Can you actually hit your cars 0-60 in real life?

[RyanMuller]

Tried to do a timed run on an empty stretch of road that leads to a dead end in the sticks, away from any other cars with good visibility.

The 32 should hit 60 in about 4.6 seconds but there's no way I can reach that ! First run the wheels just spun for the first 2-3 seconds and it was like 7 seconds to 60

Tried with ESP on and off and the ESP either kills the power or the wheels just light up till about 50mph!

What's the trick? Get 4WD?

 

[m2287]

Better weather and decent tyres!!

 

[st13phil]

Better weather and decent tyres!!

You missed out lots of practice and zero mechanical sympathy.

 

[bellers]

I could never manage on the old or new c63. Esp off gave loads of smoke and with it just loads of misfire interruptions until it dropped into second gear

 

[renault12ts]

Are you just planting your foot from idle, or raising the revs with your foot hard on the brake pedal then releasing?

 

[developer]

It's the wrong time of year/temperature for decent 0-60mph runs in a powerful two wheel drive car.

In gear roll-ons are where it's at in powerful AMG's, as the GTR and Vanquish S found out recently .

 

[Steveml63]

Hi,
Don't forget that older cars won't ever achieve the performance that they did when new.
The engine ECUs have detune programs built into them that gradually reduces power as the engine gets older.
Some older cars suddenly gave better performance if a brand new ECU was fitted - as the new ECU did not have the engine age and mileage data in it.
On Subaru Imprezas it was common practice for owners to disconnect the battery for a few hours and then drive the car hard for a few miles for the ECU adaption to learn better fuel settings (no idea if it actually worked!).
Also older turbo cars really put out a lot less power as the engine ages.
I remember one of the car magazines doing a feature on performance comparison between new and older cars (of the same model) to show the differences as cars age (this article was more than 20 years ago - so might be a bit tricky to track down!)
All the above makes it difficult to achieve manufacturers performance times - in addition to driver technique, weather conditions, tyres, suspension wear etc. etc.
Cheers
Steve

 

[gaz_l]

You missed out lots of practice and zero mechanical sympathy.

In other words, give it to a motoring journalist.

I think that one is c. C. Harris, BTW..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[PobodY]

On Subaru Imprezas it was common practice for owners to disconnect the battery for a few hours and then drive the car hard for a few miles for the ECU adaption to learn better fuel settings (no idea if it actually worked!).

This is actually more about adjusting for fuel quality; JDM fuel is higher octane, so unless you're going to run VPower all the time the ECU will take timing out of the engine to stop it knocking. - At least that's what the manual for my Skyline said; I assume it's the same for Subaru.

The GTiR is too old for any fuelling adaption; you just can't give it full throttle if you don't have a high enough octane fuel. - I think I could hit the unofficial 0-60 time, but I'm running more boost and a 2.5" exhaust from the turbo-back.

I've never tried in the CLK, but as above ESP takes the fun away... and without it I seem to get sideways very quickly.

 

[Will]

I think 4.6 was an optimistic time, recorded once by Autocar - the published MB figures were over 5 seconds IIRC?

As said, tyres and the road surface, temperatures etc will make a significant difference to the ability to get off the mark swiftly.

I think my old CLK55 was officially 5.4 to 60 and C32s didn't seem any quicker off the mark to me back in the day?

C32 is still a quick car today but I wouldn't get too focussed on that figure of 4.6 seconds - would probably have been difficult to reproduce 15 years ago!

 

[Monkeylegend]

If you drop it from a tall building it will probably do it.

 

[m2287]

I think mercedes quoutes 5.2 seconds for the c32

 

[RyanMuller]

Yeah probably. On their first advert, MB said 4.9 to 60 and 5.1 to 100km/h.

That was for a stock one though!

 

[John]

I managed a 4.1s in my previous E55K when it was running standard minus secondary CATs - timed by a Racing Dynamics setup.

However, it took a fair few traffic light grand prix races to really refine the technique to get the car off the line without any wheel spin.

This time of year / poor rear tyres / crap road surface and not feathering in the throttle will see a hopeless time. If you count 2.5 seconds - it's really not that long so lost time is easy.

Also trying to time it yourself is not particularly accurate.

4WD will see the grip off the line improve...

But - 0-60 doesn't really mean anything. A car can be geared to get a better 0-60 and still be not that great overall.

Then you have the 0-60mph / 0-62.5mph (0-100km/h) issue (as you highlight) which is normally a couple of points of a second different. On the E55K - it is 4.7s to 62.5 and 4.5s to 60 I believe.

1/4 mile separates the wheat from the chaff!

Audi RS5 has the same 4.7s time as the E55K but gets killed in the 1/4er and further.

 

[E55BOF]

The engine ECUs have detune programs built into them that gradually reduces power as the engine gets older.

I've never heard that one before; what's your source?

AMG may have found a way to do the opposite; when I took my first, unmodified, E55K to MSL for a dyno run, with 125K miles up, it was making more power than stock...

 

[steve333]

Had my A45 doing 0-60 runs at brooklands timed at 4.2 seconds,same day tried the same in a stock c63 bi -turbo and couldn't touch that time-wet track and no 4wd

 

[E55BOF]

Had my A45 doing 0-60 runs at brooklands timed at 4.2 seconds,same day tried the same in a stock c63 bi -turbo and couldn't touch that time-wet track and no 4wd

'

I'm pleased for you, but I know which one I'd rather have...

 

[steve333]

'

I'm pleased for you, but I know which one I'd rather have...

I haven't got either now but I do still have my licence

 

[TheFoX]

0 to 60 in my CLS 'E' mode was sluggish, hitting 60 in around seven seconds. Switching to 'S' or 'M' mode made all the difference. I don't know if I hit 60 in six seconds, but it felt fast enough for me.

 

[Grovsie31]

Hi,
Don't forget that older cars won't ever achieve the performance that they did when new.
The engine ECUs have detune programs built into them that gradually reduces power as the engine gets older.
Some older cars suddenly gave better performance if a brand new ECU was fitted - as the new ECU did not have the engine age and mileage data in it.
On Subaru Imprezas it was common practice for owners to disconnect the battery for a few hours and then drive the car hard for a few miles for the ECU adaption to learn better fuel settings (no idea if it actually worked!).
Also older turbo cars really put out a lot less power as the engine ages.
I remember one of the car magazines doing a feature on performance comparison between new and older cars (of the same model) to show the differences as cars age (this article was more than 20 years ago - so might be a bit tricky to track down!)
All the above makes it difficult to achieve manufacturers performance times - in addition to driver technique, weather conditions, tyres, suspension wear etc. etc.
Cheers
Steve

Erm lol