The laws of the United States, in that era, required a maximum "indicated" speed of 85 mph for all vehicles certified for sale in the US. This was a result of the nationwide 55 mph speed limit after the big oil crisis. I guess that the theory was that if the speedometer showed a "top end" of 85 mph, then we would naturally want to go 55 mph. I had a 1981 Suzuki GS850G motorcycle that could go 130 mph, but had the same speedometer limitation. There are a couple of retrofit kits that change the speedo face to 140 mph or 170 mph, with appropriate ratio adjustments to the speedo drive system. BTW - Winged1 has been to a calculated top speed of about 138 mph - the charts in the latest issue of Gullwing magazine are useful in doing the math, based on RPM in various gears. Toby Peterson VIN 2248 Winged1 --- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "rrouya" <RRouya@xxxx> wrote: > I was looking for a Delorean to buy when I saw a pic of the > speedometer. The top speed is only 85 MPH???!! Whats up with that? > Isnt that freakin slow as hell?