GTO3 Top speed ???

[Rainman]

Hi All,

Just ditched my Lotus Elise Sport 160 for a new GTO3 in titanium which I collected this Saturday.

The first question everyone asks is "how fast does it go?". I know this sounds silly, but I don't know the answer. Can anyone actually tell me what the top speed of my car is? I know the 2.5 litre was supposed to be good for 165mph, so does the extra 30bhp make any difference?

Phil

[Rainman]

guysh said: I shouldn't think that the top speed will be too different 'cause the car reaches max rev's in top and the wing gives a fair amount of drag...

Sure, but is the final drive ratio not different between the 2.5 litre and 3 litre engines?

I was told by Alan Wallace (I believe he's left the company now) that the 2.5 litre and 3 litre engines were quite different, which led me to suspect that 5th gear and final drive ratio might also have changed to suit the different power characteristics.

Phil

[Rainman]

I posed this question to John Hammond at Noble (I understand that he's taken over from Alan Wallace) and he tells me that the ratios between the two cars are exactly the same and top speed for the GTO-3 is "165 plus".

So until someone puts a GTO-3 through the timing lights then we're not likely to know for sure.

Phil

[Rainman]

stuh said: Excellent article Jim

Is there anything on how power and weight effect acceleration from a similar mathematical perspective ?

As interesting as it is to some people I'm really not too interested about how we guess top speed or acceleration. I want to know what the top speed of my car physically is and there is only one way to arrive at the answer - less jargon and techno-bable and more driving, preferably down a long straight road with some timing lights. I was enquiring about top speed, not the laws of physics - this has been done to death in numerous other forums and is now a bit old. I thought this was a forum for Noble owners, not physicists.

Looks like I'll have to find out the hard way.

Phil

[Rainman]

nick francis said: Seems to me that no one actually can answer your question, Rainman, from their own personal experience.

So it would appear. Never mind.

I for sure dont anticipate hitting that top speed any where in the UK (including Race circuits) Clearly it is important for you but I suspect most of us dont really care what the terminal velocity of the noble is.

"So, you spent 51 big ones on a sports car and you don't even know a simple thing like how fast it goes!"

That was the remark made by someone during a recent conversation. It's not really that important to me as I tend to live in the world of lap times, but you do look really silly when you can't deliver a definitive answer to a really simple question - given ideal conditions, how fast does it go, period, no waffle.

Your average bloke on the street isn't interested in theoretical clap-trap. If you want to send someone to sleep before you get in your car and drive off then by all means tell them that it's 3% quicker than your misses with a shopping trolley in tescos depending on the colour of her knickers on the day in question.

Phil