What is the best 0 to 60 mph time is attainable by a car (production) today or in the near future?

Electric motors hit peak torque almost instantly. A street legal IC engine will have a hard time matching one in general. The one thing you have to be careful of on those specs of some Teslas though is that they use a “rollout” method to calculate their 0-60 times. Which means obviously they aren’t doing the test from a dig.

Still, electric motors are where it’s at when it comes to pure acceleration. They are quick. Tires are going to have to change in my opinion as these cars become quicker and faster into the future. There will be physical limitations though at some point…where that is…who knows.

Tesla gets those numbers with not street legal tires.

0-60 all comes down to tire grip off the line.

a federally street legal tire can get you 0-60 in 2.1 in my slightly informed opinion.

As far as drag racing tires goes.....well a top fuel dragster can do 0-100 in 0.5 seconds.

I guess that Tesla Roadster is the one. 60 mph in about 1 sec that is insane! I don't think that it is even theoretically possible to beat 1-second point in the future.

The Rimac Nivera is the current production car leader of the 1/4 mile with mid 8 second runs at almost 170mph.

Tires are definitely the limiting factor on 0-60 and that metric is pretty pointless today. 40 years ago when super cars were doing 4 second 0-60 and normal cars were running 7-10 second 0-60 it meant much more. A couple tenths dividing top cars now can be nullified by road condition and reaction time.

Still, nothing like seeing and more importantly hearing a top fuel dragster go 0-340mph in less than 4 seconds.

I believe the mercury/appolo/etc manned projects carefully calculated the maximum g-forces a human can sustain at/about 8-10 G's or whatever [black eyes, internal concussion, etc], the rocket sled tests, that's going to be around sub 1s 0-60

There's really no upper limit, beyond traction and human ability to survive

Funny cars are traction limited, not power limited, and will do 0-60 in/about 0.8s

Thats about the limit of the class/tire/track. I think anything under 2s in an AWD is traction and not power limited, but what do I know

I think any car now can hit 60 before Sha’Carri even leaves the blocks

As others said, the problem with electric cars isn't power/acceleration, but big/good tires to lay it down.

Some new production Teslas have over 1000 HP...

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2022-tesla-model-s-plaid-launch-control-how-to-use-test/

Thrusters?

Gas is then.

What car has gas thrusters?

Rainy Day wrote:

The Rimac Nivera is the current production car leader of the 1/4 mile with mid 8 second runs at almost 170mph.

Tires are definitely the limiting factor on 0-60 and that metric is pretty pointless today. 40 years ago when super cars were doing 4 second 0-60 and normal cars were running 7-10 second 0-60 it meant much more. A couple tenths dividing top cars now can be nullified by road condition and reaction time.

Still, nothing like seeing and more importantly hearing a top fuel dragster go 0-340mph in less than 4 seconds.

I'm 37 but I remember when a 0-60 time of 6.8 seconds was fast (mid '80s Corvette C4). It went from 6.8 to 5.8 from '84 to '85, thanks to the then-new TPI fuel-injected engine. Steamroller tires (Goodyear Gatorbacks, V- and Z-rated 17-inch tires) helped, as well as a great automatic that worked with the torquey 350.

That was considered one of the fastest cars in the world back then (aside from exotics like the Lamborghini Countach LP500 and the Ferrari F40). Those would do 0-60 in 4.5-5.0 seconds, although there was also the Buick Grand National...

sat and didnt kick wrote:

I believe the mercury/appolo/etc manned projects carefully calculated the maximum g-forces a human can sustain at/about 8-10 G's or whatever [black eyes, internal concussion, etc], the rocket sled tests, that's going to be around sub 1s 0-60

There is really no upper limit, beyond traction and human ability to survive.

Funny cars are traction limited, not power limited, and will do 0-60 in/about 0.8s

Thats about the limit of the class/tire/track. I think anything under 2s in an AWD is traction and not power limited, but what do I know

What is your opinion of the new Tesla Model S Plaid with 1.9 acceleration?

Rainy Day wrote:

The Rimac Nivera is the current production car leader of the 1/4 mile with mid 8 second runs at almost 170mph.

Tires are definitely the limiting factor on 0-60 and that metric is pretty pointless today. 40 years ago when super cars were doing 4 second 0-60 and normal cars were running 7-10 second 0-60 it meant much more. A couple tenths dividing top cars now can be nullified by road condition and reaction time.

Still, nothing like seeing and more importantly hearing a top fuel dragster go 0-340mph in less than 4 seconds.

The Rimac isn’t a production car so it’s not the fastest production car 0-60. The Model S Plaid holds that distinction.

