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

Heartless wrote:

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.

I do remember that one too, as the Ferrari F40 as well. Countach was great, but Diablo in '90 instantly aged it.

The Porsche 930 Turbo in '79 was blowing people away with 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. In contrast, the fastest Vettes and 911s were around 6.6-7.2 seconds that year.

However, the weird thing was the 930 Turbo/911 Turbo didn't have a huge advantage by '86, when cars as a whole were getting faster--the C4 Vette was almost as fast at 0-60 in 5.5-5.7 and the 944/928/911s were just slightly slower.

The 959 was the game-changer. Corvette had the ZR-1 by '90 but by then the 911 Turbo/930 Turbo was even faster.

It was a huge arms race in the '80s. You had the 959, the Grand Nat getting faster from '84 to '87 and gaining intercoolers and better turbos (including the GNX), the C4 steadily getting quicker and getting the ZR-1, and the infamous Fox-Body Mustangs against Third Gen Camaros/Trans Ams.

People laugh now, but back in the late '80s, as cars became more computerized, engineers, mechanics, etc. realized that the digital revolution was going to get cars rock-solid mpgs, better idling (no carb and fuel starving issues), and even more power than even the best Rochester 4-bbl. they could offer. I'm only 37 but I remember carbs like yesterday...

This has been an AMAZING THREAD.

Do you mean street legal or rockets?

Moving people to 60mph in a jet engine with nominal wheels is very fast.

dio wrote:

Moving people to 60mph in a jet engine with nominal wheels is very fast.

What if there's a treadmill under it doing 0 to - 60 at the same time?

jecht wrote:

I'm only 37 but I remember carbs like yesterday...

This has been an AMAZING THREAD.

In 1990, when you would have been 6, my dad bought a 1991 Toyota pickup. It was one of the cheapest cars on the market and one of the last to ditch the carburetor.

You really remember carbs "like they were yesterday?" Because they were the majority of cars sold a decade before you were born, and basically every car sold by the time you were a few years old. Were you working on cars at 5 years old?

Assuming car mechanics became something you were into at age 15 or so, at that point, it was only classic cars that would still be around with carburetors. In other words, basically the exact same cars driving around with carbs as we have today.

porsche 959 was 198mph

the ferrari f40 was first to list over 200mph

holterskolter2 wrote:

jecht wrote:

I'm only 37 but I remember carbs like yesterday...

This has been an AMAZING THREAD.

In 1990, when you would have been 6, my dad bought a 1991 Toyota pickup. It was one of the cheapest cars on the market and one of the last to ditch the carburetor.

You really remember carbs "like they were yesterday?" Because they were the majority of cars sold a decade before you were born, and basically every car sold by the time you were a few years old. Were you working on cars at 5 years old?

Assuming car mechanics became something you were into at age 15 or so, at that point, it was only classic cars that would still be around with carburetors. In other words, basically the exact same cars driving around with carbs as we have today.

I was old enough to watch my father and learn about cars when I was 5-6. At that time, we had several vehicles with carbs. By the time I was in middle school all cars were FI, but even then, it was rudimentary throttle-body injection (it looked like a carb on top with the domed air cleaner but it was single-point injection). Later on, more cars had multi-port injection.

'82 Ford Crown Vic LTD Country Squire Wagon, 2-bbl. carb. It was always in the shop due to the troublesome variable-venturi carb. It would stall often due to that carb's design. The venturi would telescope or expand/contract I think; it was a cheap way for Ford to try to meet EPA standards in the late '70s (they went to throttle-body injection in '83) without doing FI at that point.

'77 Impala 305-2 barrel carb. My great-uncle Mike and his brother had a used car dealership and they sold it to my father but it had carb issues, not as much as the Ford though.

'84 Riviera 307-4-barrel carb. This one wasn't as bad as the other two but they still had issues.

Even though I was young I remember these cars very well and they were fine outside of the carb issues.

When I was 8 or so we got a '90 Taurus wagon (2 years old at the time) in great shape with 55k miles, all highway mileage, and it had fuel injection--no issues with the engine for the 11 years we had it. It was at 183k before we sold it.

dio wrote:

Do you mean street legal or rockets?

Moving people to 60mph in a jet engine with nominal wheels is very fast.

For a standstill 0-60, the "turbo lag" spool up of a jet engine puts it at disadvantage vs most any super car. Very fast, yes. Very fast off the line, not so much.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

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

Probably would be faster on the CIM course