Re: what\'s the top speed you\'ve hit on the streets ?
Buried the needle in 95 RT/10 Venom 600 (#019) one night around 2 AM on Phoenix, AZ, Beltway. Part of road trip returning from VOI5. An unnamed VCA member was behind me in another Gen 1 RT/10, also cooking along...165 I seem to recall. Got up to speed, then backed off quickly. No long cruise.
Tops were off, as they should be in RT/10s. Actually, RT/10s shouldn't even be offered with tops ;-)
Momentary insanity. Not even alcohol as an excuse. Just regular old iced tea.
Greatest sensation of speed? mid-1980s, near Yuma, AZ, in what was then a brand spanking new Block 125 F-14A. Altitude 200 feet AGL (above ground level), Mach number almost 1.2, over an air combat maneuvering range. That's pretty much the limit at that altitude, air density, air pressure, etc. Indicated air speed was up there...around 700+ knots. Too busy to pay much attention to gauges at that speed...eyeballs need to be out of the cockpit! That is an incredible speed sensation. I don't think the coyotes, rattlers and gila monsters getting blown around in the massive dirt roostertail were very happy...
No violation. I think we were legal there.
Stupider than 180+ on a public highway, but at the time I was 24 years old and needed the "bragging rights." Did it over water a few times, too, but a couple of hundred feet higher, and no hills and obstructions blasting by. Unless you count this one Soviet Intelligence collector ship ;-)
I've been faster at high altitude (almost 2.5 mach in a Phantom), but you don't get the speed sensation.