Going Into Limp Mode At 160MPH Is Never a Good Thing…

I can think of very few feelings that knot your stomach up worse than being wide open throttle in a car and having it suddenly decelerate, despite the fact that your foot is still planted firmly on the floor. At that point, there are quite literally hundreds of scenarios that go through your mind, and not a single one of them has a positive outcome.

Imagine, if you will, the car you’re hammering on belongs to a friend. As you might imagine, those knots in your stomach would likely multiply tenfold leaving you literally sick to your stomach. Well that’s exactly what happened to Blake Johnson (for my hometown natives who may read this, no, this isn’t the Blake Johnson we went to school with) when his friend handed over his 2016 Z06 Corvette for a few weeks to recuperate from an operation on his knee.

As any good friend would do, Blake took exceptional car of the car, driving it in the safest possible manner at all times and always obeying the posted speed limits, just like you and I would do. Obviously that’s a big fat lie, and Blake has no hesitation admitting he took friends and family for rides in the car to show off the wicked 650 horsepower supercharged LT4 and how quickly it would propel the car to 160 MPH and beyond.

On this particular day, Johnson is taking his friend Alex for a ride and decided to “test the tires for traction” a few times before actually making the run up to 160. With the extra stress on the engine and drivetrain, the Z06’s well-documented propensity for overheating reared it’s ugly head and put the car into limp mode at 160 MPH.

As you can imagine, Blake wasn’t exactly thrilled with this chain of events, but after giving the car time to cool down, it returned to normal operation, exact the check engine light stayed on after the incident. The car was due an oil change so he had that checked out while the oil was being changed and all seems to have ended well.