Euan, Catching up on digest - forgive if already covered.
I don't think that the estate engine was 'de-tuned' compared to the sedan. True, the SLS pump would be a parasitic loss that the sedan wouldn't have unless it had the SLS option. I think the bigger difference is the weight and the wind resistance. I would imagine that the wind resistance for the wagon is higher? During my highspeed run, I was quite suprised at the smoke trail, and feared that my oil consumption rate was too high at that speed for me to continue more than about 10 minutes. With wife, luggage and full tank, I've been able to easily cruise at 90 mph and touch 95 occasionally, but the car is much more stable and well behaved at ~85. I would suspect that your car is not performing at full potential - should be able to reach top speed with two souls on-board, full liquid load and a small amount of luggage (i.e. ready-to-drive condition). Did you have the AC cranking? Head wind would definitely have a large affect at high speed - most of the power required is going into overcoming wind resistance. Don, Yes, 4th gear has a higher top speed than 5th, officially noted in the 1985 TDM. It's a small difference - something like 5 KPH, and due to the engines power band which puts the HP peak close to the max. RPM (4800 RPM HP peak IIRC, max. RPM 5050). Ciao Ciao, Max Very respectfully, /s/ LCDR Meade M. Dillon, USNR Digest Lurker since 2001 85 300TD 321k miles (Euro 5spd) '96 Infiniti I30 149k miles (wife's 5spd) '73 Balboa 20 'Sanctification' Charleston SC
