But don't quote me on that.

[Servant of the Nine]

You'll have to admit those 25K Mustang GTs are a lot of bang for the buck.

I owned a few and played with other peoples exoticars back in the early to mid '70s, when used ones were relatively cheap.

Today I am reduced to family style 4 door sedandom.
I am contemplating a Beck 550 Spyder for a retirement present to myself.

So9

[Old Professer]

I've got the ticket story of all time:

Back on Jan 23,1965, my wife and I were driving from L.A. to Las Vegas for my cousin's wedding; we were in Nevada and it was early in the morning when I saw a car pulled over to the side of the road ahead with white vapor coming from the tailpipe. I was concerned that maybe the guy needed help and since we were the only other car for miles I thought I would pull over and offer to help. I pulled in behind his car and walked up to the driver's door and looked inside. A guy was slumped over the seat with his feet near the pedals and his head resting on the passenger window, either asleep or passed out.

I walked around the car and looked at all of the tires and they were okay, so I decided to wake him up and make sure he didn't gas himself with the idling engine.

When I tapped on the passenger window glass with my knuckles, he raised his head and looked groggily in my direction and put his head back on the glass.

Well, I couldn't have this, after all if I drove off and he asphyxiated himself it would sort of be my fault, so I rapped again, only harder this time.

Well, this did it - the guy raised up, rolled the window part-way down and said, "What the Hell d'ya want?"

I told him that he had better leave a window open or shut off the engine before he killed himself and he told me to get lost.

I got back in the car with my wife and relayed our conversation to her and took off on toward Vegas.

We hadn't gone more that two miles at about 70 MPH when this same car came roaring up behind and passed going at least 100.

About three more miles down the road I saw a flashing red light and sure enough, here was my sleepy friend sitting in his car and a state trooper with his foot on the bumper writing away in his ticket book.

I'll bet that guy would've beat the crap out me if he had had the chance.

[wardaddy]

I believe we all have our time....that was not yours.....and what an incredible feat of good fortune.

I have cheated death so many times especially in my youth that I prefer not to dwell on it.

I have a lot of dead friends for my age...the crowd I ran with from 15-35.

Nowadays with mortality inching closer, I pay a bit more attention to risk although I still confess to enjoying aggressive driving given the opportunity.

I think the absolute closest I ever came to "the end" had nothing to do with speed. I was standing on a cliff side with about a 200 foot drop right below me onto rocks and standing on slippery mud. I slipped and started sliding and clawed and literally tried to walk on air and at the last 2-3 feet before oblivion I was able to grab a sprig of a tree sticking out of nowhere and my pals laid down and held one another to reach out for me.

I have crash landed in airplanes twice and sank 135 miles offshore in the Gulf and sailed thru 100 knot storms at sea but was never truly terrified but on that cliff and almost falling to certain death....I was shaken up pretty good...as were the folks with me.

I drive 34 miles each way crosstown Nashville to work (Nashville has stupid drivers) and my number could come up any day but there just seems at times rhyme to the reason...I hope.

And some folks are simply unlucky....think of folks you know that everytime they are at risk...bad things happen.

oh well...life is funny. (and not like ha-ha)

[Old Professer]

I'm sure you had the rocker-arm stud kit with self-locking nuts for zero-lash didn't you?

I made my own on a 1957 Chieftain 347 using thin grade 8 washers and nylon-insert aircraft 5/16X28 nuts.

Wouldn't float the valves even at 7,000; but it would pull the studs - had to smack them back in every time I was late moving the shift lever.

[OldCorps]

don't forget the sun spot activity

[OldCorps]

lol,

If I wuz you after that incident, I'd spend the next week in church thanking God for sparing me. That's one scary story.

[_Jim]

don't forget the sun spot activity

Fortunately, the antennas employed on these systems employ a rather tight 'beamwidth' and do not 'view' the sun directly (i.e., when it's overhead) ... except around dusk when the sun's EL angle is rather low ...

[wardaddy]

The key to outrunning John Law is the ability to be moving very hard when he first spots you and then to hail Mary for all you've got very fast for a short period of time and then find a hiding place and wait it out. I have ditched behind houses and in bean and cotton fields and woods a number of times. A prolonged chase is not in your favor especially with the eye in the sky on it's way.

