How fast have you been in your Chimaera?
Discussion
but I was just wondering what high speed stability is like for most owners?Struggle to get to 150 on Autobahns (cool nights), but guess it would go faster without the splitter... But then it might not be nice & stable - I need to take my hands off the wheel to light up 
Its very difficult to compare cars, I have prob spent £5k parts on my running gear (if I'd got it right first time!) as well as hours of playing...
The top speed definitely varies quite a lot, I guess its loading, wind, air temp.. as much as anything.
Dave
Its very difficult to compare cars, I have prob spent £5k parts on my running gear (if I'd got it right first time!) as well as hours of playing...The top speed definitely varies quite a lot, I guess its loading, wind, air temp.. as much as anything.
Dave
157 mph indicated in my 450. I've had the GPS in the car at 120mph indicated, with a true speed of 118mph. Don't know how much it would have been out at 157mph.
'Twas on a down hill section of ...autobahn, cool late evening. Felt like it had more to come, but the Honda Fireblade I was with still came past me (at about 170mph at a guess) and there was a bend approaching.
Felt more stable at that speed than at 100mph to be honest - power assisted quick rack, so I guess the manual steering slower racked cars would feel more stable for a given geometry.
As a rule though, I definitely think high speed stability is a perfectly acceptible trade off for lightning turn in. I had Sinclairs put a 340R 4 wheel geo on my old Elise - never ever under steered or missed an apex, but was a bit challenging on the motorways at times!!
'Twas on a down hill section of ...autobahn, cool late evening. Felt like it had more to come, but the Honda Fireblade I was with still came past me (at about 170mph at a guess) and there was a bend approaching.
Felt more stable at that speed than at 100mph to be honest - power assisted quick rack, so I guess the manual steering slower racked cars would feel more stable for a given geometry.
As a rule though, I definitely think high speed stability is a perfectly acceptible trade off for lightning turn in. I had Sinclairs put a 340R 4 wheel geo on my old Elise - never ever under steered or missed an apex, but was a bit challenging on the motorways at times!!
Edited by 3doorPete on Friday 15th February 18:26
Edited by 3doorPete on Friday 15th February 18:29
I had a 911 (993) before my chimaera and you could feel that mother sucking itself to the road after 120 but god my 5 ltr feels unsafe at best after 120, it tends to go very light and drifty even though i've got new shocks and its set up well, i've had it pegged out on the speedo at an indicated 170 and it just fly's round to 150 but that extra 20 needs big balls cause it takes for ages and appart from thinking the bonnet, wings, and roof are gonna rip off it felt queit errrrrrrrrr, unsafe lol.
nicktowe said:
question for you all. Are these speeds with roof on or off? I figure thdrag of the car with roof off will be a big limiting factor
Mine was roof on - roof off later in the day on the same straight saw 145 - very blowey at that speed I can tell you!Seasiders Griff 500 saw 160 plus sans roof that day!
168 mph indicating on the autobahn, didn't feel as stable as the 911 (996) I had before, but still acceptable. This is with roof up or down and without a splitter and yes, the front end feels rather light then. And with roof down the towel comes flying FORWARD into the cabin at about 140 mph...
It's wonderful that we can do it here in Germany legally all the time (traffic permitting), but it's obviously not what the Chimaera was built for. I love this car to bits for its sound and character and style and for spending a whole day with it on country roads; for high speed driving I would have kept the much faster Porsche.
Cheers,
Stefan
It's wonderful that we can do it here in Germany legally all the time (traffic permitting), but it's obviously not what the Chimaera was built for. I love this car to bits for its sound and character and style and for spending a whole day with it on country roads; for high speed driving I would have kept the much faster Porsche.
Cheers,
Stefan
stefan1200 said:
It's wonderful that we can do it here in Germany legally all the time (traffic permitting)...
There are plenty of sphincter moments on the two lane stretches when cars pull out & you have little time to go from 300-120 kph though!
I'd rather take my chances with the dears at night than the old dears in the daytime
Dave
Its got more power now though so maybe it would go even faster? 
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