0 - 60 m.p.h. in - seconds. Ever seen the cars being tested -hilarious!

[5129frederick]

I watched a programme once on how vehicle manufacturers tested the acceleration of their new models.  It's rubbish!  They test them at a disused airport, and a professional rally driver puts it into gear, takes the engine up to 8000 revs, and as the lights turn green, off comes the clutch once only.  It is then slammed into second, third and fourth gears simultaneously, without using any clutch mechanism.  He is supplied with five identical vehicles, because the gearboxes just disintergrate.  I laughed until it hurt.  

[right-then-petal]

i had a car once,it went from 0-60 in just over 32 mins

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

So how about automatics? (0 - 100 klm in under 7 seconds)

And what about dragsters?

I've been in a car with a professional  test driver and he certainly used the gears, didn't make any difference.

Are you sure it wasn't a spoof show? Sounds very suspect to me.

I watched a programme once about how astronauts went to the moon and discovered a race of Nazi living there.

[bankhaunter]

I don't know whether they were telling porkies ot not but years ago a local garage had a Daimler Dart which they reckoned they could get up to 60mph in the length of the forecourt which was about 50 yds long.

[5129frederick]

No, this wasn't spoof.  The commentator said nobody in their right mind would do that to their own car.  He literally took it it the maximum revs and just let off the clutch, again with second third and fourth - no letting out the clutch smoothly.  It was similar to Santa Pod drag strip - a 1/4 of a mile strip.  They're not worried whether they smash the gear box or not - they're paid to do one job and one job only.  They take the fastest of four runs.

With regards to an automatic, I think very high revs with the foot brake applied ard on and then just released with the accelerator right on the floor.  

Drag racing is totally different.  They're based at Santa Pod about sixty miles up the M1.  They don't use petrol - it's a mixture of pure alcohol and something else.  The tank only holds about two pints.  On a drag motorcycle, the fuel tank is built into the frame, again, holding the absolute minimum amount necessary.  The smell stays in your nostrils and the scream as they take off lingers in your head for days.  I woke up that night with the scream still in my head.

For the record, a kilometre is 6/10ths. of a mile.  Automatics are a lot, lot slower

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

Ah Santa Pod, I spent very many weekends there in the dim and distant past, (loved the pro-fuelers, probably known as funny cars back in the day - alternated with Silverstone and Donnington.

I remember a Fiat Topolino racing there and going back home via Abington Street in Northampton had to slam on his brakes when an elderly lady stepped onto the crossing outside the library, but he had forgotten to disengage the parachute before leaving Pod...........

I'm sorry you are under the impression that automatics are 'a lot, lot slower'. Modern automatics are certainly not. Many of the better quality cars are faster accelerating wth an automatic box than a manual one. For instance the rating on mine for a manual box is 0-60 in 6.4 seconds and the 7 speed automatic box is 0-60 in 5.6 seconds. It stands to reason that a good automatic gearbox will  be faster responding than when  you put a human being in the mix. Another reason most race cars are semi-automatic and in some are infact automatic as the car chooses the optimum time to change gear far more effectivly than the driver and can execute the operation far faster.

[5129frederick]

Fair enough, I stand corrected.  I've had a couple of automatics, but I'm more at home with a manual.  I found the belt tended to slip.  The real problems occur when the engine dies on you halfway across the road junction - you can't bump start an auto.  I had a Sherpah 250 auto in the city and that was useful with stop/start every few yards, and it was great fun to casually mention you drive round in the City with a brand new Mercedes.  Forget the fact that it was a van, the word Mercedes was enough to raiase eyebrows  When in Florida I was given the keys to a damn great Buick Century with no advice, three feet from a brick wall - had I gone the wrong way, I would have had to put the CWD to the test.  Big car, but you soon got used to it.  In America most hire cars seem to be automatics.   

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

I'm on my second automatic and wouldn't go back to a manual.  I got one originally because I broke my ankle badly and found that when I got back to driving, if I did a lot of town driving I was in severe discomfort from operating the clutch and could hardly walk. 

I hope the Buick was this model

[5129frederick]

A bit before my time,  although my grandfather used to drive around the a massive Studibaker with it's enormous headlights - the type favoured and used by Al Capone at one stage.