5 ms·
Acceleration is the one performance metric that drivers push daily, whether it's merging on the highway, passing, or just a thrill from the light. It is a bit d
by endorphone 7y ago
Acceleration is the one performance metric that drivers push daily, whether it's merging on the highway, passing, or just a thrill from the light. It is a bit disingenuous to say that it's "easy to achieve" given how it has long been the metric of supercars.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoTo get good acceleration you just need a big engine, traction and not much else. 0-60 is not even that meaningful for real world use of acceleration. 30-70 would be much more useful there.
- endorphone 7y agoThis sort of reductionism can be used for anything. To get good handling, you just need good traction and a low center of gravity. To get good top speeds you just need good top speed. To go to Mars you just need a big rocket. Traditionally obtaining good acceleration has been incredibly difficult. Larger engines yield a heavier vehicle in a vicious cycle. Makers like Lamborghini would reduce their cars to just shells, use esoteric materials if it could shed tiny amounts of weight, and then would spend enormous engineering trying to obtain more power from smaller engines (not bigger engines, more powerful, lighter engines). To casually dismiss this is just entirely untrue. Tesla made a big deal about acceleration because it comes essentially for free with electric engines that have incredible low end torque curves. They made a big, 5000lb, full featured, 5-seat sedan and they still could give it acceleration that blew away what million dollar supercars had been fighting to do for decades. And now we're all tut-tutting that Porsche might possibly make something that's kind of similarly capable in a car that will likely cost much more and seat two. Great.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoHandling is much more complex than traction and low center of gravity. The car needs to be predictable at different speeds, under braking and a mix of a lot of other conditions. That's a much more difficult thing to get right than going straight.
- CamperBob2 7y agoIt also helps to not weigh 4000 pounds.
- tomp 7y agoSure, but not 0-60 acceleration. The joy of driving a Porsche is that you can kick donw th pedal at 130 km/h and still feel the force of acceleration pushing your body into the seat.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoAnd the knowledge that the brakes will work well if you have to slow down.
- jaxn 7y ago0-60 is exactly what makes interstate on ramps a blast. With a wide open ramp, it can be more like 0-80+.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoDo you stop to 0 when you get on an interstate? 30-60 seems more realistic.
- jaxn 7y agoYeah, there are often lights before the on ramp