Magazine 0-60 times
 

I'd noticed that the "official" reviews of the MP5, and ES have turned less than stellar 0-60 numbers and last weekend I found out why. The MP5 and LX (I'm not sure about the MP3) have an unfortunately low redline and, when rushing to 60, it actually redlines just before 60 in 2nd, so having to shift to 3rd to break 60 would incur a much higher time than is necessary. On Car and Driver TV last week, they had their review of the MP5. They actually showed the tach during the 0-60 run and, sure enough, the didn't break red. I'm sure this has something to do with 'not bending any rules' to get the best performance out of the car- but meanwhile we have to deal with those embarassing #'s. I know the car is no rocket by any means, buy I'm sure its capable of 0-60 in less than 9.5sec! I know you can break that redline by quite a bit without hitting the fuel cutoff and thereby help those #'s a tad. Has anyone gotten a better 0-60 w/o mods?

SCC recently did an article about (written by dave coleman) how we have been screwed over by meaningless 0-60 times. when a car company focuses on 0-60 times real drivability suffers. meaning that, in higher gears, while say-carving up your favourite mountain road or better yet-racetrack, the performance is not nearly as good as it good be because everyone focuses on 0-60 times. the belief is that, we lose allot of drivability to the almighty 0-60 test(s). if i can find the article and get enuff' people wanting to read it, ill scan it and post it.
chris j.

yeah, it would be more objective to test acceleration 80-120 km/h-throughout the rpm range but in the same gear.
Some of the magazines give acceleration through gears.
best 0-60 for FWD cars are about 6 sec, no matter how much power thay have. But I bet turbo Sentra SE-R from Street car Challenge with ~220 whp will be way faster 80-120 than Pontiac Gran Prix GTP(240 crank hp and extra 700lb), but they have same ~6,5 sec 0-60.
Alex

FWIW, I think 0-60 times are completely worthless. They say a lot more about traction and gearing than power and real-world performance.

I skip the 0-60 time completely and go straight to the 1/4 mile time. The 1/4 mile gives you a better idea of what the car is REALLY capable of, and if you know a car's weight and 1/4 mile trap speed, you can compute its horsepower with astonishing accuracy. Plus, you can verify 1/4 mile times at your friendly neighborhood dragstrip. It's almost impossible to get an accurate 0-60 time without expensive precision timing equipment.

If you hang around RACERS (as opposed to people who just read Motor Trend), you will find that most of them have no idea what their car's 0-60 time is, but can rattle off memorized 1/4 mile times and trap speeds for their cars for every modification that they've done :)

the 2nd gear conspiracy
 

<QUOTE>PseudoRealityX-Yeah, id like to take a look.<END QUOTE>

sorry it took me so long to find. got a loot more stuff to worry bout' than car stuff:)! anyways, it utrned out i didnt have that exact issue(whould ya know it though guys, its the same issue that featured
none other than our own Pro5!!), but i found it on the net. its Nov. 01'. follow the link below for it.


http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/ar...echno_1101.jsp