Down here in Texas we don't pussyfoot around. If you find a long enough stretch of pavement you put the pedal to the metal remember we use a Prius as a doorstop.
May be that is why we have 80mph speed limits here in the wild west.
But what if that strip of pavement wasn't a public road, just how fast can you go? Since we don't have a large dried up lake bed to run on here in Texas we do the next best thing. Take over an old Air Force facility in the Houston area and create The Texas Mile an annual event that basically is our version of the Bonneville Salt Flats minus the salt.
With that in mind the skies are the limit as far as speed goes and you see some pretty amazing results. So rather than so over the details I'll let you read one driver thoughts as he almost broke 242 MPH in his Toyota Supra.
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My goal with the first pass was just to get it down the track and feel the car out. We had conservative boost and a slow ramp rate. I knew it went well when I hit the rev limiter at the traps. When I pulled the chute, that was the first time I actually got nervous.. yes I said it. I was using a new "Bonneville" chute and it is about 25ft long. When I pulled it, the chute went up in the air then side to side and the car moved over about 10-15ft instantly. I also felt the car moving around alot at the top end. Kean asked me if we had adjusted the suspension settings for when we were drag racing it. It turns out the front shocks were still set at full soft. Kean adjusted the suspension, we raised the rear and put on the taller slicks. Justin raised the limiter, up the boost about 2-3 lbs and that was it. On the second run, the car dead hooked and when I got into the top of 4th, it really started to pull. As I got it into 5th, it felt like I had another turbo kick in and it was pulling like a *****. I usually never look at the gauges, but a little past the 3/4 mile mark, I glanced at the tach, it was reading 9200 and I knew it was going to be a good run, maybe 238 or so. I was never expecting almost 242..
I can just imagine the look of those ZR-1 and Viper owners as this Supra handed it back to them.
2008 SEMA Auto Show Photo Gallery
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