I have a small city car whose acceleration from 0 to 100kmh (60mph) is theoretically 16.8 seconds, but since it’s a manual and since I am not a pro driver and thus don’t switch gears in the fastest and most effective way, that is probably a second or few more, but let’s round it to 17 seconds.
A few days ago I was driving on a 80kmh rural road and was passing a truck or something that was going slowish at around 60kmh, there were some cars coming in the opposite direction, but they were really far and I decided to go for it, however my car took its sweet time to accelerate and I narrowly missed the oncoming traffic when I finally passed the truck. If I had a car that accelerates from 0 to 100kmh/60mph in around 13 seconds, would that make a huge difference or little?
One additional situation that comes to mind is exiting on the highway, I rarely go on a highway, so this doesn’t affect me much, but I guess a faster accelerating car would also be better here and ironically safer than the slower car, right?
Being able to accelerate up to highway speed as you enter a highway would be one of the big safety concerns, yes. Here in the U.S., while there are standards for how long entrance ramps onto highways are supposed to be, not every ramp meets those standards, and if you’re confronted with a shorter ramp (and heavy traffic on the highway), only being up to 40 or 45 when you reach the end of the ramp, and must merge into traffic, would be a big potential problem.
And, many highways (particularly in rural areas) have speed limits that are substantially higher than 55 or 60 mph, or (as is the case here in Chicago) traffic on the highways routinely is going much faster than the speed limit.
I used to drive a 1983 Nissan Sentra Diesel. It would do 0-60 mph by sometime, if I was patient. Really, it would do and hold 75-80 mph on a flat highway, but it did take a long time to get up to that speed. While traveling on the interstate, I would try my best to fuel up at places where the on-ramps were long and downhill! I never felt endangered, but I had to do my best to plan around that car’s sluggish acceleration.
You may know this, but I’m mentioning it because of your ‘not a pro driver’ comment.
When you’re going that fast (and in a high/the highest gear) and you need to accelerate quickly, you need to downshift. Go down at least one gear, maybe even two depending on your car, and give it a lot of gas as you let off the clutch.
Those high gears are meant for cruising, not passing.
Similarly, when entering the freeway, even if the ramp allows more than enough time to get up to speed and comfortably into 6th gear (or 5th on my last car), I typically leave it in 4th until I’m fully merged. I like to have that ‘reserve’ so I can accelerate harder if someone is closing the gap that I’m trying to merge into.
If you’re not that experienced with driving stick, give it a shot on a surface road without a lot of traffic. Get going at a moderate speed and in, say, 4th gear. Punch the gas and the car will take it’s time speeding up. Downshift and hit the gas, and you should be able to speed up at a much more acceptable rate.
I wouldn’t think so, given that semi-trucks seem to manage around their dreadful acceleration. Although it might be that other drivers expect this, and might not plan on the same acceleration rates from smaller cars.
I pull large trailers behind my pickup frequently, and cannot accelerate to highway speed on most on-ramps. It requires a little planning and waiting for an opening.
If you can plan and anticipate around your slow-accelerating vehicle you’re (relatively) safe.
If you don’t do that, yeah, it can be quite unsafe.
I owe a pickup and a small sedan. I drive each of them differently because they are different vehicles. My pickup has more… well, pickup. Bigger engine and, when it’s not loaded, much better acceleration. It’s also more prone to skid/slip. The sedan doesn’t have the same acceleration but it’s much more stable on a slippery surface. I drive the vehicle I’m in, keeping in mind both its strengths and deficits. Also, in the case of the pickup, loading - it handles differently when it’s hauling several hundred pounds of stuff than when the bed is empty.
Far to many people go down the road without thought, and far too many are further distracted. That, more than how fast a vehicle accelerates, is a safety hazard.
I had a 1985 Chevette that was exactly like this. I tried to plan getting on the highway on downward sloping ramps. It was my dad’s old car and the first car I owned and have wondered long since then whether the transmission was shot and just stuck in a higher gear or something. I mean zero to 60mph was literally like 30+ seconds. Top speed same as yours. Maybe the cheap cars were just that way? I do remember getting phenomenal mileage out of it, though.
I never had any issues, but it certainly did not feel safe to me in retrospect.
Stay out of Austin, Tx, in that case. Several on-ramps to enter onto I-35 are approximately one car length long, and pop you directly into the right lane with no additional lane to give you a chance to merge gently. You’re simultaneously going from a pokey little side road (the feeder or service road) into high-speed traffic. You basically have to mash the accelerator and pray to your deities. (Briefly! There’s little time for pleading your case.)
Problems arise when someone starts to enter the highway, panics at the rush of oncoming traffic in their rearview, and STOPS. Dead cold stopped right there on the entrance ramp. I mean, good luck an’ all, buddy, but it really sucks to be the car behind them. If you manage to avoid rear-ending them, now you get to figure out how to merge onto the highway from a standstill.
Driving a car with poor acceleration is not dangerous. I used to drive a 30-year old diesel Mercedes that weighed 3600 lb and had 67 horsepower when new, and never had any accidents or close calls.
What’s dangerous is trying to pass another vehicle on a 2-lane road on a car with poor acceleration.
