FTO AUSTRALIA

Hi guys!

I bring this question to you after attending the Street Racing at Eastern Creek Dragway last night. I did a little bit of research and read that apparently in Japan the maximum speed limit is 100kmph, so they don't need cars that are much faster than that. My question is, even though the speedo on my FTO only goes up to 180kmph, does it actually go any faster than that?

I was thinking I might enter the races sometime soon but seeing as most of these cars hit top speeds of 180-210kmph I don't want to look like an idiot by losing severely. Need to install the CAI and possibly some other performance mods (if any of you have any to suggest that are P Plate legal - ones that don't require an engineers certificate).

Also, maybe we should organize a night for members to attend the races together? I've been part of the club for a while and haven't had the chance to meet any of you as of yet.

Anyway, looking forward to your answers.

-Tash

PHIL069's did 270kph.

On a dyno. So I assume if you're delimited and have enough power you could reach those speeds (probably not 270, but the 180-210). Hell, I did 180 in my 4cyl 1.8L 323. On a slight decline. And it probably took a kilometre or two. But that's just guesstimates on my behalf, so you'll likely have to wait for someone more knowledgeable to chime in!

edit: vid for reference http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... IYR6zRIojs

A stock GPX can do slightly under 240 km/h. GR can do just over 210.

I did 160 in my auto GPX and that still had heaps left in it, was just unsafe to continue.

As for races, good idea. I will be going when I get my mivec conversion project running and tuned

Daniel2019 wrote:I did 160 in my auto GPX and that still had heaps left in it, was just unsafe to continue.

Yea I've been up to 180km/h at the limiter on mine, get's there reasonably quick considering the power and acceleration isn't the best but they aren't build for drags.

But at 180km/h the FTOs get very shaky on a normal road. A track would be slightly different. All depends how far you're willing to push it. But be prepared to get injured or killed when you come off second best with a bump or a wall

The cars are limited at 180km/h though it is easy to get rid of this speed limiter.
With enough road they should do 230km/h or so for the MIVEC before the engine power can no longer overcome drag.
However, what everyone neglected to tell you is that limiter or not, sadly you will not be getting anywhere near 180km/h on a drag strip in an FTO unless it's got serious work (turbo, nitrous etc).
Be happy if you hit 150km/h.

Also, another major limiting factor..... the tyres.

fto's limiter is 190kph, i had my 95 gpx hit it several times when it was about 10 years old, yes it does feel incredibly light and 'shakey'

id be surprised if it did much over 200, it took a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong time to get up to 190

Yep, limiter at 190.

So you guys are saying it won't go past 190k ?
I've been beside a friend on his road bike and he said his speedo read 210 so it can't be limited to 190 :/

It can be de-limited.
Factory will not go above.

Thanks for all your input guys, especially Kiz - you damned near scared me to death with the end of your post. *HOPEFULLY* I won't be meeting with any walls as such whilst participating in a race

Also, I thought I'd put it out there that I spoke with RMS (NSW) this morning in regards to P Plate legal performance mods - I tried finding the relevant information on their website but couldn't really find much except for this: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/ ... v_2007.pdf

I also came across a few other forums with people asking the same but the answer that seemed to be consistent was "you can do mods that don't require an engineers certificate". I twisted my words with the (rude) guy I spoke with and he straight up confirmed this.

So my question now is, would you guys know what mods don't require an engineers certificate?

Thanks again for all your input

PS. If anyone is interested, the usual Wednesday Street Races at EC aren't on next week but will resume the following week. I'll be there - anyone else in?

destinationtoby wrote:So you guys are saying it won't go past 190k ?
I've been beside a friend on his road bike and he said his speedo read 210 so it can't be limited to 190 :/

Bikes speedos are so innacurate lol

It's limited to 180kms but by the time the fuel cut kicks in you'll be at like 195kmph that's when I lost power when I was testing it on the road lol
They will go over 200 easy...
And that's what my gps said...

Sahin wrote:Bikes speedos are so innacurate lol

Sahin wrote:They will go over 200 easy...
And that's what my gps said...

Pot, Kettle, Full toilet bowl.

notoriousTASH wrote:
PS. If anyone is interested, the usual Wednesday Street Races at EC aren't on next week but will resume the following week. I'll be there - anyone else in?

You are talking about WSID yes?

Yes, WSID

They have a different event on next week

spetz wrote:The cars are limited at 180km/h though it is easy to get rid of this speed limiter.
With enough road they should do 230km/h or so for the MIVEC before the engine power can no longer overcome drag.
However, what everyone neglected to tell you is that limiter or not, sadly you will not be getting anywhere near 180km/h on a drag strip in an FTO unless it's got serious work (turbo, nitrous etc).
Be happy if you hit 150km/h.

+1

Was gonna say that even on a track and even exiting a corner at a ridiculous speed is the straight really long enough for you to actually hit over 200km/h before having to brake for the next corner?

Sahin wrote:

destinationtoby wrote:So you guys are saying it won't go past 190k ?
I've been beside a friend on his road bike and he said his speedo read 210 so it can't be limited to 190 :/

Bikes speedos are so innacurate lol

Correct.
The fairly obvious example, if it's not a digital speedo, the needle starts bouncing after you cross 150-160 km/h...only way to measure velocity after that is a very accurate expensive gps or speedgun. 90% of the commercially available gps are not accurate either. Try going at 100 km/h...and sudden brake.... the gps will take few seconds to determine your current velocity after braking. They are not fast enough to detect sudden changes of velocity.

@Tash are you talking about drags or track days?

Drags= you need very fast acceleration more than your top speed. while you maintain grip of your vehicle. So all your mods should focus on these two factors.

Racing around a circuit. You need a combination of different factors: grip, acceleration, maneuverability, and top speed. So you need to modify a lot of different components and often improving one factor might negatively affect another. Trick is to find a balance between all these factors while you choose your mods.

If you are talking about competitive drags, you will need turbo and nos. Don't think either are legal for P plates. Nos is not even road legal. Plus both forms of competition needs body weight reduction of your car. My track bike in Melbourne had very light fibreglass body kit, no mirrors or any kind of lights (headlight, tail light, indicators, etc etc) pillion seats, footrests etc removed, ran distilled water as my coolant, different set of tyres and new brake pads for almost every/alternate race. It was a pain in the ass to change these over every time there was a track day, and put the normal fittings back when I want to ride on the road. So like many, I had a specific track vehicle which I could not use on the road. I would guess it's similar for cars as well.

Once you are done preparing the vehicle, it comes down to driver training. Track days/Drags are not as simple as just twisting the right wrist on a motorbike or flooring the accelerator in the car. It involves a lot of theoretical knowledge, patience, practice and most important, perseverance.

Don't take it as a negative/discouraging post. Just giving you some info to prep you, because thinking about doing track/drags involves a lot more details and responsibilities than just thinking about the vehicle's top speed. And we would love to see one of our members representing our FTO on the tracks!

notoriousTASH wrote:Yes, WSID

They have a different event on next week

I was planning on taking my FTO down there within the next couple months for some fun

bit weird that a bike that does 300kmh quite easily is out by 20k at 210 :/