Why does my car speedo go up to 260kph...

Mint Sauce

when this is alot more than the cars advertised max speed?

Same could be said for a whole array of cars on the road.

Wibbs

Pub bragging rights? Maybe they make one speedo dial to cover all models in a range and there's a souped up version of your car that can get close to that?

pippip

Probably theres a same model with a faster engine.

CR 7

Either you're not being adventurous enough, or because they use the same clocks in the more exciting version of your car.

Nino Brown

The speedometer isn't manufactured specifically for your car, it will be used on several other cars too, which could potentially be faster. Most parts for cars are used on many other cars.

pippip

Could also be for when you have a good tail wind

Mycroft H

Wishful thinking

YbFocus

I presume this came about from a pissed off you after an attempt to clear the speedo?

I'm the same. So close though, so close

07Lapierre

In the US, a lot of cars had speedos that only went up to 55mph! (Max. Motorway speed limit). That was years ago mind, I'm sure it's different now.

keithsfleet

Get a jap import and you can watch you're speedo do a second lap once you go over 180.

rocky

"Challenge accepted"

CiniO

Mint Sauce wrote: »

when this is alot more than the cars advertised max speed?

Same could be said for a whole array of cars on the road.

What is your car's advertised max speed?

Generally speedometres always overread, so when you are doing your vehicle max speed, your speedo will show more.

Also you might be going down the hill or with the wind (or both) and then your car might do higher speed than it's max speed.

I remember my first car was Fiat Cinquecento sporting.
It had speedo up 180km/h even though advertised max speed was 155km/h.
I remember once I managed to go over the clock so the speedo showed above 180km/h (must have been around 190 i suppose).
In fact the real speed was probably about 170 - 175km/h, because the speedo was overreading. And I only managed to do it, because road was going down the hill for longer distance.

YbFocus

Sweet mother of God you done 190kmh in a cinquecento?

Mycroft H

YbFocus wrote: »

Sweet mother of God you done 190kmh in a cinquecento?

It lifted off and landed in Ireland

YbFocus

Mycroft H wrote: »

It lifted off and landed in Ireland

Lovely, there's tea everywhere now

I'd well believe it, I doubt it was ever tested at those speeds

CiniO

YbFocus wrote: »

Lovely, there's tea everywhere now

I'd well believe it, I doubt it was ever tested at those speeds

Heh as I said real speed was more likely 170 - 175 km/h.

TBH I don't see much difference in doing that kind of speeds in Cinquecento or 7series, etc... If you crash, you are going to end up dead anyway.

It was exactly this car, however on the video I'm not doing more than 80km/h :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9v_PT5HAk

wotswattage

CiniO wrote: »

Heh as I said real speed was more likely 170 - 175 km/h.

TBH I don't see much difference in doing that kind of speeds in Cinquecento or 7series, etc... If you crash, you are going to end up dead anyway.

It was exactly this car, however on the video I'm not doing more than 80km/h :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9v_PT5HAk

I'd be more worried about colliding with a fly or a crosswind!!!:P

Moneymaker

Always made me laugh that my Clio's speedo went to 140mph.

Not even the 197 can do 140.

Mint Sauce

CiniO wrote: »

What is your car's advertised max speed?

Generally speedometres always overread, so when you are doing your vehicle max speed, your speedo will show more.

Also you might be going down the hill or with the wind (or both) and then your car might do higher speed than it's max speed.

I remember my first car was Fiat Cinquecento sporting.
It had speedo up 180km/h even though advertised max speed was 155km/h.
I remember once I managed to go over the clock so the speedo showed above 180km/h (must have been around 190 i suppose).
In fact the real speed was probably about 170 - 175km/h, because the speedo was overreading. And I only managed to do it, because road was going down the hill for longer distance.

Auto-data.net reakons 180kph, although I'd say the engine would be screaming at that, would be interesting to test it though.

CiniO

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Auto-data.net reakons 180kph, although I'd say the engine would be screaming at that, would be interesting to test it though.

Check what RPM you have at 90km/h on highest gear, and multiply it by 2.
This will give you RPM at 180km/h.

YbFocus

If I could limit in sixth I could do 187.5mph.
Sadly the car can't reach that

dgt

Must be a cento thing

I may or may not have had my old Seicento 899 at an indicated 105mph, on flat ground.... On a runway all 39bhp in full chat :pac:

Speedo was almost maxed, if only it were slightly downhill...

The 406 has a 140mph speedo and will do about 125mph @ 5k rpm in 5th. Ratios are easy to figure with that gearbox

MadsL

My Smart was restricted to 87mph (actually 85mph but I liked saying 87 so that people asked why and I could say "So I don't travel back in time obviously")

Anyway. Speedo went up to 95. I chip it and the speedo gets pinned to the stop

Mint Sauce

CiniO wrote: »

Check what RPM you have at 90km/h on highest gear, and multiply it by 2.
This will give you RPM at 180km/h.

Yeah, she'd be screaming. Just over 5k.

wotzgoingon

dgt wrote: »

125mph @ 5k rpm in 5th.

