WTF on my govener

[frolf]

well last time i went real fast in my car i thought i hit the speed limiter at 128. maybe it was just a bump or something that made me cut off the throttle and think to myself i hit it. but yesterday i hit 132mph in my 328iS and i didn't even touch the limiter. ?

i could've kept going, but no room. and that was at 132!!!!

 

[skandalous]

I remember someone saying something about this. WHen you get up to speeds that high, your spedometer becomes less and less accurate. I know my car is governed at 128, but one time it said I was going about 133. So, who knows.

 

[frolf]

hehe, that was me who said that probably. My guess is that is was fairly optimistic, but it just felt like there was so much left, and that a limiter would never come in.

also most (german) cars have several limiting devices. Sometimes its the speedo, sometimes its other things. I would've thought that if the speedo reads 132, the rest of the telemetry would've figured 132 and shut her down.

 

[brahtw8]

It is my understanding that the governor limits the rpm in top gear, which translates into a limit of top speed. Depending upon the wind, road grade, etc., you may see some variation in ultimate speed from that limited maximum rpm.

As for the reliability of speedometers, I seem to remember something about BMWs reading 5 mph high or more, purposefully.

 

[StuartJoyce]

I posted somthing about my govenor ealier. I had my car up to 140, atleast thats what the speedo said, and i have a 96 328is, I bought this car from a guy who bought it in Germany, and had it shipped here, so im not sure if it has a limit on it, even at 140, it was still incresing, but i bitched out so i stopped

 

[frolf]

at 132 i think i was at around 5200 rpm, so its not the gearing.

 

[manuel]

topped my car out at ~136MPH because the car just wouldnt gain more speed...

 

[Wadula]

stuart, if the car is from germany it a german spec. german spec 3 series in E36 were not governed.

brahtw8, it is not the rpm that the act of governing is based on but the real actual speed. you if you could go the same 128 mph in 4th and 5th gear (theoretical of course) you would have different rpm but still be governed down.

the reason for not being goverend at more than 128 can only be that the speedo is, as said, inaccurate or the governer is not there or broken. that the speedo is not right is the most likely.
example for that is that my moms 540 runs at 250 kph in the governer, you can feel that. but the speedo is far away from reading 250. it actually left the scale.