There's this stretch of Hwy 62-180 eastbound that leads out of El Paso and goes towards Carlsbad Caverns. I took it yesterday afternoon because its desolate and kinda calming in a weird way. So I pass the border patrol checkpoint, they asked where I was headed and I said out for a drive "I needed to think". The agent looked at my passport and said "via con dios", which is funny when you think about it.

I started driving east and with the A/C on and a full tank of 91/100 octane mix I laid into 3rd then 4th. As I was shifting into 5th, I noticed how straight and far out the road went. So I kept it in 4th and got up to 110. Shift in 5th and still pulled. Didn't know the 2.8 30V could growl like that while I was over 100. As I was nearing 125 the road started to rise and fall in a few spots. I passed a car, but didn't notice what it was or cared. I was in bliss it seemed. Just cruising along...then it happened.

I felt a sudden loss of power, I looked at the dash to see if an idiot light was looking back at me, but no. I was right at 130. So I pushed more, and again at like 131, the power loss came on. Which freaked me a bit. I had no idea it was such a low number. I even tried to fool the car when I was on the downside of a hill....but it still cut out slightly at the 130 mark.

The car rode so smoothly and the engine noise was muffled by the wind noise(very windy day it was too). I had done the 129+ mph run for about 10 or 12 miles and they went by quickly as did my gas needle. I slowed over 5 miles and came to a slow stop on the side of the road. Car purring, some cross wind noise, and the exhaust creaking from heating. Other than that, it idled well. My last car was usually erratic after that kind of run, i'd have to drive at slow speeds for it to "calm down" again.

Currently I have no mods whatsoever, I just put really good gas in it (the 6 gallons of 100 was left over from a friend), and change the oil. Honestly it really needs front drive axles right now, but I don't haul a$$ everywhere I go.

This brings me up to a pondering though. Is 130mph a cut-off for my '99 model?

 

130 is the factory cut off, on my 1998 a4 the book listed a 160mph spedo and a foot note read, limited to 130mph.
so yes the stock computer cuts the car off at 130

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I also had a similar story on the I-95 at around 3am, me and this tuned civic was racing, guess who won lol. I was doing 130 for a good 10 miles, absolutely no cars on the road. The car sounded smooth and capable of alot more, but I knew the stock suspension was reaching its limits. Maybe a suspension upgrade I'll consider removing the governor.

 

yeah i was doing 120'ish on I91 south (the day i saw that deer haha) and i had to slow down because I can feel my car .... kinda screaming for upgrades lol

 

Yep thats the factory speed governor, if you get chipped that gets raised to a point you'll never hit it

 

dosent a chip get ride of the factory govener

 

ya it turns off the limiter so you wont ever hit it, but it dosent hurt to try

 

I dont know somthing is up with my car anyway, at like 125 the car dosent seam to want to pull anymore anyway the boost is still at 18 but it just wont pull anymore.. have not checked it out with new plugs o2 sensors and the MBC installed though

 

Yeah a GIAC chip from AWE Tuning(shameless plug eh?)seems to be the next step:

Not that I am looking for ultimate top speed, but I do like to stretch out my car's legs every once in awhile. Reminds me of when I was stationed in Italy back in the mid 90's, I would get my little Dodge Daytona running all the way up to 145, but that little 4 banger would be screaming.