Highest/Lowest Engine Idle Speeds

[sebhaque]

Just shooting the st on a Sunday afternoon - what are the highest/lowest engine idle speeds found on production cars? I was talking to a friend earlier about F1 cars idling at 6000rpm and a BMW 520d idling at 600rpm, my car idles at 750rpm so it's nothing out of the ordinary.

Assume the engines are all warm, not talking about cold idling. And yes, I know it's not the most interesting of topics, but my mind wanders somewhat on lazy days.

[silverfoxcc]

There are some big old pre war lumps that with the manual advance retard and throttle mixture settings will tick over about 50 rpm ( joking) but they can go veeerrrry slow

[Mr Sparkle]

Some cars seem to have a fast idle at start up. My S2000 starts at about 2000rpm when cold and holds it for a minute as did the prelude before it.

[Captain Cadillac]

I think the factory idle speed on my '54 Ford Customline is 400rpm, but since mine is an automatic it's supposed to be set at 350.

[vinnie83]

Mr Sparkle said:

Some cars seem to have a fast idle at start up. My S2000 starts at about 2000rpm when cold and holds it for a minute as did the prelude before it.

Thats the automatic choke I would assume.

I'm sure the idle on my E36 M3 was 900rpm, which is high for a road car...

[Slinky1989]

850rpm in my 1990 mx5 1.6. Was about the same in my old 1992 civic 1.3.

[real4star]

IIRC Series Land Rover 2286cc petrols idle at 450-500rpm

Neal