I bet with the right gears and enough room you could get a stock vette to the mid 180s.

 

Well my car isnt stock anymore! But on the other hand i never planned on changing my gears, so doesn't look like ill be going over 200 anytime soon haha.

 

Not to change the discussion,but does anyone know if there are facilities on the east coast where standing miles are run? I'd loveto try it.

 

I've been calling smaller airports to see when and if the runway is closed to where I could get on there and make a couple runs, so far I haven't had much luck. Small airports and air fields have very short runways anyway so that kind of sucks.

 

chiming in from the westcoast also

 

All the info for the Texas one is here, http://www.texasmile.net/
does not look like you need much more than a fire exstinguisher and helmet.

 

haha fire extinguisher

 

Interesting thread but I have a stupid question...if a stock C5Z is gearing limited to around 175mph, how does adding few hundred more revs increase the top speed? Is the calculator wrong or am I missing something?
Shouldn't gearing limited mean regardless of more power it won't go any faster?

 

Gearing limited actually means the car is limited to its top speed by a formula using the rear end gearing, the transmission gearing and the rpm of the motor. If you change any of these (and changing rear tire size does count too) you can alter the top speed.

All this assumes the car has enough power to overcome the primary factor which is aerodynamic drag. The C5 is a pretty slippery car, not the best but not bad and it has enough power that its limiting factor is not power, but the aforementioned "gearing" combination.

Allowing a higher redline, means you get more mph out of every gear. This results in a higher top speed providing you can still meet the first requirement of enough power to overcome the aerodynamic drag. Even a stock C5Z if optimized gearing wise could go quite a bit faster than the factory setup. But at the cost of acceleration and other driveability and mileage issues.

Assuming power is sufficient then:
More RPM's = higher top speed
Changing the rear end/trans gear ratios = higher top speed

With the stock car 6th is too tall, and fragile for the car to redline with stock power. 5th gear is too short and can be redlined before the car runs out of power. So changing either of the two can make your stock car faster.

Maybe someone on here has done enough texas mile type events to say what the optimal ratio is, maybe 4.10 rear ratio so you can pull 6th gear. But they say 6th gear is fragile and that would also really send trans/rear temps through the roof.

Probably a taller 5th gear, and taller tire would be the best combo. Not sure, never have done any serious 1 mile racing. Hopefully that clears some of your question up.

 

Thanks Jaxian, makes a lot more sense now!
I was under the wrong impression that 'gearing limited' meant nothing short of changing the trans gears could up the top speed.

 

great write up

 

could the c5z hit close to 200 if slapped with a supercharger in 6th?

 

Not with stock 6th gear, it's weak and not designed for excessive acceleration. If however you proceed with what Drewstein has done and upgrade the gears it is possible to hit higher speeds I imagine.

 

On VIR's back straight which is 4000 feet long and has a 100 elevation increase to the 3000 foot point then drops 200 feet:

out of the Turn 11a into the back straight ~ 40 mph

in my C5 coupe with 400 rwhp I hit 152 mph at redline 4th gear, then brake to 80 mph for a 30* left handed corner, brake, downshift to 3rd gear,

On Road Atlanta's back straight I have hit 162 mph in 5th gear into the brake zone

 

NO.

aerodynamics limits more then gearing.

too many other mods would be needed. plus gearing 5th gear is not designed for those speeds.

driving at close to 200 mph, is not as easy as ppl think. The most I have done is low 170s ( 172-173) in C6ZR1, that was plenty fast.

Everyso often I meet ppl who what to drive 200 mph

I say OK get in and I will give you a ride ( on road course)

at 100 mph shift from 3rd to 4th they are hanging on for deal life

at 150+ the butt pucker factor is quite high

then when I hit the brakes at 150+ mph to slow to 90 or so, their butt puckers so tight I have hammer out the kinks in my aluminum seat bottom, plus the harness system puts bruzes on their shoulders and they almost from the 2+ G stopping

( good time to use a 3" ball hitch for the passenger seat ) they would snap a 2" hitch with no problems

when we pull back into the paddock most say, you know, I think I stick with about 120 and learn how to drive safely

Good choice

Besides I think many ppl might wind up like this Passanger Video

heck it is more fun taking a high speed corner, then going fast in a straight line

 

yeah fastest ive gone is 165 and that was faaaaaaaaaaast

your exactly right, when you go over 120+, every 10 mph faster seems almost exponentially faster...

like the difference between 40 and 80 is big, but the difference between say, 120 and 160 seems ALOT bigger

just my $0.02

 

there's one in PA and one in either NC or SC.
have to do some research on the web to find them.

mk

 

hmm..research is over-rated

asking on corvette forum usually gives me better, true, and faster advice

 

If I recall correctly a near stock 04 Z06 did 155mph in the Vegas standing mile event a couple of years ago.
At the same event, for reference: Stock 06 Z06's were in the low to mid 160mph range, Stockish C4 ZR-1's were running low to mid 150's, my own 480rwhp C4 ZR-1 ran 171mph.
Speeds would likely be a bit higher at sea level, the Vegas venue was 2000+ feet in alititude.