260 kph on Saturday

Pkiernan

While in Stuttgart at the weekend, a friend let me try out his BMW 335d.

We reached 260 kph before the limiter kicked in. A little too fast for me to be comfortable however. One has to look quite a ways into the distance, and take extreme care when braking.

Driving on the M11 here will never be the same.

SV

fair play.
enjoyable isn't it?

SV

betafrog wrote: »

You hit 260kph in a car with a top speed of 210!! You must have every racing team in the world beating down your door!

I'm pretty sure a 335d has a much higher top speed than 210.

edit: but maybe not?

NinjaTruncs

SV wrote: »

I'm pretty sure a 335d has a much higher top speed than 210.

edit: but maybe not?

it has to have a higher speed than 210, I've a 1.4 fiat which can do 212.

brandon_flowers

Brilliant stuff.

Betafrog, Isnt the limiter not 155mph on all BMW's because of some components not being safe at speeds over it. 155mph would be around 250kmh anyway

Fey!

The 335d is electronically limited to 155mph, which is abour 248kph. If the speedo is reading high, as they often do, it is plausible that the op really did see 260kph on the clock.

SV

betafrog wrote: »

Hmmm.. the internets seems to have varying figures for the top speed, anywhere from 210 to 250kph

Damn internets!!

Yeah that's what I was finding.
Although I'd say it does have to be limited.
It does have a fair bit of power..but then again you never know

Bandit12

260 My hayabusa does that in 4th gear

NinjaTruncs

betafrog wrote: »

I'm thinking the only way to resolve this is for the OP to bring us all to Germany in his friends 335d and shows us it's top speed

wouldn't all the extra weigh slow him down considerably?

SV

Bandit12 wrote: »

260 My hayabusa does that in 4th gear

Yes but he can do that speed in comfort and warmth whilst listening to the radio.

Drummerboy08

According to BMW.ie, the top speed is 250kph.

http://www.bmw.ie/ie/en/newvehicles/3series/sedan/2008/allfacts/engine/technical_data.html

Pkiernan

The speedo showed 260 kph - although it would not surprise me if the actual speed was lower.

The limiter did not kick in until the clock showed 260. The car, if delimited is wind drag restricted at approx 280 kph.

TheBazman

did indicated 250kph on the autobahn in the 535d a few months ago - altho the sat nav had it at around 230 - 235kph. Didnt quite manage to get a stretch to hit the limiter. Maybe next Nurburgring trip:D

Sqaull20

250/260kph isnt anything special on those roads, still some acheivement for a mid size diesel though.I was in a rented mini cooper and drove it to the max ( just over 215kph ) for long periods and things flew by me like I was doing 100kph!! one SLR Mercedes was stuck behind me and an Audi and it nearly took me with it when it accelarated past, he must have went past 300kmh easily.A couple of miles of road and he was out of sight in seconds while I was doing over 200kph, crazy power.

Matt Simis

brandon_flowers wrote: »

Brilliant stuff.

Betafrog, Isnt the limiter not 155mph on all BMW's because of some components not being safe at speeds over it.

Its an agreement in Germany between manufacturers. It has nothing to do with safety of mysterious components. Did you not wonder why some M cars (and Audi RS cars) have the same hard paper limit as something far less exciting?

Anan1

SV wrote: »

fair play.
enjoyable isn't it?

It's fun to do once, but it can get very tiring driving at that kind of speed for long periods. It does depend on the car (and the driver), but if I were doing a long run on unestricted Autobahn i'd probably be keeping in or around 200km/h.

brandon_flowers

Matt Simis wrote: »

Its an agreement in Germany between manufacturers. It has nothing to do with safety of mysterious components. Did you not wonder why some M cars (and Audi RS cars) have the same hard paper limit as something far less exciting?

I knew it was only the Germans who did it.

Yes I always wondered why the beasts had limiters because the day i have an RS6 or M5 the limiter will be coming off straight away.

/Alarm clock goes off.

Pkiernan

Anan1 wrote: »

It's fun to do once, but it can get very tiring driving at that kind of speed for long periods. It does depend on the car (and the driver), but if I were doing a long run on unestricted Autobahn i'd probably be keeping in or around 200km/h.

Thats exactly how I drove when I lived there.

The owner of the car however is a speed freak. On a trip from Frankfurt he had the car on the limiter for 7 minutes, and averaged 202 kph for the entire journey to Stuttgart.

What impressed more than the speed was how controlled the car was at high speed, and how well it took corners on the normal roads. Extremely well built car.

Anan1

brandon_flowers wrote: »

I knew it was only the Germans who did it.

