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Originally Posted by cfos
I think that it all depends on your feel -- similar to what someone above posted.
Couple of question regarding specs (not trying to thread-jack and somewhat relevant to the original post):
I'm curious as to whether people actually achieve the "reported" times reported in the specs. Likewise, how many cars are tested before coming to the conclusion of, lets say 4.8 seconds? Are these factory-trained "professional" drivers that run 10 or so times (on a track?) and they take an average?
I also thought I read a thread or a post on this forum stating that cars of the same model and year may have different acceleration, hp? etc., from like models of the same build year. Granted, I'm not basing this on anything scientific as I was just thinking about this, but I would venture that a given driver would likely achieve different times per car and (perhaps?) per stats reported from the car company -- anyone ever try to match the acceleration times or have experience with other models? I ask this also because I've also read either here or another forum -- especially when attending auto-x, that experienced drivers can often attain better times, etc., than the respective owners...
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It's a big topic. Here are a couple of points.
1) Any 2 given cars will have different power/torque at the wheels, no two engines are exactly the same, no two transmissions, and no two tires.
2) Any two cars will have different weight, even identical cars won't weigh exactly the same
3) The performance numbers that magazines report are often the best run of a number of trys. And then they correct the numbers for atmospheric conditions and road surface conditions to try to normalize all the data from all the cars in all the different test locations. It's hardly an exact science.
4) The magazines have professional drivers testing the right RPM and clutch/accel/brake work to try to get the best acceleration, each driver will use a different technique and get a different number. So will actual owners.