Dash hard and fast and hide and wait....hours and hours.

I used to run on my H2 and on my GS110R all the time around Oxford Miss. I even skated once with my girlfriend on the back. But once I took off with Barney in pursuit and came around a curve hauling ass after about 2 or 3 minutes with the puruit car out of sight behind me and there were two Scooter Barneys waiting with bigass grins on their faces....lol....I gave up. They were so thrilled with finally catching me (I had the hottest bike around) that they could have cared less about the ticket...they just wanted to rub it in that they had gotten me. Damn...cops..even though they loathed us longhairs back then and would beat our arses if provoked ..hell, they just seemed more approachable then...hard to explain...now they're all bigscreen SWAT jocks...hardcases.

I will confess....if on a lonely stretch of interstate without children and doing my usual 85-90 in my wife's car and I see a Mounty turning around way back and there is an exit over his line of sight....I have been known to duck and cover...i can't help it.

[Poohbah]

Anyone here know the top speed of most cop cars? I'd imagine 120 - 130.

Cop car tops out in that range, but the radio waves summoning backup move at 186,000 miles per second.

[sandydipper]

Reminds me of the Texan that hitched a JATO tank to the back of his Impala. Troopers figured he was doing more than 200 mph when the Impala became airborne and made a nasty greasy spot on the side of a granite wall about 100 ft. up.

He was a Darwin nominee.

[Itzlzha]

Are we posting maximum speeds?

Ok...I dunno mine.

My speedo was pegged at 145, and I had 1600 RPM to yellow line.

Any Mass people; I went from Wakefield, Ma. to the I-95 tolls on the NH border in 16 MINUTES!

It took 1/2 a tank of gas, and I slowed ONCE, for the 128/95 cloverleaf...took that at 85.

It was a 1987 Z-28 that had been HIGHLY played with!

[Old Professer]

That's pronounced: Mon-uh-gull, right?

[Poohbah]

Sadly, that one's an urban legend.

[Itzlzha]

I tell you what cars are stable at high (100 mph - 120 mph) speeds (although they may take forever to get up there): Old (pre '74) Volvos -- Models 164 and 1800. Solid as rocks.

My new Volvo S-60 T5 is stable right up to the 135 mph. limiter! (THAT will be going away soon!)

Who knew BMW owners could get soooo CRANKY when a Volvo out-performs their over-priced Nazi-Mobiles!

[RightWhale]

At that speed the brakes on most production cars are ineffective. The pavement is also like ice. The driver has to be prescient, it's a different state of being. Not to mention that you feel like a useless slug for endangering the Commonwealth if they catch you.

[RightWhale]

at even 100 mph, it's got to guzzle the gas.

Oh, no, not at all. The engine is tuned for greatest efficiency at that speed. That's the best gas mileage, probably over 25 mpg.

[RightWhale]

the lower the car was to the blacktop

That's right. The car is aerodynamically designed so the airfoil pulls the car down. Inverse flying. Otherwide it would actually fly, but it's still very light on the tires.

[wardaddy]

Wow...I'm bookmarking that Beck...interesting.

Last relatively hot car I had was an Alpha Milano Verde I bought for my ex in 88.

Unequivocal POS....worst car I've ever owned and I've owned old MGs, old Saabs, and now have a Land Rover..lol

Pretty snappy though thru the gears and handled decent for a sedan but was built by drunks I suppose....think turbo Lada..lol

Now, like you...I'm all SUV basically with 2 in car seats and 4 more of us to tote.

If I had the bucks...I'd still go for a 911 style Porsche again....I don't even know the new models really other than what I see on the road.

A few months ago, I had an SUV ...very odd looking.....blow past me off the line at a light...I managed to see Cayenne on the back and looked it up on the net....a Porsche SUV....beam me up Scotty..lol!

Funny didn't Lambo make an articulating 4 wheeler back in the 80s?

Remember those 6 wheel French exotics...can't recall the name?

When I was a Road and Track lad in the late 60s and early 70s...the hot car was the Lotus Europa Special....her pan gs were about .780 or so and that was tops then...lol...I bet Honda Accords do that now.

[yarddog]

I guess technically we are all seconds away from death all the time.

When driving in traffic especially so.

I will say that Wardaddy is a fugitive from the law of averages.