hodgeee

Ok, after everyone is done telling me how irrresposnsible and stupid I am(which I deserve) could some one tell me how accurate the speedometers are on these cars!

I had to go Logandale from Vegas to a friends house this morning to pick up some papers of mine that I needed to study for a promotion at work, for this weekend. Well on the way home I happen to come to a huge open patch of road, about three miles long just as I come over a hill. I can see down into the valley, all the way up onto the next oncoming mountain side, and not a single car to be seen. Large one way two lane highway with enough pull off room on each side of the freeway. I take real annal care of my car and know its in good condition so I decide to blip it up real high for one time to see how it rides, and figure if I kill anybody it will just be me, since I am in the middle of the desert so what the hell. I do a quick check of the gauges and everything shows good so I stomp on it.

Well before I even get half way down the valley, I feel like I am hauling some butt, so I look down and see that I am already doing about 175mph, so I let off the throttle and coast down back to the 85mph speed limit. The one thing I noticed is that the car was as solid as a rock, and could have been steered with one finger if I wanted too, but of course I had both hands with a death grip on the steering wheel, and also it felt like the car had a bunch more in it. Now also I do have slightly lower profile tires on the car but had my tuner adjust for it when he dyno tuned the car. About 3 minutes later I see some lights in the distance coming on me, so I slow and move over to the right, and of course I get pulled over and proceed to accept the most expensive ticket that I have ever recieved in my life, with a kind thank you for the gentleman officer who so graciously decided to not arrest me for wreckless driving.

I guess doing 93mph over the speedlimit, you just hit a flat rate or something since the ticket is a flat $2000.00, but when I called about the fine they said if I plead guilty and pay it early it is only half the price listed on the ticket. I guess the officer must have been sitting behind a sign or hill or something cause I never saw him, which is also scary cause what else did I not see! that could have been on the side of the road!?!?!? Now is my speedometer only off by 2mph, or is his radar gun way off, what gives?

NORTY

The speedo is accurate when the car is stationary. The faster you go,the more "optomistic" the speedo becomes. You learned a lesson today. Glad you didn't have a mechanical problem when you were hustling. You might want to fight the cite,too. Did the officer have aerial support? Good luck,this won't be cheap no matter how it goes.

Mark06

I think for what ever reduction on the ticket you get you ought to invest that into a really good radar detector! Got to admit, me in the same situation I woulda dropped the hammer on an open road like that also

Mark06

BTW, don't feel bad......
Fastest Speeding Ticket in the World - May of 2003 in Texas - 242mph in a 75mph zone. The car was a Swedish built Koenigsegg which was involved in the San Fransico to Miami Gumball3000 Rally.

BLKVette4ME

I think I could get over the $1000 ticket, but I hate to know what the insurance company is going to do to you

TMyers

This was true in the old analog days. I'm not so sure about today with the digital speedo.

TrackNoob

I've checked with a WAAS-enabled GPS and it was within 1MPH for mine at double digits. Closed course, of course.Pretty amazing considering my P-car was off by about 10% on the optimistic side when brand new with stock tires, and the dealer claimed they could do no better with the PST2.



[Edited to add:]
DGPS (WAAS) accuracy:

* Position: < 3 meters, 95% typical**
* Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec steady state (about 0.1 MPH)
http://www.garmin.com/products/iQueM5/spec.html

glennhl

Why the close course? I do double digits in my car everyday on the way to work. Sometimes I get all the way up to 45 mph!

C5pilot

FWIW, my HUD doesn't even match my speedometer. Go figure.

One of these days I'll check them against my WAAS handheld GPS to see which is off.

TrackNoob

DOH!!!!!

