an interesting topic on sports compact car recently made me reflect upon this often used measurement. i mean, you don't see race team design their gear ratios to go after the 0-60 specifically, so why should we? why can't we do 0-70? 0-50? 0-40?

 

0-60 is meaningless other than a speed within legal boundaries. No question we ought to be looking something like 0-100, or 0-120, or maybe even 0-150...

 

I don't really have much to say other than I know the article you read and I whole heartedly agree with you. when was the last time you saw the international 0-60 championships on speedvision

 

0-60 means nothing to me, i'm not into the straight line thing.
how does it corner? can i steal the apex from that M3 by late braking? can i do a school without coming home on a flat bed? can i go to the party and play with the big boys having spent half as much as they did? - these are the things that are important to me!!!
or in the real world why can't we place a priority on 45 - 90 or 50 - 100 or the sacred ground of 0 - 100 - 0?
good questions mingster, question all that we know, somewhere in the middle is the truth!

 

Yes I reached 60MPH a few times today
Most of the time it was quick, but
sometimes it felt like forever
Leave it in fifth gear
and you will never
get there

 

I don't think that the absolute time is necessary, however, it gives a good indication of acceleration ability off the line and it is a standard measure which allows comparisons.

Triple-H suggests using the "real world" figures of 0-100-0.... what is real world about that?

All we are trying to achieve is to get a set of figures that are standard for all cars so that comparisons can be made 0-40, 0-50, 0-60 whatever as long as they all quote the same figures then it doesn't matter which (IMHO), it is just a statistic that has become generally accepted.

 

Triple-H suggests using the "real world" figures of 0-100-0.... what is real world about that?

my real world is the track - watkins glen - 0-100-0 is what it is all about!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Triple-H
[B]Triple-H suggests using the "real world" figures of 0-100-0.... what is real world about that?

 

0-<anything> is pretty irrelevant ... I don't know how often you guys (or anyone else in any car) lights up the reear-tyres from stands still. 5-60mph is a lot more relevant ... just as something like 40 - 80mph (or any other increments).

0-<something> is more relevant when launched off-idle; that is a usable 'real world' number as well as any speed increment.

 

I would liken 0-60 to the concept of percent in math. Percent is useful because it allows for the comparison of two unlike fractions by converting them to a common format. 0-60 is a good way, although arbitrary, of comparing straight line performance between two cars.