At least in the US market there aren’t volume models of car sold now with 0-60’s over around 10-12 seconds. Consumer Reports slowest tested, their results which are sometimes slower than official:
That and other sites listing of slowest might be missing some very low volume models sold in the US, and of course in other countries there are slower ones, besides many older cars. I used to drive a 1973 VW Beetle convertible which one site now lists it at 23.7, slower than some other old Beetles (relatively heavier same engine). I never timed it, but it was certainly pretty leisurely. When I drove my 1967 Beetle (rated slightly faster in 0-60) across the US once, southerly route avoiding the highest mountains, it still couldn’t exceed 30 mph on a few grades on major highways. 0-60 in forever in some places.
For passing on two lane roads I think the answer in even a 10-12 sec 0-60 (though obviously 50-80 etc time would be more directly relevant) type car is generally don’t, unless passing a truck or farm/construction equipment going say <40 on a 55-60 road. If it’s just a somewhat slow driver, stay behind them I’d say. I’m a pretty selective two lane passer even driving my 4.0 second 0-60 car, more so with my 5.something second one.
For highway merging as was mentioned trucks do it and they’re usually much slower, so just be careful and anticipate. But seldom would a truck driver be viewed as driving reasonably safely if trying to pass on two lane roads.
You need to be familiar with the capabilities and limits of your own car. If your car was not able to safely make the passing maneuver you attempted, that’s not your car’s fault for not being able to do it. It’s your fault, for not knowing that it wouldn’t be able to do it.
Bingo. I’ve had fast cars but most have them have been moderate in their abilities. I’ve had a dog or two too. It’s completely up to the driver to understand their cars limits and their own.
This. Definitely. In the speed ranges you’re probably talking here, your car engine will put out almost twice as much power at 5000 rpm as it will at 2500 rpm. That’s huge, it’s a whole second engine! Your tachometer probably has a red zone starting someplace like 6000 or 7000 rpm, which means the manufacturer intends that you should be able to run the engine as fast as you need to up to that point. You can downshift as many gears as you like as long as you avoid that red zone, and give it all the gas you like, and you are still operating your car according to the instructions (read them if you’re not sure). While it’s not economical to run your engine that fast all the time, and you’ll get better fuel usage if you keep it around 2000, when your passing room is dwindling and it’s an issue of safety you definitely should be using more of your rpm allowance (even if it sounds like you are vacuum cleaning).
In fact when it comes to safety, you might even be better off going well into that red zone, but I think all bets are off; having a sudden engine failure at that moment would be pretty unsafe too, as well as expensive. Presumably a professional test driver, especially one who works for the company that made your car, would no doubt know a lot more on this one.
That is my main issue, I have a family house that’s some 30 miles from the city in a rural area where I go often, a 2 lane road and there’s a lot of tractors with trailers and box trucks that slow everyone down almost every time, going around 35mph on a 50mph road, so you pretty much have to pass them, I myself usually drive a little slower than everyone else, but these trucks,etc. are way too slow even in comparison with me.
I guess I will try to practice the downshift thing next time.
One place to be careful with a standard these days in the US is leaving lights especially going uphill. I accelerate fine but if the dude behind me in the automatic is hugging the bumper I may get a slight tap going from first to second. That little lag in pick-up between first and second has been enough (twice) to get me bumped. If I have a tailgater I tend to wind it up a little higher and faster and hit the shift harder than I would in normal circumstances.
I drive a two lane twisty mountain road over the continental divide every day. Done this for 26 years. 2019 4Runner now. Perfect car for it. Five feet of snow in the last 10 days. Yet I get idiots tail gate me. I just put over the spots made for this. Otherwise these morons will try to pass when they shouldn’t.
I run into this problem too. It mostly seems to be large SUVs that pull up to 1.5 mm of my rear bumper on the hill. My solution is to turn off the car, start my hazard flashers and wait. I’m never in a hurry so I don’t mind, and eventually traffic will clear out and bumper-kisser will back up a bit and go around. After things have cleared, I restart the car and amble on up the hill.
Any car made in the last couple of decades has computer-controlled ignition, and it will not let you run the engine above the redline; if it’s an automatic it will upshift (or not downshift in the first place), and if it’s a manual, it’ll stop making power.
This is pretty much the crux of the matter. I will make passes on my motorcycle (0-60 in ~4 seconds) that I won’t try in my car, and I’ll make passes in my car (0-60 in ~5.5 seconds) that I won’t make in my wife’s car or other more sluggish cars.
Some years ago I drove a rented Toyota Prius to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. The hybrid-electric functionality doesn’t do a thing for you when you’re slogging up a miles-long grade; it was all on the engine, which was gasping for breath, capable of maybe 60 horsepower by the time we reached the summit. We didn’t pass anybody the whole way, except for the few attentive/merciful drivers who saw fit to pull over and let us by.
Hah! About the only time I’ve absolutely lost my shit while someone else was driving was in Austin trying to get on the lower deck of 35 somewhere I’d guess around 15th. My college roommate, who was from some podunk rural Arkansas town, decided that the best way to get onto 35 was to get onto the ramp, and then SLOW DOWN and nearly stop at the end, wait for an opening and then mosey out into traffic. :eek:
I, having grown up in Houston, believed that the proper way was to floor it on the access road, and hit the freeway as if I was part of that chase scene in “Bullitt”. I believe something along the lines of “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! WE’RE GOING TO FUCKING DIE!” GO! SPEED UP!" came out of my mouth when he stopped at the end of the on-ramp.
When I drove my 1967 Beetle (rated slightly faster in 0-60) across the US once, southerly route avoiding the highest mountains, it still couldn’t exceed 30 mph on a few grades on major highways. 0-60 in forever in some places.