basil, did your Concorde friends agree that 160 kts was a typical rotate speed?
John Farley, from another thread:
aircraft at MTOW (185,070 kg) at LHR, on an ISA day with zero wind:
V1: 164 kts
VR: 193 kts
V2: 215 kts
I showed these to a Concorde pilot I had dinner with recently, who agreed with JF's figures.
I was also told that there is a maximum tyre groundspeed limit of 217 kts, and that a 5 kt tailwind might not extend the take off length very much, but it had to be taken into account to avoid the tyres being overspeeded whilst still on the runway.