How fast have you had your W124 300D?
 

On an open stretch of I-40 just East of Tucumcari, NM on my way to Amarillo I decided to open up my 1993 300D to see what she could do.

There was significant traffic so I had to keep that in mind.

There was a pretty stiff cross wind, too, and since I hadn't planned on a speed test I hadn't aired up the tires either.

With quite a bit of body roll and too much instability(PO said he replaced all the shocks when he did the front suspension but I think they must be Monroe's or something just as bad, I saw on one that it was manufactured in South Africa), I topped out at 115 MPH before the wind, soft tires and a wallowing suspension got to my judgment.

I had to watch traffic so I didn't keep a close eye on the speedo much of the time but I do remember a pretty steep hill at 100 MPH and the needle was steadily climbing, up the hill...

That was not smart at all. I suggest you delete this thread before others tell you the same in far "less nice" words.

If you want to go fast, go to a race track. Public roads are NOT the place to do that sort of thing!

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere. Montana wisconsin come to mind. I'd love to get an excessive gas consumption ticket.

A what?

Excessive gas consumption ticket?

My God, what have we become?

BTW, the stretch of I-40 between Tucumcari, NM and Amarillo, TX is the middle of nowhere.

The speed limit is 75 MPH on that stretch.

OK, I will qualify.

"Significant" traffic for this part of the world is really not that much. I wasn't weaving in and out of traffic and never had anybody even in the fast lane to contend with.

What's the Autobahn? Public road?

Either way, I only take calculated risks and would never try to drive outside my abilities or put anybody else in danger.

I say flame away if you must.

Thats the key.

A very well maintained and strictly policed road about 4,000miles away from you in a country where they require years of lessons to qualitfy for a licence and drivers actually know what they are doing.

Tell that to everyone else on the road that you're putting at risk.

Or you can be licensed in any country and drive on the Autobahn. At very high speeds. I will say the unlimited areas are like 5 meters wide. Its amazing to bury the needle on a 225kph speedo in a Ford.

Montana issues (did at least) excessive fuel consumption tickets for +110mph I believe.

It looks like they no longer had unlimited speeds in Montana (shame).

I think I read the 124 300D models were rated at 121mph top end.

I've been on the autobahn (as a passenger) many times and have seen speeds up to 245K/hr.
People don't travel at that speed on those (designed for high speed) roads unless there is good weather, low traffic, and most importantly, they know their cars and how they'll perform. They don't take a car with questionable tire inflation, questionable shocks, etc. and get in a left lane.
IMHO what you did was very dangerous.

While in Germany two years ago I once drove a friends "immaculate" 1983 300SD on the Autobahn. The car drove smoothly all the way up to our equal of 110mph-before I chickened out and slowed down.

We then drove my rental Ford SUV. At 95 mph the damn thing was shaking like it was going to come apart.

Well, how did I make it?

Why didn't I have a wreck with anybody?

Because I was driving within my abilities and I took all variables into consideration, that's why. In a nutshell, I was right.

I said 115 MPH, not 1150 MPH. Was that the confusion?

1983 300SD in Germany with Km/H speedometer? Was it re-imported from Canada?

Yeah, a 300SD in Germany is almost non-existant. They were sold in North America only.

The mb tec book says USA and Japan .

What are you going to do when a tire blows and sends you all over the road, and causes the minivan with 4 kids in it to serve and flip over in the ditch.....