I still believe cars aren't safe enough to run average above 240. Getting airborne at that speed can be a one way trip

The CART guys managed 240+. That was only in qualifying trim anyway. Race pace was considerably slower than that.

The fastest average speed was by Luyendyk in practice in 1996, with 239.2. Cheever has the fastest race lap with 236.1, also in 1996.

Yes, when people talk about 240+, it would really be one lap on qualifying trim in fresh tires.

Maybe in a 4-lap qualifying they could manage that, but surely the speeds would drop as the run goes.

And I don't think we would need one of those '90s CART-era beasts. Just crank up the boost of the current ones.

I don't think safety would be an issue. It's more about the nature of the crash, than the speed. To me, the main concern with this cars, it's a crash like SeaBass' (back-end slides, driver tries to catch it, cars hooks up and goes head-on into the wall). And in traffic, something like Dixon's, or any crash that can launch a car into airbornez!1! mode. It's the chance that the car would crash into something driver-head-first. That's something the screen or a halo-type device would prevent.

Those dangers are present now. Another 10mph isn't going to make a whole lot of difference. Dixon was lucky and Bourdais was a miracle the tub didn't break even with the SAFER barrier. Actually, on second thought, another 10mph might've made all difference in Bourdais' case. Who knows what would've happen had he hit the wall a little faster.

Lost the back end

Even jumped in the air but didn't take off