How much importance do you place 0-60?

[Stuno1]

With 0-60 bragging rights showing no sign of slowing and it still being used as a key determining factor for many when buying a car, how much do you care?

For me, as long as it is under 4.5 seconds I am happy BUT this needs to be coupled with a decent top end speed of 170 ish. The reason being 4 ish seconds to 60 feels plenty fast enough and if the top speed is 170 ish then the car will have power at all speeds and throughout the tev range which is key for motorway driving (overtaking) and b road jaunts. 

Cleary these are not top of my shopping list with, handling, reliability, ownership experience etc being more important BUT 0-60 always rears its head when talking about sports cars. 

Mat what point does 0-60 become a consideration for you? 

Stu

 

[NemesisUK]

To my mind the 0-60 has little relevance in day to day driving on public roads 

It's an obvious and easy metric to quote regards sports cars but only as a benchmark for comparisons

Quite often the biggest differentiator between cars is the driver...

[noby76]

thing most forget or might not be aware of is that  0-60 does not automatically translate to having a quicker car or being quicker in each and every gear on rolling acceleration.

i personally have experienced and seen cars with a quicker 0-60 from 1st to 2nd gear but slower or not having any more of an advantage  in a rolling start from 3rd to 4th to 5th gear when run against another car with a slower 0-60 with slightly lesser or similar horse power figure over the one with a 1 to 1.5 second advantage 0-60 . 

in gear or rolling acceleration is more important for everyday usage than 0-60 figures in my opinion.

 

[FTBBCVoodoo]

@Stuno1 I enjoy the thrill of acceleration rather than top speed so 0-60 is important to me personally but not from a bragging rights perspective.  It came in handy last week when my 3 year old decided she needed a wee on a busy A34.  Pulled into parking layby, she did what she needed to do, I then managed to filter nicely into a gap (with no run up on layby) by booting it (to which my kids giggled and the wife shouted at me) that a slower car may have struggled with 🙂

People always ask 0-60 and it's amusing to see their reaction when I tell them my fairly ordinary looking ISF can do it in 4.x seconds depending on what you read.

30 - 70 is always the one I look at though.  The ISF as you well know covers this quite nicely and multiple car overtakes on a decent A/B road when conditions allow are effortless.

 

[Linas.P]

For me it is just a way to compare cars similar to say EU labels on tyres, some are B, some are F, but it gives you idea what to expect. I would not say there is certain specific number, it really depends on the purpose of the car. Generally, I feel that any modern (2010+) car should be able to reach 60 in less then 8s regardless of how green, cheap, heavy or luxurious it is. However, I consider that premium cars should always be faster then economy brands to protect their status of "premium" car e.g. it is not cool when you drop £40k on RC300h and average Clio drivers can overtake you from any side they like! The acceleration should be relevant, comparable and competitive - if entry-luxury coupe averages at 6.5s for 2018 model year, then any car with 7.5 or 8.6s will be un-competitive offering. How important it is for me personally - VERY important, call it bravado, bragging rights or whatever... but I consider effortless acceleration as part of luxurious car ownership experience, additionally it is safety factor for overtaking - I reckon 6.5 or less would be sufficient for me, but 4.5 would be desirable - not sure how often I would use it, but just knowing I have that capability would make me feel safer and more relaxed. 

[FTBBCVoodoo]

19 minutes ago, noby76 said:

thing most forget or might not be aware of is that  0-60 does not automatically translate to having a quicker car or being quicker in each and every gear on rolling acceleration.

i personally have experienced and seen cars with a quicker 0-60 from 1st to 2nd gear but slower or not having any more of an advantage  in a rolling start from 3rd to 4th to 5th gear when run against another car with a slower 0-60 with slightly lesser or similar horse power figure over the one with a 1 to 1.5 second advantage 0-60 . 

in gear or rolling acceleration is more important for everyday usage than 0-60 figures in my opinion.

 

Experienced this in my S2000 ownership.  A friend of mine had a VX220 turbo at same time.

0-60 we were pretty much side my side.  On paper I think there is 0.2s between them.

Once we were moving though and accelerating side by side in say 3rd gear, the 220 left my S2000 for dead (mixture of lighter car and torque from the turbo).

 

[Linas.P]

For me it seems almost opposite, obviously gearing comes into play ... but small volume turbo often kicks from stand still as they have low down torque (at least modern ones does) and 2.0t can take on 3.0NA, but when it comes to rolling start NA would leave turbo in dust due to more instant response and higher top-end power. Overall, this is only important if your car on the edge of being slow i.e. ~8.0s 0-60... if your car does under 5s 0-60 you would be equally fine for 40-60 or 30-70 overtaking... 

[Vlady]

0-62mph is important to me and it's not that accelerate often to 60 using all the power but it is good to know the car can do it.

When I search the car or just look at the car on Autotrader I always put 2 filters on - Auto gearbox (my wife would hate manual) and Acceleration 0-8sec.

It would be great to have something like under 5sec car but at the moment pass.

So to me anything below 8sec is interesting.

 

[dutchie01]

0 - 60 is not that relevant for me. 45 - 75 is as that is where i want my power to be.

[Matrixxxx]

The trouble is some manufactures gear the car for 0-60 and the rest of the gears are wrong. As most German cars are limited to 155, a speed limiter of 170+ means you can always beat them  on the right road.

