Here comes the Judge

[agtw31]

i had a 70 455 Grand Prix that would bury 120 with plenty of pedal left,but after the first bump i slowed down.

[grantprix]

I had a '69 Grand Prix SJ in the early 80's and remember hitting 125 late one night before I got scared and backed off. That car had an optional 2.93 rear gear ratio which helped.

[flyingn]

keep in mind the speedos back then may have been quite a bit off.

[Keith Tedford]

Back in '68 I had a Ram Air 400 Firebird. The engine was balanced and blueprinted, included the Royal Bobcat kit, polyloc nuts, and headers. The rear gears had been changed to more user friendly 3.55s. With that combination the engine was still climbing very well at 130 but laid down right on 133 mph (according to the speedometer). Lifter pump up? Perhaps 150 with 2.56 gears.......or a high cliff. I've heard guys, with much slower cars, claiming much higher top speeds than mine. I'm wondering if Chrysler speedos weren't reading way high on the top end. These guys were always claiming wild top speeds. If memory serves me correctly, GM speedometers were calibrated to be accurate at about 70 mph or there abouts. There is no telling how far off the speedos were at 130. I know one thing, a two mile straight stretch of road gets used up in a hurry at that speed.

[markjohnson]

I don't think that article was a publicity thing at all for Pontiac, but instead it was just an attempt by a newspaper reporter, with a boring life obviously, to try to stir up controversy by making people think that we're surrounded by cars capable of going 150 MPH by drivers of all kinds. Riiiiight. Maybe he even succeeded. All it would take is some insurance executives to read that, do some investigating into horsepower ratings, start raising rates and BAM.......no more musclecars. Waitaminute......that's what happened!

[ORIGLS6]

My '68 Chevelle L35/M21 w/3.55 gears would go well past the 120 mark on the speedo. Now, ..... was it accurate? Who knows. But I also had a '68 Corvette with the 390 HP 427/ 4 spd and a 3:70 rear. That car had serious problems getting over 100 MPH, and when it did it got VERY light in front, ........... and scary!

[markjohnson]

You know, this does bring up a point that's not talked about very often. Mainly, the speed potential of some of these '60's and 70's musclecars on skinny, bias-ply tires. Talk about a high-speed, and even panic braking, nightmare! It's a wonder that not as many people died as could have. How would you even drive a 4-speed, 400+ horsepower, 4.11 gear'ed car in the rain or snow? Kinda fun to think about!