Why Going 0 To 60 Mph In Under 2 Seconds Is Almost Impossible _ Carsplainers

This is a top fuel dragster and everything about this vehicle is designed for maximum acceleration from its triangular shape to its specially formulated racing slicks to its 8000 horsepower engine .

It's all to help this dragster hit 60 MPH in just 8/10 of a second .

But when it comes to production cars , automakers are still racing to be the first to achieve a sub two second 0 to 60 .

So why is it seemingly impossible for a production car to go from 0 to 60 in under two seconds back in 2016 , engineer and youtuber Jason Pinsky tried to find the shortest possible 0 to 60 time in a production car based on current technology .

He calculated it would be two point oh five seconds .

So how did he get there for acceleration ?

Maximizing grip is more important than increasing power .

All the power in the world is useless .

If it isn't being applied to the pavement correctly , you need to have the maximum amount of traction possible , but just like a car needs as much traction as possible to take off .

It also needs it to stop , to illustrate how quick a car can accelerate .

Automakers use the distance it takes a car to break from 60 to 0 MPH .

Since they both require maximum traction , you can use the formula for breaking distance to determine a car's best 0 to 60 time for his calculations .

Jason used the current record for shortest breaking distance , which is 90 ft plugging that into the formula for breaking distance along with 60 MPH or 88 ft per second .

For initial velocity , you get an acceleration of 43 ft per second .

When you plug that into the formula for velocity and solve for time , you get two point oh five seconds .

That means that according to the laws of physics , the limit for 0 to 60 MPH in a production car is right around two seconds .

The biggest reason for this limit is street tire technology .

Race cars and dragsters use completely smooth tires with low air pressure for a reason .

This gives the rubber as much contact with the pavement as possible .

Increasing grip , street tires have to sacrifice grip in order to be safe for public roads .

They feature grooves that reduce the amount of rubber in contact with the ground .

These grooves are needed for wet roads because they provide a channel for water to escape .

Regular tires also need more air pressure which also reduces grip but is necessary for uneven pavement and bumps .

And unlike soft and sticky formula , one tires which need to be replaced .

After 50 miles , regular tires use a hard rubber compound that's less grippy but can last up to 90,000 miles .

But tire technology continues to break boundaries .

Much of this has to do with tire companies and automakers developing cars together .

In 20 18 , the Dodge demon became the first production car to release with street legal drag radios .

Well , barely street legal Dodge warned buyers not to use them in wet weather or on highways .

But on the race track , they allowed the demon to reach 0 to 60 in just 2.3 seconds .

At the same time as a model s this trend of automaker and tire manufacturers developing technology together has continued .

Recent examples include Pirelli and Porsche Tai along with Michelin and Bugatti Chiron .

It could be exactly what's needed to raise the bar for how much grip production tires can achieve .

Beside road tire technology , drive trains place a limit on acceleration , gas powered cars waste time with the number of moving parts it takes to get usable energy from a single engine .

Fortunately , electric cars open new doors in this area with motors that can send torque to wheels instantly E V .

Like the model S which features a motor for each axle , electric torque vectoring can control how much power the front and rear wheels receive a supercomputer inside the car uses sensors that monitor the vehicle behavior .

This helps it determine how to distribute torque between the wheels for maximum traction and this can be changed hundreds of times every second .

But a new wave of performance E V S may be the answer to hitting the sub two second benchmark .

The drive trains feature up to four different high powered motors , one at each wheel , the ability to control each individual wheel makes this distribution of power even faster and could be the key to improving grip on production cars .

But even with the grippy tires possible and the most advanced electric drive train , perfect road conditions are the final element to go quick .

Unless you've got clear skies , a perfectly flat drag strip and a sticky surface designed just for racing .

You'll never actually know what your car is capable of .