[F30Andy]

Had a meeting on Friday in Munich which I drove to. Meeting got cancelled last minute which meant I had hours to kill as the ferry from Calais was pre booked. So I thought to myself what better way to kill time and abuse my fuel card.
Went exploring and after what seemed like an eternity found a lovely stretch of unlimited autobhan. It was just before 11am and was dead, so stuck it in sports plus, gear lever to the left, using paddles and floored it.
I must say the few cars that were in my way were very quick to courteously move out the way.

Anyway before I knew it I saw a warning which I had forgotten I'd even set came on at 160mph. Clock also stopped at 160mph. Thing is I kept my foot to the floor an continued, the car felt like it was going faster. Just after I had to ease off I had a look at my snooper which I have hard wired into the car and the GPS speed reading was saying 167mph.

Now this is not the first car I have owned where the manafacturer claims a speed restriction which is not true. Wonder why they would say it's limited when it's not.
Also Anyone else that's top ended their cars know what the actual top speed is?

[Pablo68]

Limiter is only active in 8th. Sports mode only goes up to 7th (unless you manually cog it to 8th) hence no limiter

[F30Andy]

I was still in 7th as it still had plenty left it in. Makes me wonder what would have happened if it stuck it in 8th.

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by F30Andy

Had a meeting on Friday in Munich which I drove to. Meeting got cancelled last minute which meant I had hours to kill as the ferry from Calais was pre booked. So I thought to myself what better way to kill time and abuse my fuel card.
Went exploring and after what seemed like an eternity found a lovely stretch of unlimited autobhan. It was just before 11am and was dead, so stuck it in sports plus, gear lever to the left, using paddles and floored it.
I must say the few cars that were in my way were very quick to courteously move out the way.

Anyway before I knew it I saw a warning which I had forgotten I'd even set came on at 160mph. Clock also stopped at 160mph. Thing is I kept my foot to the floor an continued, the car felt like it was going faster. Just after I had to ease off I had a look at my snooper which I have hard wired into the car and the GPS speed reading was saying 167mph.

Now this is not the first car I have owned where the manafacturer claims a speed restriction which is not true. Wonder why they would say it's limited when it's not.
Also Anyone else that's top ended their cars know what the actual top speed is?

Fun isn't it

That's why usually pick up an M3 etc across there for the week.

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by Brigand

Fun isn't it

That's why usually pick up an M3 etc across there for the week.

Mate the next time I go out there I have already decided I'm flying straight into Germany and renting an M5 at the airport.

Don't get me wrong, I was maintaining 150 on most of the journey, but The only reason I didn't keep persisting with driving as fast as I possibly could was because it was my own car. Couldn't be arsed with having to deal with.a continental break down or worse god forbid.

Now I am in the know next time it will most definitely be in a rental. Also with the steering wheel on the wrong side it won't feel like I'm undertaking every one.

[Nick the Greek]

Not entirely convinced of the accuracy of these plug in and play GPS devices......

[Torquein]

Originally Posted by Nick the Greek

Not entirely convinced of the accuracy of these plug in and play GPS devices......

I don't know, If they are anything like any of the sat navs I've ever had they always show lower speed than the cars speedo, mine currently shows 5-6% lower than the speedo.

[....,,,,..,,..]

A decent sat nav will give the most accurate speed.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by F30Andy

Had a meeting on Friday in Munich which I drove to. Meeting got cancelled last minute which meant I had hours to kill as the ferry from Calais was pre booked. So I thought to myself what better way to kill time and abuse my fuel card.
Went exploring and after what seemed like an eternity found a lovely stretch of unlimited autobhan. It was just before 11am and was dead, so stuck it in sports plus, gear lever to the left, using paddles and floored it.
I must say the few cars that were in my way were very quick to courteously move out the way.

Anyway before I knew it I saw a warning which I had forgotten I'd even set came on at 160mph. Clock also stopped at 160mph. Thing is I kept my foot to the floor an continued, the car felt like it was going faster. Just after I had to ease off I had a look at my snooper which I have hard wired into the car and the GPS speed reading was saying 167mph.

Now this is not the first car I have owned where the manafacturer claims a speed restriction which is not true. Wonder why they would say it's limited when it's not.
Also Anyone else that's top ended their cars know what the actual top speed is?

What our 330d's can do 167mph holy shit!

[Torquein]

Originally Posted by Brigand

A decent sat nav will give the most accurate speed.

I've been thinking about this and does it account for altitude? If you were traveling straight up at 50mph would it show 0 or 50? The point is does it account for undulations in the road/hills? Or is it just measuring point to point in 2 axis, longitude and latitude is only a 2 axis measure.

[jusdorange]

How does the 155mph limiter work ?

Restrict fuel?

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by Torquein

I've been thinking about this and does it account for altitude? If you were traveling straight up at 50mph would it show 0 or 50? The point is does it account for undulations in the road/hills? Or is it just measuring point to point in 2 axis, longitude and latitude is only a 2 axis measure.

Sat nav uses geospatial coordination.

Time from satellites.

Car versions are not 100% accurate! terrain and signal come in to it.

The more satellites it can fix on, the more accurate it gets (field of merit -FOM)

[PrinceBarin]

167mph? Doesn't seem that unlikely.

But in n 7th? Are we sure it doesn't auto shift to 8th in Sport? I presumed it would shift once at redline.