I sure do have my senior moments.

ben dover

Ib4tl

crabman

When I first got my car I did something similar. I thought I would roll into it a little bit in 5th and see how she pulled. Lets just say I was shocked when I noticed my speed. Slowed down to the limit and spent 5 minutes or so in paranoia mode which turned out to be groundless. A radar detector is a good idea but they have a lot of limits considering the instant on stuff you face nowadays. I think I would consult an attorney and see what my options were. Its not just the ticket but years of increased insurance rates to consider.

longboy4

...........the tale is the best part. ........Ya should have grabed a handful of 4th. and nailed it and ole smoky be telling another damn Vette gotta way story back at the office.

hodgeee

Well, I have whipped it up to 140 on open roads a couple of times without even trying, the damn car is so much faster than my last vette, but never seen a point of trying to do the max speed, supposed to be 185, and I don't doubt that for one second now. Lots and lots of open devided freeways out here in the desert, and I mean devided like 500meters between oncoming traffic lanes. I mean this thing blasts to speeds that were the absolute top speed of sports cars that I have owned in the past, that you had to work to get up there, and then it was pretty damn scary when you did get it there, like the car wanted to launch in the air. Most of the time I drive pretty much with traffic, and just love the fact that I can pass anyone that gets in my way, or I love taking it to the lake or to the mountains on the weekends with the Vette club for some light spirited driving with the roof off, windows open, with a picnic and good conversation to look forward to. I haven't gotten a ticket in 10 years, and man I guess I was building up for one!

I wouldn't run from the cops though, can't outrun that radio or those helicopters they like to call for backup! According to his radar my speed was 3mph faster than what my speedo said. I called my insurance agent and asked him about the situation since I have known him for 15 years now, and he is a hot rod junkie and speed freak himself. He said here in Nevada, anything over 60mph over the speedlimit is considered wreckless driving, which carries a fine of $2000, or 10 days in jail. He told me to go to court, and ask for the Advanced Driver Safety Course which is two days long, and removes 4 points off of your record. The ticket is worth 5 points, or the equivelant of getting 5, 10mph over the speed limit tickets! At the end of the class It is $80 for the class, and $500 for the ticket fine, if you pass this test at the end of the class, so it is not as super bad as I thought. He said that since I have been with Farmers Insurance for 20 years now, that the 1 point on my record will not affect my insurance rates, just don't get another ticket. He also stated that NHP has to recalibrate or check thier Lasers once a month, and that they have to be within 2% accuracy. So I guess the speedo is pretty close to being on.

glennhl

I have at least 3 senior moments even before I get out of bed in the morning! Honestly, it sure doesn't take very long to get to triple digits with the C6! Great car.

chempowr

Awesome story and info on our cars! This thread reinforces my paranoia of never knowing where cops can be. I also live in a wide open desert area where a few guys have given me places to top out my car but I have not tried it yet.

6spdC6

I made a few passes against one of those radar signs that say
SPEED LIMIT IS-------
Your Speed is---------
It appears to be quit accurate against the sign.
What I did not know was the device inside records on a graph speeds & time that go by. (NO CAMERA)
Let’s just say that I was a "BIT" over the speed limit doing the tests.
The sign was on a back road that led to a industrial complex and as it was a Holiday was kinda deserted.

A couple days later a good friend that is a LEO in that department stopped over to talk with me. He asked me "off the record" if I was the one with the high speed pass on the graph. He then said the officer in charge of Traffic Enforcement almost had a heart attack when he saw the graph results, and threatened massive bad things to whoever did it. My buddy recommended I stay away from that area for a while and NEVER use the sign as a speed checker unless I was a bit lower in speed.

hodgeee

"My buddy recommended I stay away from that area for a while and NEVER use the sign as a speed checker unless I was a bit lower in speed."

LOL, HAHAHAHAHA I could just see this in my head, you doing u turn after u turn to make several runs to see how fast you could get it up to, cause I have done the same damn thing before on an empty back road.

hodgeee

Oh yeah, one last thing. I was only at that top speed for just a moment, and then I let off. That means that this guys was watching me for a while, and radaring me the whole time!!!!

How else could he have shown me the radar with that number on it!?!?

That means this guy just sits out there 30 miles out in the middle of the desert, 30 miles from Vegas, and 30 miles from Logandale, and just watches this big open patch, cause he knows that people are going to open it up there. I bet he has written some whopper tickets there! I bet I aint even close to being his fastest, cause he was calm and cool and polite to me the whole time he wrote me up! That just burns my chaps!!

Gearhead Jim

Checked my C6 speedo and HUD against a GPS in the car at 30, 60, 90 mph. They all agreed within 1 mph at each speed.