LOL! My Garmin is named Tonya. My wife has a male voice on hers and she calls him Daniel. I named the Jaguar nav system voice Sophia.

 

Having lived extensively in both Oregon and Washington I echo Illium's point of the Strongly suggest limit. Also I-5 is where the bulk of the 55 limits are, I-84 is mostly 65, but either way, the state troopers have a very limited sense of humor! As to your point on Washington, I whole heartedly agree, the State Patrol are the sneakiest and tightest bunch I've come across. On the major interstates, they have roving packs that set up speed traps with 5 or 6 units, one with the radar and the other 5 to nail the unsuspecting motorists. Purely out for revenue enhancement IMHO.

As to my speed runs, unfortunately I have not yet had the opportunity to go over 100 in the XJR and that was on a long sweeping on ramp! My fastest was on my Kawasaki Concours at 122MPH going in to death valley on a straight, level 2 lane highway with visibility of at least 10 miles, the bike began to feel as if it wanted to fly so I backed off, but my friend on his ZX11 kept pushing till 173! Heaven forbid if you hit a tourtise crossing the road!

 

Well, since this thread is all over the place, I'll throw in my two cents on which states have the most aggressive cops. In most states the money collected as fines from speeding tickets goes to the state's general fund. That keeps individual counties and municipalities from trying to entrap motorists in order to make money. Virginia, however, is different. In Virginia the majority of the fine goes to the county or city in which the ticket was written. If you drive up and down I-95 in Virginia you'll see car after car pulled over. The last time I drove to Richmond I saw 24 cars pulled over between the North Carolina state line and Richmond (about 75 miles). In 2007 the state legislature passed a law making the fine for speeding more than 9 MPH over the speed lime $3500. Yes... that's correct. THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR TEN OVER! The law was immediately challenged in court and it was thrown out, however they are talking about trying to do something similar again. Some cities in Virginia, such as Emporia, have police officers who just sit on I-95 all day long writing tickets. Emporia only has two exits on I-95, and the road probably only spends about 2 miles in the Emporia city limits, but Emporia police offices write over a thousand speeding tickets per week. So... don't speed in Virginia.

 

I've done 135 in a friends turbo volvo 850 and about 110 in the x-type but I haven't given the xk8 a top speed run yet.

 

Virginia also empounds radar detectors. A few years back, I believe Virginia tacked on an automatic reckless driving violation to all speeding violations 20mph over or more, the theory being - anyone driving that many miles over the posted speed limit was driving recklessly too. I can't imagine what that fine would be.

 

I drive to Ashburn VA twice a year up thru Richmond and greater DC. In spite of the draconian speed laws extant in VA we notice the same personality change in VA big city drivers that we notice in some other big cities around the country. I think the fines have some deterent effect but they can't overcome big city crazy.
While I'm thinking about it, the perimeter around Atlanta is one of the worst places I've ever driven. There is no law enforcement there. It's like they just gave up and went home. 85 mph seems to be the unofficial rule for the left lane and a lot of those vehicles and drivers aren't safe at any speed.

 

Just out of curiosity, I have wondered how fast an XK8 would go with the top down. I know that they are limited to 155, but I doubt that they would go that fast with the top down. I am willing to bet that somewhere, at some time, someone tried it out to see, but I wouldn't have wanted to be in the car when he did it. I am guessing that the top down would slow it down at least 10 mph. Anybody know for sure? As for the fastest I have gone, once again, my 340 Duster takes the prize. I was racing my college roommate home one night. He was in his Grand Prix, with the 400 cid 4bbl, similar to the 389 engine they put in the GTO. He said that he was going 125 when I flew by him. It was a 2 lane road, and I never looked at the speedo. Speedometers were notoriously inaccurate in the 70's. I figure he was probably doing 121 or 122 or so, and I was probably doing close to 130. I ran this Jag up to 110 in a short little burst, like it was nothing. Too many radar detectors and too much traffic these days to be running up to 155.