Interestingly, Automobile Catalogue predicts a theoretical top speed of 160 mph for the F30 330d and a top speed in 7th of 159mph (http://www.automobile-catalog.com/ca.../bmw_330d.html)

[dopper99]

Originally Posted by jusdorange

How does the 155mph limiter work ?

Restrict fuel?

I guess it would probably restrict the throttle, electronically. A bit like cruise control but set at 155mph max.

[gtsussex]

Originally Posted by PrinceBarin

167mph? Doesn't seem that unlikely.

But in n 7th? Are we sure it doesn't auto shift to 8th in Sport? I presumed it would shift once at redline.

Interestingly, Automobile Catalogue predicts a theoretical top speed of 160 mph for the F30 330d and a top speed in 7th of 159mph (http://www.automobile-catalog.com/ca.../bmw_330d.html)

You can't shift at redline in Sport Man - it will hold gears.

[PrinceBarin]

Originally Posted by gtsussex

You can't shift at redline in Sport Man - it will hold gears.

Agreed in Sport+, but in any other mode I would expect it to shift up automatically.

In any case, 167mph (+/-) seems pretty impressive!

[teaston]

Originally Posted by jusdorange

How does the 155mph limiter work ?

Restrict fuel?

It should stop the engine from revving any higher, like an artificial red line.

[Pablo68]

Originally Posted by PrinceBarin

Agreed in Sport+, but in any other mode I would expect it to shift up automatically.

In any case, 167mph (+/-) seems pretty impressive!

And is also wrong. Maximum level speed in 7th for the 330d is 159mph. This is fixed by the drivetrain. http://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_details1.php

I

4.714 (12.08)

II

3.143 (8.06)

III

2.106 (5.4)

IV

1.667 (4.27)

V

1.285 (3.29)

VI

1 (2.56)

VII

0.839 (2.15)

VIII

0.667 (1.71)

R

3.317

Speed range


(max speed on gears,


top gear value theor.):

(km/h/mph)

I:

46 / 29

II:

68 / 42

III:

102 / 63

IV:

129 / 80

V:

167 / 104

VI:

215 / 134

VII:

256 / 159

VIII:

322 / 200

1000rpm speed:

(km/h/mph)

I:

10.2 / 6.3

II:

15.4 / 9.6

III:

22.9 / 14.2

IV:

29 / 18

V:

37.6 / 23.4

VI:

48.3 / 30

VII:

57.6 / 35.8

VIII:

72.4 / 45

Torque converter factor:


Final drive ratio std:

2.563

optional:

[NISFAN]

Originally Posted by Pablo68

And is also wrong. Maximum level speed in 7th for the 330d is 159mph. This is fixed by the drivetrain. http://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_details1.php

I

4.714 (12.08)

II

3.143 (8.06)

III

2.106 (5.4)

IV

1.667 (4.27)

V

1.285 (3.29)

VI

1 (2.56)

VII

0.839 (2.15)

VIII

0.667 (1.71)

R

3.317

Speed range


(max speed on gears,


top gear value theor.):

(km/h/mph)

I:

46 / 29

II:

68 / 42

III:

102 / 63

IV:

129 / 80

V:

167 / 104

VI:

215 / 134

VII:

256 / 159

VIII:

322 / 200

1000rpm speed:

(km/h/mph)

I:

10.2 / 6.3

II:

15.4 / 9.6

III:

22.9 / 14.2

IV:

29 / 18

V:

37.6 / 23.4

VI:

48.3 / 30

VII:

57.6 / 35.8

VIII:

72.4 / 45

Torque converter factor:


Final drive ratio std:

2.563

optional:

Don't know how they predict speed in gears, but they are wrong.

See this:

[PrinceBarin]

NISFAN - thanks for posting (although the guys at Autombile Catalogue might feel differently if you've identified a major flaw in their theoretical analysis!).

Anyway, am I reading your graph incorrectly or does that imply a theoretical top speed of over 400 kph?

I am neither an engineer nor a physicist but is the ratio of speed to RPM as linear as those plots implies? I presumed the gains in speed would decline somewhat nearer the peak of the rev range as friction and energy losses took hold to reduce road speed?

[JD6]

Originally Posted by PrinceBarin

I am neither an engineer nor a physicist but is the ratio of speed to RPM as linear as those plots implies? I presumed the gains in speed would decline somewhat nearer the peak of the rev range as friction and energy losses took hold to reduce road speed?

While it would take increasing amounts of time to cover the higher increments, time is not plotted on the graph. The reason for the straight lines is that gearing ratios are constant for each individual gear - in other words in one particular gear, a car travels twice as fast at 4000rpm than at 2000rpm.

JD6

[Pablo68]

Well the maths if how fast a car can go in a particular gear are quite simple... (Sorry typing this on an iPhone )

(((Engine rpm / gear ratio) x final drive ratio x rolling circumference of wheel in cm) / 1000) / 60

Will give meters per second.

So for a maximum rpm and fixed wheel size the equation is fixed per gear. Ye canny beat the laws of geometry captain.

As for theoretical top speeds that requires an suitably large source of input power into the system. So the actual top speed is governed by the actual maximum power the engine can supply, ie you won't ever get the engine to redline in 8th because there is insufficient power to overcome drag and rolling resistances to reach that speed.

Interestingly 159mph is the maximum speed at 5500 rpm with a gear ratio of 0.667 and a final drive ratio of 2.563 (as per the 330d) with a 19" wheel. In order to get to 167mph you would need an engine speed of 5765 rpm (Or at 5500 engine rpm slightly over inflated tyres to give you a 210cm circumference not 201).