[Northern isf]

Years ago I was happy if my cars made it to 60! I do enjoy a launch now n then though, not sure if mines gone down since I've got headers exhaust and the rr intake and tune installed so I suppose what I'm saying is its important to me even my dailys tuned up and does it in around 6 seconds and I can fit a wardrobe in that!

[noby76]

33 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

0 - 60 is not that relevant for me. 45 - 75 is as that is where i want my power to be.

I do recall Saab claiming their  Saab 95 Aero was quicker from 40mph all the way to 90mph than a Porsche 911 Turbo of its time in 2nd to 3rd gear rolling take off and a few tests confirmed it was the case..  but 0 -60 the Saab will not stand a chance.

[FTBBCVoodoo]

21 minutes ago, noby76 said:

I do recall Saab claiming their  Saab 95 Aero was quicker from 40mph all the way to 90mph than a Porsche 911 Turbo of its time in 2nd to 3rd gear rolling take off and a few tests confirmed it was the case..  but 0 -60 the Saab will not stand a chance.

I can remember the Astra Max turbo diesel van out accelerating something like a Lotus Espirit years ago.

Also the Evo 8 FQ400 got beaten from 30mph in 6th gear by something like a Kia Pride on Top Gear 😞

[C.B]

I find 4wd cars have a flattering 0-60 time but once rolling the drivetrain losses mean they are at a disadvantage to a similar power to weight ratio car. So depends where you want your speed. I had a 400bhp s5 quattro last and it flew off the line in any condition, the F wouldn't have passed it before 70 I dont imagine, rolling there would only have been one winner.

This is why theres always a golf R owner nailing it away from every set of traffic lights in the land, I think they have a list of who is on duty at each light at any one time.

[noby76]

nice example of who will take the traffic lights 0-60 and who will take a motorway overtake from 50mph 

 

[Linas.P]

the motorway overtakes are not he ones which matters, you have your secure lane and you can take as long as you like for it, what matters is overtaking on A/B roads with very narrow opportunities and that is mostly 40-60MPH. Other thing, from the time you stepped on the pedal, hold long it is going to take you to actually start accelerating. One car might do 40-60 in 1.5s, but take 1s to respond, whereas other going to take 1.9s for 40-60, but only 0.1s to respond. So overall with slower, but more responsive car you can start overtaking more confidently and you don't need to speed too much to avoid head-on crash.

[Northern isf]

1 hour ago, noby76 said:

nice example of who will take the traffic lights 0-60 and who will take a motorway overtake from 50mph 

 

Is it me or do all new performance cars sound the same almost fake in a weird way

[Linas.P]

That is because they are "fake", turbocharged engines doesn't have much sound just sort of "whinge" - as such they put some elaborate sound amplifying exhaust instruments, but they sound like this:

and not like real powerful engine. I have nothing against turbocharging, but sound will never be like on NA engine, that is especially true when we talking about L4 or L6.. V8, V10 still sounds reasonable... 

[Martin F]

In my view 0-60 is not that important unless I am considering two cars of very similar spec. However for a performance car I do have an expectation in this day and age that it would be <5secs. 

Just my two peneth worth... 

[Big Rat]

On the subject of two pennies worth in this subject my  take is.....

I just want to be able to get my self out of trouble just as quickly as I got myself into it........😬

🐁

[Linas.P]

19 minutes ago, Big Rat said:

On the subject of two pennies worth in this subject my  take is.....

I just want to be able to get my self out of trouble just as quickly as I got myself into it........😬

🐁

Or at least get to the speed where it no longer hurts!

[Stuno1]

Interesting points that seem to agree with what I was thinking. I think the older you get you place greater importance in the other areas of a car that matter. When looking at a class of performance car all it’s competitors will be within a nats ball hair of each other to 60 so the differentiator becomes something else, be that build quality, handling etc. 

[Vlady]

18 hours ago, noby76 said:

I do recall Saab claiming their  Saab 95 Aero was quicker from 40mph all the way to 90mph than a Porsche 911 Turbo of its time in 2nd to 3rd gear rolling take off and a few tests confirmed it was the case..  but 0 -60 the Saab will not stand a chance.

I heard that as well, I think I seen it in Russian magazine, the words were - from 30mph it takes off like a plane!

Also didn't Jeremy Clarkson said the same thing about Golf GTI 2.0ltr turbo, Mk5?

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, Stuno1 said:

 I think the older you get you place greater importance in the other areas 

The way you explained it - that is not what you are saying at all. So if you have 3 cars say with 0-60 times 3.9s, 4.1s and 4.4s i.e. "competitors will be within a nats ball hair of each other", I understand you will be looking to other areas. That is because they all equal... so I  understand you can ignore that bit, however if one will be 7s 0-60 are you saying it still doesn't matter? 

[FTBBCVoodoo]

32 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

The way you explained it - that is not what you are saying at all. So if you have 3 cars say with 0-60 times 3.9s, 4.1s and 4.4s i.e. "competitors will be within a nats ball hair of each other", I understand you will be looking to other areas. That is because they all equal... so I  understand you can ignore that bit, however if one will be 7s 0-60 are you saying it still doesn't matter? 

I think what he meant by other areas is that the older you get the higher the need for the next car to be a Porsche 911 before you succumb to a Metallic Violet Honda Jazz 😉