HOW fast can cars with speed limiters go if the speed limiter is removed?
I mused on this when looking at the VW Golf R’s 200mph speedo. (VW likes to play around with the scale of its speedos; my long-term Golf Bluemotion shows 160mph top; this weekend’s Eos test car splits both with 180mph.)
Limited to 155mph, what would she do with it taken off?
Enter vehicle dynamics God Damian Harty. He sorted the Ford Mondeo BTCC car’s handling, turning it into a race winner, and has done plenty more stuff NDAs mean he can’t talk about.
‘Try this formula,’ he said, in response to my thought on Facebook. The formula being…:
New_Vmax = Current_Vmax*(New_Power/Current_Power)^(1/3)
Damian started with the basic Golf GTI’s 210PS, which saw it good for 149mph. ‘This suggests the R would do 162mph unrestricted’
Dang, that’s a bit far off 200mph! What to do, Damian?
507PS, was his answer, with the gearing set to match, too. ‘Big power gains give small VMax changes; always a little disappointing but there you go…’
Indeed, but it gives a challenge to the VW tuning world. Who’ll be the first to take a Golf R up to 507PS – and who’ll be the first to then break the double-ton?
+ If you’ve ever tuned a car, what have been your findings?
+ Is it realistic to tune a 2.0-litre turbo to 507PS..?
+ How fast would YOUR car be with more power?