Is that not an awful high rpm to be in for a diesel?

CiniO

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Yeah, she'd be screaming. Just over 5k.

If it's a petrol engine, it's not that much.
My previous car - Mazda 6 2.0 petrol was doing 3000rpm at 100km/h in 5th.
When I was travelling through Germany I kept speed of about 170-200 for about 2 hours, so engine was all the time between 5k and 6k rpm.
I wouldn't call it screaming. It's just nice engine sound

corsav6

CiniO wrote: »

If it's a petrol engine, it's not that much.
My previous car - Mazda 6 2.0 petrol was doing 3000rpm at 100km/h in 5th.
When I was travelling through Germany I kept speed of about 170-200 for about 2 hours, so engine was all the time between 5k and 6k rpm.
I wouldn't call it screaming. It's just nice engine sound

A 2.0 engine at 3k rpm seems high. My aul astra 1.6 sits at 3k at 70mph. The wife's 1.3 diesel is at 2.2k rpm at 70mph in 6th.

Busted Flat.

IMO, it is to do with mental comfort, If Aliens landed it gives you comfort to get the hell out of there at high speed.

CiniO

dgt wrote: »

Must be a cento thing

I may or may not have had my old Seicento 899 at an indicated 105mph, on flat ground.... On a runway all 39bhp in full chat :pac:

Speedo was almost maxed, if only it were slightly downhill...

Heh you made me look through my photo collection.
This is from Cinquecentoo 899.
Manufacturers specified max speed 140km/h.
And I actually think that real speed was just about 140km/h even that speedo was nearly maxed out.
Car normally run on LPG, but I had to switch it back to petrol to make it go that quick.

CiniO

corsav6 wrote: »

A 2.0 engine at 3k rpm seems high. My aul astra 1.6 sits at 3k at 70mph. The wife's 1.3 diesel is at 2.2k rpm at 70mph in 6th.

I don't know if it's high or not. Manufacturer designed it that way, and I was happy with it.
I'm not that kind of guy who gets pleasure from driving at low rev's. Rather opposite

corsav6

CiniO wrote: »

Heh you made me look through my photo collection.
This is from Cinquecentoo 899.
Manufacturers specified max speed 140km/h.
And I actually think that real speed was just about 140km/h even speedo was nearly maxed out.
Car normally run on LPG, but I had to switch it back to petrol to make it go that quick.

Not even an airbag, although at that speed in that little car probably no point.

SamAK

Aesthetics?

Would look strange if the speedo numbers stopped after whatever the top speed of that particular car was...Imagine how a time clock would look without 3,4,5 and 6pm!

corsav6

CiniO wrote: »

I don't know if it's high or not. Manufacturer designed it that way, and I was happy with it.
I'm not that kind of guy who gets pleasure from driving at low rev's. Rather opposite

More the fuel use issue that would bother me, but I'm a tight arse so I'd rather save the few pennies and sit at the low end of the rev counter.

dgt

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Is that not an awful high rpm to be in for a diesel?

Not for an XUD, happy at that rpm. Can be pushed to 6k but really no point

CiniO

corsav6 wrote: »

Not even an airbag, although at that speed in that little car probably no point.

Exactly. At that speed airbag wouldn't help.
Beside it was 10 years ago. Airbags weren't that common then

Chimaera

It's pretty normal for the same speedometer to be used across several models - it cuts costs. So there's probably a higher powered version of your car which can get close to 260 km/h.

Mine goes up to 140 mph (~220 km/h) which is about the theoretical limit of the car if it hit the redline in 5th IIRC. In practice, I reckon it's good for about 200-210 km/h but I haven't had an opportunity to find out - max I've done is 189 but it was still fairly hauling along at that point.

CiniO

corsav6 wrote: »

More the fuel use issue that would bother me, but I'm a tight arse so I'd rather save the few pennies and sit at the low end of the rev counter.

It doesn't work the way: higher RPM = higher fuel consumption.
I'd say if that Mazda had different gearbox and did 2500rpm instead of 3000rpm at 100km/h, fuel consumption wouldn't neceserily be lower. Possibly it would be even higher. I'm sure manufacturer knew what he was doing.

But indeed - at speeds like 180 - 200km/h in every car fuel consumption goes sky high. I think this mazda did about 17 l/100km on that stretch. (equals to 16.5 MPG), while normally when driving on country road at 80-100 it did about 8l/100km = 35MPG.

Mint Sauce

CiniO wrote: »

If it's a petrol engine, it's not that much.
My previous car - Mazda 6 2.0 petrol was doing 3000rpm at 100km/h in 5th.
When I was travelling through Germany I kept speed of about 170-200 for about 2 hours, so engine was all the time between 5k and 6k rpm.
I wouldn't call it screaming. It's just nice engine sound

A 1.4 petrol. Just around 3k at 100kph, there is then a definate change in the hum of the engine at motorway speed, around 3.5k at 120kph. Wouldn't mind taking her on the Autobann just to see what she could legally do.