Yes I always wondered why the beasts had limiters because the day i have an RS6 or M5 the limiter will be coming off straight away.

/Alarm clock goes off.

You'll need to change the tyres too, AFAIK tyres rated for very high speeds wear a lot faster too.

Marlow

betafrog wrote: »

You hit 260kph in a car with a top speed of 210!! You must have every racing team in the world beating down your door!

The 335d engine is the same engine as the 535d. It's the 530 with a twin turbo. It will certaily go way way over 250 km/h, however all BMW's are limited to 250 km/h.

The speedo would show 260 km/h because it can be up to 10 km/h off. This is to avoid lawsuits etc. If you enable the diagnostics mode in for example the M5 you can get a precise digital reading. I asume this applies to most modern BMWs.

German Autobahn is indeed a nice place to get the **** kicked out of your car. You just have to find the right stretches and think ahead.

/M

brandon_flowers

Anan1 wrote: »

You'll need to change the tyres too, AFAIK tyres rated for very high speeds wear a lot faster too.

Does a Y rated tyre not come as standard?

Marlow

A lot of people don't fit the same tyres, as their BMW was delivered with.

Also, in Ireland you usually get tyres, that are more durable for our street conditions than on the continent. So if you get your tyres fit on the continent mainland, you can expect, that they wear down faster over here.

I'd always fit my car with tyres to above the maximum speed it can go, no matter if I ever drive that or not.

Another one on the top speed of that 335d. My old 525tds with manual tranni from 1997 did 225 km/h (140 mph) and yes, I've tried that out on the German Autobahn .. GPS verified. So I expect a newer 335d to outperform that easily.

/M

Anan1

brandon_flowers wrote: »

Does a Y rated tyre not come as standard?

I've no idea, TBH.

TheBazman

what amazed me on the autobahn is that anytime we got held up in traffic the cars that seemed to be right up our behinds and looking to undertake were often 7 seaters and family wagons

brandon_flowers

Marlow wrote: »

A lot of people don't fit the same tyres, as their BMW was delivered with.


/M

Thats understandable, but on one of the serious machines I'd expect (pray) the owner to know how important the tyres are and put the correct rated tyres on them.

Anan1 wrote: »

I've no idea, TBH.

I don't either but Y rated came as standard on my Audi A4 so I'd hazard they would for an RS or M. Where is MarkN, doesn't he have an M3?

Marlow

TheBazman wrote: »

what amazed me on the autobahn is that anytime we got held up in traffic the cars that seemed to be right up our behinds and looking to undertake were often 7 seaters and family wagons

Every country is a different driving. Germany can be a pain in the b**.

I love Belgium, if you come in the outer lane people will move out of your way long before you reach them.

Also sliproads in Belgium are both on and off ramps at once and in the middle the cars just swap lanes, with very little space between them, but it just works out smooth.

/M

Marlow

brandon_flowers wrote: »

Thats understandable, but on one of the serious machines I'd expect (pray) the owner to know how important the tyres are and put the correct rated tyres on them.

Oh. Certainly. And if you go to a decent tyre garage, they'll ensure to give you the right tyres for your car.

It's only when people to cheap skates, that it ends up in madness. It can cost you your car.

/M

TheBazman

In general yes they get out of the way but we had one or two scary moments when some plonkers pulled out in front of us. I had read before I did the trip that in general people understand a flash of your lights as "get out of my way" but there were a couple of times that some decided they wanted to stray right in our way to slow us down - I was glad I just had new brake pads and discs fitted;)

Marlow

Some people are ignorant.

In general, if you are going fast in Germany in the inner lane, stick your left blinker on and flash'em, if necessary.

Have your low beams on, so they spot you earlier. People do check their rear-mirror compared to other countries.

There will always be some idiot, but you just have to account for that.

It's pretty safe on the german Autobahn, even though there is no speed limit. People anticipate others with high speed.

/M

Padraig Mor

TheBazman wrote: »

I had read before I did the trip that in general people understand a flash of your lights as "get out of my way" )

Read somewhere that flashing your lights at other drivers was outlawed recently in Germany.

unkel

Marlow wrote: »

The speedo would show 260 km/h because it can be up to 10 km/h off. This is to avoid lawsuits etc.

It's true that most speedos indicate more than the actual speed. This is by European directive. The indicated speed must be at least the actual speed and at most the actual speed plus 10% plus 4km/h. If you did a search, you'd find it - we've covered it here before plenty of times.

So in the case of the actual speed of 250km/h this should show on the speedo as anywhere between 250km/h and 279km/h.

And then there's the complicating factor that not all BMWs are as limited to 250km/h as others. Officially they are, but unofficially?