Also, 0-60 is basically the only metric to use for cars today. No other performance indicator is used on the roads.

To put this thread into an older context:

I used to follow police car history and back in the '80s and '90s, people forget how slow police cars were. Remember the movie Heat and Short Time? Miami Vice squads couldn't keep up with Testarossas and Mustangs...hence that is why Crockett and Tubbs had their own cool cars.

LASD (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department) and MSP (Michigan State Police) used to measure 30-55 acceleration and 55-70 acceleration data as well. The former metric was for patrol cruisers and the latter metric was for freeway cruisers.

Back in the '80s, getting a cop car above 120 and 0-60 under 10 seconds was a feat. 0-100 in under 30 was the gold standard. The '89 Caprice LO5 (TBI 350) finally broke 15 years of futility (since the mid-'70s big-block 440 LA-block Monaco/Fury) with a 0-100 time of 29.3 or so.

Nowadays, a Versa is faster. But in the late '80s, the 350 Caprice, the 351 Crown Vic and the 318 Diplomat/Gran Fury were the fastest cop cars out there. In '91 the whale Caprice that looked like a bathtub hit 130 and everyone thought the future arrived. The '94 Caprice with the LT1 was even faster at 140-142 mph (same engine as the Impala SS). Those are some of my favorites...

We are spoiled with fast Explorers/Tauruses and Chargers that do 0-60 in 5.5 seconds with either their Ecoboost engines or their huge HEMI V8s.

jecht wrote:

I'm 37 but I remember when a 0-60 time of 6.8 seconds was fast (mid '80s Corvette C4). It went from 6.8 to 5.8 from '84 to '85, thanks to the then-new TPI fuel-injected engine. Steamroller tires (Goodyear Gatorbacks, V- and Z-rated 17-inch tires) helped, as well as a great automatic that worked with the torquey 350.

That was considered one of the fastest cars in the world back then (aside from exotics like the Lamborghini Countach LP500 and the Ferrari F40). Those would do 0-60 in 4.5-5.0 seconds, although there was also the Buick Grand National...

You’re forgetting about the Porsche 959 of the mid/late 80s. The first production car of which I remember seeing sub-4.0 sec 0-60 times. Also 200+ mph.

sat and didnt kick wrote:

I believe the mercury/appolo/etc manned projects carefully calculated the maximum g-forces a human can sustain at/about 8-10 G's or whatever [black eyes, internal concussion, etc], the rocket sled tests, that's going to be around sub 1s 0-60

magnitude of g is 9.8 m/s^2

x 3600s/1hr x 1mile/1609m = 21.9 mi/hr/s

i.e. even 1g gets you from 0 to 21.9 mph in 1 second. 8g gets you to nearly 180. 0-60 in 1s is about 3g.

The best jet fighters are designed to withstand above 11g, but no pilot can do that for long even with a compression suit. Vast majority of planes, and probably cars, would tear themselves apart near 9g.

Bad Wigins wrote:

sat and didnt kick wrote:

I believe the mercury/appolo/etc manned projects carefully calculated the maximum g-forces a human can sustain at/about 8-10 G's or whatever [black eyes, internal concussion, etc], the rocket sled tests, that's going to be around sub 1s 0-60

magnitude of g is 9.8 m/s^2

x 3600s/1hr x 1mile/1609m = 21.9 mi/hr/s

i.e. even 1g gets you from 0 to 21.9 mph in 1 second. 8g gets you to nearly 180. 0-60 in 1s is about 3g.

The best jet fighters are designed to withstand above 11g, but no pilot can do that for long even with a compression suit. Vast majority of planes, and probably cars, would tear themselves apart near 9g.

Orientation matters. People can handle much higher G loads "horizontally" than "vertically." Estimated limits are about 12 positive Gs (like stopping a car) and 17 Gs negative (like accelerating a car) in this orientation. That is compared to 6 or so in the positive vertical direction and 3 in the negative vertical direction.

In a super car, your actual body position is pretty low usually, so that puts you at an angle to the force vectors, so you can't handle that 17g, but you're still better off than with a vertical orientation.

So the fastest cars aren't near what the body can handle

.

that's what I just said, 0-60 in 1s is only 3g. The hardest core roller coasters get up to 6g

based even on the modestly fast cars I've been in, I can only imagine what it's like flying an air superiority fighter doing 9 g's

usually yes the vehicle will break before the operator does, unless built for it. I doubt Teslas are

McLaren 720s won season 2 of Fastest Car, a 1/4 mile drag race, but could only do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds.