0-60 definition and usefulness

If you are a sports car enthusiast, you probably appreciate the importance of the 0-60 time, and you may have researched things like what car has the fastest acceleration. If you're not, chances are you've heard the term "0 to 60" when referring to a car's performance. But what is 0-60? What do we mean when we say a vehicle's 0-60 time? And why is it important?

0-60 or "0 to 60" means 0 to 60 mph, or the time it takes a vehicle to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour. It is a standard automotive performance indicator used, mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom, to evaluate a vehicle's acceleration.

In other parts of the world, a very similar parameter is more often used: the 0-100, which means 0 to 100 km/h.

Some other similar parameters are sometimes used, like "0 to 62 mph", "0 to 100 mph", or "1/8 mile time". In essence, these are all car acceleration measures used to evaluate how fast a car can go from a standstill and reach a given speed or cover a given distance.

When it comes to car performance characteristics, along with gas consumption and braking/cornering capacity, a car's acceleration is often considered more important than top speed because it is a useful feature that the driver can appreciate in everyday driving situations.

How to estimate 0-60 times?

The general form of the 0-60 time estimation equation is built in 5 steps:

1. Calculate, from physics first principles, the minimum theoretical 0-60 time based on engine power and vehicle weight, assuming 0 losses and continuous maximum power delivery;
2. Apply a proportional penalty to account for all secondary effects like engine torque/power delivery fluctuations, aerodynamics, friction losses in the vehicle's moving parts, and car center of gravity position;
3. Apply an absolute minimum threshold on the 0-60 time to account for the impact of drive type, tire type, and road conditions on the maximum usable grip for power delivery;
4. Apply proportional penalties reflecting the losses related to engine type, tire type, and road conditions; and
5. Add an absolute time penalty representing the total gearbox shift times of the most common transmission types.

Following these steps results in this equation for the 0-60 time:

Time = max(a × X, b + c + d) × e × f × g + h

where:

• X is the minimum theoretical 0-60 time: X = vehicle kinetic energy at 60 mph / vehicle maximum power;
• a is the proportional penalty to account for all secondary effects;
• b, c, and d are the absolute grip threshold penalties from drive type, tire type, and road conditions;
• e, f, and g are the proportional penalties of engine type, tire type, and road conditions;
• h is the absolute penalty of gearbox shift times; and
• max() is a function that returns whichever argument has the maximum value.

A set of values for each element of our estimation equation - except for X - are identified and optimized to yield good fitting results with automotive experimental data for 0-60 times.

When you fill in the fields of our calculator with a few key elements related to your vehicle, the calculator seamlessly selects the appropriate values for the parameters of the estimation equation and gives you the resulting estimated 0-60 time of your car.