Bongo Fury

A couple of weeks ago on a race track i fancied seeing what my bongo would do. When i got to about 105mph it dropped down a gear, afterwards i found it hard to get into lock in. Luckily for me i read a lot of posts on here and i remembbered something about the gearbag being controlled by the Bongo's electronic brain. I pulled over next to a gravel trap and switched off and restarted. Everything back to normal. Anyone want to tell me what happened to cause this?

Thats a common complaint with a KMH speedo.

Changing down at 105mph would certainly mean another visit to Waynes.

thedogsbollox wrote:A couple of weeks ago on a race track i fancied seeing what my bongo would do. When i got to about 105mph it dropped down a gear, afterwards i found it hard to get into lock in. Luckily for me i read a lot of posts on here and i remembbered something about the gearbag being controlled by the Bongo's electronic brain. I pulled over next to a gravel trap and switched off and restarted. Everything back to normal. Anyone want to tell me what happened to cause this?

Oh so youre running a 2.0ltr bongo then

105, nice one, how did it handle.

It is not safe, that's how it handled, lol, on a race track then by all means do it, BUT on public roads any bongo is not safe to do speeds above 80mph, I have tried and tested it and I know, it is not stable enough.

Not boasting or showing off but I tend to spank mine. TBH, I've had mine over a hundred on a long motorway downhill run more than once (even overtaking an Aston Martin on one occasion) & its been fine, straight & stable.

If you have handling issues over 80 I would suggest theres something very wrong with the geometory somewhere.



Steps back to put on flack jacket . . . .

Ha no, no flack it's just I have also driven many motor vehicles at very high speeds as part of my professional driver training and it is purely that which showed the bongo is not safe at high speeds given the dimensions and weight and handling factors, there is no way I would risk the vehicle at very high speeds and certainly not when loaded or with passengers.

my bongo is really good for a 100mph run..

I 'tested' my cruise control at 161kph in Germany this month. On a dead flat (and quiet) autobahn it just got to 161 and no more. At the time, it was all steady and stable.

I do sometimes 'make rapid progress', and the Bongo is more stable (feeling) than it's looks / dimensions would suggest - but I tend to agree with David that above 80 it isn't really stable enough to allow for any eventualities. Especially unexpected changes of direction and / or crosswinds. Whilst 161 felt fine on the day, a week later in Belgium, 110kph felt decidedly dodgy in a strong gusty crosswind.

Apart from anything else, you can't be giving the road your full attention at 100mph when you notice just how quickly the fuel gauge is moving down the scale!

I heard that a trio of bongo's were travelling at 100MPH+ on the M58 a couple of years ago, completely stable as they changed lanes past much slower mercs and beemers. I want to state for the record that it's only a RUMOUR that these bongo's (one black, one white, and a green bongo) travelled at such speeds, i, of course have travelled on the M58 occasionally, but never exceeded 69MPH.

Mine did seem a handful when I first went much over 80 but on a good road (French peage) in good conditions seemed fine at 85 - 90 mph SAT NAV, which is around the ton on my speedo.

I have also heard that on certain bongo's (not mine because i never exceed the speed limit) a speedo indicated 114MPH is more like 107MPH actual speed as indicated by satnav. Not mine though, as i've never broken the speed limit.

My speedo's a wee bit over too 161kph on satnav = 105mph on the dial, about 5% over.

dave_aber wrote:My speedo's a wee bit over too 161kph on satnav = 105mph on the dial, about 5% over.

yep 160km/h in my AFT, however, at that speed the doorframes are getting sucked open... loads of windnoise !! I could put my fingers in the gap created between the window frame and the van body!!

Timnz wrote: yep 160km/h in my AFT, however, at that speed the doorframes are getting sucked open... loads of windnoise !! I could put my fingers in the gap created between the window frame and the van body!!

Keeping up with the "German pace of life", my tintop ain't too bad.. For an old girl...



Maybe its an aft thing with the door sucking...?? I had some scary rides in a Leyland Daff 200 at 65...