Legacy Top Speeds

rallysam · Post by **rallysam** » Fri May 23, 2003 12:32 am

So Legacy top speed is power-limited? Man, they should've dropped the gear ratios some.

I thought I heard that in the Impreza 2.5RS, it is actually limited by the redline in 5th gear at around 125mph. Maybe I heard wrong.

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri May 23, 2003 12:37 am

Yeah, our cars are power limited.

The 2.5 RS's are pretty much drag limited. They're like moving bricks.

The automatics I believe have an electronic speed limiter though.

Brat4by4 · Post by **Brat4by4** » Fri May 23, 2003 4:18 am

I'd rather be power limited. You can go plenty fast enough and you can always add more power to go faster. Plus you sit lower on the revs when just cruisin. Running out of gear sucks cuz it's loud and you start dropping power past your peak and you need a lot more money to get more gear.

My friend has been sittin at 6k rpms in his car on high speed runs. And there is really nothing he can do... unless he wants to drop about 14 grand for a 6-speed front-wheel drive transmission... I'll take my 3.9 gear all day.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri May 23, 2003 4:35 am

What is the difference between being drag-limited and being power-limited? You stop accelerating when the force due to your engine's torque is equal to the force due to friction, right?

Or does "power-limited" mean "gear-limited?"

rallysam · Post by **rallysam** » Fri May 23, 2003 1:55 pm

Seems like power-limited and drag-limited are the same thing.

I was talking about the other kind: gear-limited. In that case, the car can hit redline in 5th gear. In that situation, you can do mods all day but it doesn't affect your top speed because red-line is red-line. Unless you put body kit crap on your car. That kind of mod might affect your top speed by slowing you down.

I like the low ratios. Personally, I have no interest in going over 100. I don't see the point. It's acceleration and handling that really kick me in the pants.

rlima · Post by **rlima** » Sun May 25, 2003 4:14 pm

When my car was 6 years old (140,000 kms) I buried the speed needle, which was over 220 km/h. Completely stock except for drop-in K&N filter.

It's been 7 years now and at 236,000 kms I don't think I can do any more.
Still burns no oil.

Twin turbo wag · Post by **Twin turbo wag** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:09 am

i thought maybe there was a governor on my n/a 95 l wagon, since it has stopped at 107 mph. After fixing the leftside lifters, intakes were bad, top speed still 107
new plugs, bosch plat +4 topspeed 107
new air filter, ""107...
is there a governor pn the newer ones?

THAWA · Post by **THAWA** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:51 am

Highest i got was around 115ish. Afterwhich my friend was acting scared, and I caught up to my other friend I was following. Also the same night, right when we got on the freeway my friend hit it, so I decided to punch it. A few second later my friend looks over and say, "Holy crap is your spedometer correct? Are we really doing 100, it doesnt even feel like it". I love it when people compliment my baby

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 8:44 am

Yeah I had a friend with a gps unit in my car with me when I hit about 117 coming down a long hill in the back country. I'm leary of driving that fast in the city, though.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 2:19 pm

that's the one thing I love about these cars.....they are cruisers. You can drive 100mph on the interstate and it feels like 55

THAWA · Post by **THAWA** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:05 pm

Only thing that alerts me to how fast I'm going is the amount of wind noise I hear. Does the wire in the window rubber help to quiet this down josh?

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 7:39 pm

I just squeezed the little triangle piece that holds your window together. I actually took off the plastic piece for fear I'd break it, but I bent the opposing sides together until they were closer and that cleaned up my wind noise 1000 fold.

Dr Nick · Post by **Dr Nick** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:05 pm

I've seen an indicated 125mph whilst still in fourth gear on my turbo estate... Not saying where or when though.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:42 pm

the wire did help initially. I need to come up with another solution as that has seemed to not help as much any more.

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 1:27 am

Legacy777 wrote:that's the one thing I love about these cars.....they are cruisers. You can drive 100mph on the interstate and it feels like 55

/me nods

MK

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 6:52 am

I stuck 1/4" polyethylene pneumatic tubing in between the folds for the weatherstripping over the doors. Works very well.

Steve

subafreak · Post by **subafreak** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 12:19 am

I pegged mine at 140mph just to see if it could do it, I was still climbing too but my wife made me slow down. I was just happy to know it could bury the speedo. The next day I my upper radiator hose popped and thats when I noticed the oil in my coolant.

Been off the road ever since, almost a year to the date.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 8:01 pm

He he he. Subafreak - had the same thing happen with the coolant after taking her up to an indicated 133. Drove for another 40k like that.

Steve

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 7:18 am

So what your saying is if we take our cars above the "posted" top speed we will screw our engines???

Ogre · Post by **Ogre** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 5:56 pm

I had mine radared at 137MPH.

Living in Utah has advantages.

Of course, now mine wont start...

subafreak · Post by **subafreak** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:25 pm

georryan wrote:So what your saying is if we take our cars above the "posted" top speed we will screw our engines???

For me I don't think the top speed run had anything to do with the oil in my coolant. I think the oil was already in there from a previous screwed up engine rebuild and my 170Kmile old hose just happen to pick the day after to burst. Fortunatlly it burst in my driveway right when my wife pulled it in to the car port.

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 8:54 pm

Right I agree. I don't think that top end speed tests will stress this engine enough to do real damage, shoot if we drive fast and crazy in different gears, now is that any different? Were you guys redlining 5th gear at those speeds? Maybe that would cause a problem at sustained high rpms, but...yeah. <shrug>

I just found it commical that like three of you who have done this all had problems afterwards.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 9:11 pm

Mine's N/A and I was trying to demonstrate to a punk in then new BMW 328 about the Legacy's history in speed-endurance records. I had 140k on it. Since the Legacy did set all those speed records, I think it's more coincidence and age that caused the issues.

Steve

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:26 am

Well, even factory turbocharged cars aren't meant to stay on boost continuously. It puts a huge strain on the cooling system. Normally, you don't hold full boost for more than a minute or so at a time. Full boost much longer than that gets you to incredibly high speeds. Ordinarily when cruising you're not boosting much (if at all).

On the other hand, if you're cruising at a speed that requires boost to maintain for an extended period of time, you could be generating much more heat than the system can handle.

Legacy Turbos do have more robust cooling systems than the non-turbos, but it's still stressful.

On the other hand, remember that the radiator gets more and more cooling air the faster you go...

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:29 am

On the other hand, remember that the radiator gets more and more cooling air the faster you go...

So after all that,.....you bring us back to square one.

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Legacy Top Speeds

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