Fastest 4 door sedan?

[Oversize]

It's often been said that the 6.9 was the fastest 4 door sedan in the world at the time is was built. Was reference to this claim regarding the terminal speed, 0-100kmh, or 1/4 mile? I assume that this accolade was short lived, much like the Titanic being the biggest ship in the world...... I'd take a guess that cars built previously (including the 6.3 & Ford XY GTHO) were quicker? What car received the gong after the 6.9?

 

[B13]

I always thought it was the 6.3 which held that title (for a very short time) but by the mid-to-late 70s when the 6.9 came along, the Jag V12 was the faster 4-door car of the two.

I.

 

[BenzBoy]

Fastest?
Outright speed?
1-100 kph?
Quarter mile?
I just did a quick google and came up with all sorts of claims - but none which lead in a clear direction to the title "The Fastest Car..." as people use different parameters and there are some wild claims out there as well. Throw in a curve or two and I guess you sort the sheep from the goats though.
Fellow I know has a Railton Special with a Spitfire engine. Now in theory it should be fast but every time he tries to find out what it will do he ends up with a puddle on the floor. No: not the Jaguar-type puddle - so he backs off...
Regards,
Benz-Boy

 

[SEL_69L]

Pontiac GTO's were pretty fast back in the late '60 and early '70's, at least acceleration wise. They should be: the largest engine option was 455 c.i. (7.5 litres). The high performance version of that engine (compression ratio 10.5 to 1) could make 6500 rpm., in a car weighing 1700 kg. The standing quarter mile for a factory fresh high performance was quoted by Pontiac at 11.7 sec. Most American iron for that time had a top speed of about 120 mph, in which a 6.9 some 10 years later, would have a higher top speed. Road & Track managed to squeeze 148 mph out of a 6.9. 238 km/hr.

Did the Railton Special have four doors? I guess that it may have, but it would be to gain access to the machinery.

The land speed record holder of John Cobb was called the "Mobil Railton Special" The record speed it attained was 394 mph in I think 1947. That car had a Napier Sabre 'H' engine of 24 cylinders out of a Hawker Typhoon or Tempest type of aircraft, and produced something like 3000 horsepower.

Postscript: I have checked Wikapedia: The car had in fact TWO Napier Lion engines of 1250 hp each...

 

[abl567]

Being unbiased Here is an interesting thread from the M-100 group site with an article by the late Peter Wherett

http://www.m-100.cc/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3224

Now a GTHO PH3 was about $4800 new in 1971, a 6.3 was around $27000,
Phase threes have sold for 3/4 of a million dollars at the height of the muscle car boom, what is the highest price paid for a 6.3?

 

[abl567]

Pontiac GTO's were pretty fast back in the late '60 and early '70's, at least acceleration wise. They should be: the largest engine option was 455 c.i. (7.5 litres). The high performance version of that engine (compression ratio 10.5 to 1) could make 6500 rpm., in a car weighing 1700 kg. The standing quarter mile for a factory fresh high performance was quoted by Pontiac at 11.7 sec. Most American iron for that time had a top speed of about 120 mph, in which a 6.9 some 10 years later, would have a higher top speed. Road & Track managed to squeeze 148 mph out of a 6.9. 238 km/hr.

Did the Railton Special have four doors? I guess that it may have, but it would be to gain access to the machinery.

The land speed record holder of John Cobb was called the "Mobil Railton Special" The record speed it attained was 394 mph in I think 1947. That car had a Napier Sabre 'H' engine of 24 cylinders out of a Hawker Typhoon or Tempest type of aircraft, and produced something like 3000 horsepower.

You may have read in the Lode Fest 2010 thread that we had the honour of being lent a '66 GTO, 6.5 litre tri power, (triple 2 barrel carbs) to drive to the meet, the acceleration could only be described a brutal, the handling, on period correct crossplies, was, shall we say, period correct

 

[BenzBoy]

I have it on good authority taht the fastest 4 door north of the Harbour Bridge is Ant's turbo, twin cab ute...
Regards,
Benz-Boy

 

[abl567]

I have it on good authority taht the fastest 4 door north of the Harbour Bridge is Ant's turbo, twin cab ute...
Regards,
Benz-Boy

You forgot to mention the fact that it is compression ignition

BUT, it is a Toyota so prone to faulty brakes and a sticking throttle pedal...

 

[BenzBoy]

You forgot to mention the fact that it is compression ignition

BUT, it is a Toyota so prone to faulty brakes and a sticking throttle pedal...

You mean like a Corolla, it is prone to accelerating to 160 KPH in an instant? If they were so fast I would buy one for each day of the week....sorry to hijack the thread...
Regards,
Benz-Boy

 

[Tony66_au]

Many of the speed claims were (I believe) made by "interested parties" and men with ponytails but I will point out a few omissions to the fastest 4 door list being the E34 VG Valiant Pacer and the E49 spec VH Pacer (Triple 48mm Webbers etc).

In the 2 door category of course the VH E49 Charger was faster by a bit than any of the "Ho's" and in Australia at least held the record well after it ceased production.

Im not a fan of the Charger BTW but having driven both E49 and E38 variants I thought it was worth the mention.

Here's a dark horse for you though,
4.2 lt XK type straight 6 with triple 2 inch SU's, 4 door luxury saloon with Monocoque construction, IRS, 4 wheel disks and speed sensing power steering (Varamatic variable ratio steering) to keep road feel and feedback at high speed AND I owned one!

265 Brake Horsepower, 290 foot pounds of torque as standard although I had the Gold top Alloy head with the 9:1 comp and D type cams fitted so mine was a tad quicker.

Mine was good for 135 Mph but the claimed figure was 120 Mph from memory and the 0 to 60 MPH times were 9.5 seconds, not too shabby for a 2 ton car.

The Mark 10 (Mk 10) Jaguar of 1965 which was also the introduction of the iconic twin headlight cat look that stayed with Jaguar pretty much till the current day.

Tony

 

[John S]

If the test was done on a flat road, Road & Track were obviously having themselves on. All the authoritive tests that I have on the 6.9 (Motor & Autocar) list the speed as a fraction less than 140mph.