 

I don't know. I wonder how fast they could go with the top up if the car weren't limited. 170? They might be able to hit 155 with the top down and run into the aerodynamic limit at that point. I'm sure someone, somewhere has tried it. I do know the top speed is faster than I will probably ever reach, barring a trip to a nice track or the salt flats.

 

The only place speeds like that are legal here in Europe is the German autobahn network. These have an advisory limit of 130km/hr = approx 81 mph. I have managed to cruise along at 90 for many miles on an autobahn and also an Italian autostrada which was virtually empty. However, as I had my family in the car, I did not try to go any faster, although a couple of times I took the car, (a Rover 75) up past 100 to get past some slow moving traffic.

Driving standards are very variable in Europe. I am puzzled as to how Italian men survive beyond the age of 30, to be honest !

 

I drove a Mercedes 300S on the German Autobahn going north from Frankfort to Koln at 225 kph = 139 mph for a few kilometers before running into a 100 kph speed zone. Had to back off to 140-170 kph as traffic increased past the speed zone. In Germany the slow drivers stay right and trucks stay out of high speed lanes.
In Virginia 70 is my max to avoid being stopped.

 

I was cruising on the Autostrada in Italy at 140 MPH in a Maserati. An AMG Mercedes passed me going about 30MPH more....amazing!!! By the way, driving around Italy in a Maserati is an incredible experience...you can pretty much park anywhere!

 

I would think that Maseratis would be relatively common in Italy.

And with my Jag I park way out in the parking lot away from other cars. If I owned a Maserati I'd be parking in the far corner of the lot and putting traffic cones around my car.

 

I'll give you a new title if you do it, and post a picture here of course for proof...make it a target or Mall, where there's lots of people to see you do it.

 

Ha! I just noticed, I'm a SENIOR MEMBER! I've been a member for two weeks and I outrank govatos who has been here since 2008! I guess that's what happens when you get to work from home.

 

I'm with you Sam. My XK8 is cherry, so I protect it in parking lots, often walking a block extra. My wife uses the X350 mostly as her personal car (big deal, I get to wash it...and fix it....but it never breaks), she walks a little too. My X300 is also cherry, but it doesn't see that many parking lots. Now my BMW, on the other hand, does more of the daily drives and gets right in there scrapping with all the other cars in the parking lots.

If I had my dream car, Aston Martin DBS, I'm afraid I'd REALLY park far away in lots....like all the way in my garage.

 

Steve, how come you never properly added a Garage for your vehicles on your forum profile? You mention your cars once in a blue moon such as in this thread, but we don't know much about them at all, and had not pegged you as a multiple jag-owner, heck, until recently, didn't know you even owned a car, let alone three jags and a dirty german. Trying to keep things mysterious?

 

No mystery, but I probably spent less time on the XK8 forum than others. X350 mostly, then XJ8. Also X-Type, S-Type.

 

Maseratis aren't that common in Italy, nor are Ferraris. The point is, the Italians revere these cars. Park it anyplace and people will gather around and oh and ah but never touch it. I went to a restaurant one night and they had me just pull it up on the sidewalk and leave it there....amazing! I'm like the Rev, I park my car way out in the parking lot...most people over here have no respect for a nice automobile.

Another interesting point, in Europe people actually drive there Ferraris, Maseratis, etc. You find these cars over there with 80 or 90k on them or more. Over here, look on Auto Trader and you can find lots of Ferraris from the 90's with less than 20K on them.....wtf!? I won't own a car that I can't or won't drive every day. I enjoy DRIVING a nice car not looking at it.

 

Amen, Govatos! What is the point of loving a car from afar? It's daily driver or nothing for me...

 

When I was looking for cars I went to a used car dealer who specialized in exotics. He had a 2005 Lotus Elise with only 300 miles on it. It was a five year-old car with 300 miles! That's an average of 60 miles per year! That was a $65K car when new, and they were asking $40K. That's $85 per mile in depreciation alone! Throw in five years of insurance, and we're talking over $100 per mile.

I've only had my XK8 for two and a half weeks, but I've already put 1500 miles on it. I'm going to put at least 6000 on it next month. Cars are meant to be driven.