0-62mph in less than 1 second!

[masraum]

The vehicle accelerated from zero to 100 km/h in 0.956 seconds within a distance of 12.3 meters (~40'). The car was developed by students and alumni of the Swiss universities ETH Zurich and HSLU at AMZ Racing.

[Bill Douglas]

Yikes, my neck hurts even thinking about it.

Clever Swiss eh.

[Jeff Higgins]

Yup, I've been following their progress, as the father of an SAE program alumni at the University of Washington (wish this were available back in my time). These kids are doing fantastic work. I really love this stuff.

All of that said, however, this talk about "records"... hmmm... A Top Fuel car goes zero to 100 MPH, not KM/H, in .80 seconds. Zero to 60 MPH in about .40 seconds. In other words, in about the length of its own wheelbase, a Top Fuel car exceeds 60 MPH.

So I have a foot in both camps. A son who did the whole SAE program, and I wrenched on a funny car in the early '90's. I'm rooting for both. Love what these kids are doing, but they are not even approaching the real "records". It's like no one involved is even aware of American drag racing.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Yup, I've been following their progress, as the father of an SAE program alumni at the University of Washington (wish this were available back in my time). These kids are doing fantastic work. I really love this stuff.

All of that said, however, this talk about "records"... hmmm... A Top Fuel car goes zero to 100 MPH, not KM/H, in .80 seconds. Zero to 60 MPH in about .40 seconds. In other words, in about the length of its own wheelbase, a Top Fuel car exceeds 60 MPH.

So I have a foot in both camps. A son who did the whole SAE program, and I wrenched on a funny car in the early '90's. I'm rooting for both. Love what these kids are doing, but they are not even approaching the real "records". It's like no one involved is even aware of American drag racing.

I watched this video a week or so ago and you perfectly described exactly what I was saying to myself. Impressive? You bet. Records? Lets take a look....

[Jeff Higgins]

Yup. Very, very impressive. Hat's off to these students. But - let's give credit where credit is due.

[Superman]

There are things I have trouble wrapping my mind around. Don't believe me? Just ask anyone on PARF.

0-100 mph in 0.8 seconds? Hard to believe tires can get that much traction against a surface that is parallel to the line of acceleration. But then....I still think engines are held together by Magical Powers. Most passenger cars redline at just above 100 revolutions per second. Motorcycles can double that. 100 explosions per second. How?

[GH85Carrera]

My first car was a 1960 VW Bug with 36 HP when new. It had nearly 100,000 miles when I bought it.

On flat ground with no head wind Zero to 60 was 72 seconds, not not even in one minute! If there was any headwind or the slightest headwind, 0 to 60 was infinite and just not possible. I got it to 65 once going down a long slope, and it was something only a 16 year old would ever do again and terrifying.

It got 36 MPH and I just put it in gear and floored it in daily use. It had no gas gauge at all as that was an option back then. I just drove it until it ran out of gas, and flipped the lever for the 1 gallon reserve and drove to a gas station. It was vital that I remembered to move the lever back to normal position. Gas was as cheap as 19 or 20 cents. I remember the first time I had to put two WHOLE dollars in to fill it up I was outraged. Actually I did not fill it up myself, it was full service back then, so a man came out, filled it up, checked the oil, washed the windshield, checked the oil level, asked about my family and gave me green stamps I could give to mom. And sometimes they had a free drinking glasses.

I could dig into the couch at home and often find a quarter or two and get enough gas money to drive for days.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Yup, I've been following their progress, as the father of an SAE program alumni at the University of Washington (wish this were available back in my time). These kids are doing fantastic work. I really love this stuff.

All of that said, however, this talk about "records"... hmmm... A Top Fuel car goes zero to 100 MPH, not KM/H, in .80 seconds. Zero to 60 MPH in about .40 seconds. In other words, in about the length of its own wheelbase, a Top Fuel car exceeds 60 MPH.

So I have a foot in both camps. A son who did the whole SAE program, and I wrenched on a funny car in the early '90's. I'm rooting for both. Love what these kids are doing, but they are not even approaching the real "records". It's like no one involved is even aware of American drag racing.

Yep, a bit different way to the goal, and impressive in different ways. What's the current theory that top fuel rails are running 10,000hp or is it more. Then there's the huge wrinkle wall slicks on the super sticky drag strip starting line.

Originally Posted by Superman

There are things I have trouble wrapping my mind around. Don't believe me? Just ask anyone on PARF.

0-100 mph in 0.8 seconds? Hard to believe tires can get that much traction against a surface that is parallel to the line of acceleration. But then....I still think engines are held together by Magical Powers. Most passenger cars redline at just above 100 revolutions per second. Motorcycles can double that. 100 explosions per second. How?

It's crazy, the facts about dragsters are insane.

Granted, the surface of a drag strip isn't exactly the same as the street in front of your house.


This video has some cool facts about dragsters.

[Otter74]

Great job by those students. Formula SAE (Formula Student in Europe) was the centerpiece of my time at Georgia Tech in the '90s and the best thing about my education. I haven't kept up with how the cars have changed since then, but it's a lot.

[Flatbutt1]

I can see doing it for the sake of doing it but might there be any commercial benefit ? Would a new class of electric dragsters be popular? The e-bike series in MotoGP is not very exciting to watch.

[Bob Kontak]

My compliments to the editor of the movie. You never got to see enough to appreciate anything until a driver's view at the very end.

However.....

Top Fuel - 5.5 gallons of nitro per second.

I strongly suggest watching this little passage - See the injector pulse - 8:14 in. OMG have you every watched an 81 SC injector spray. Not the same.

This guy is great. He knows quite a bit and gathers plenty of data.

[Deschodt]

That cannot be pleasant...
Falling of a cliff is... what ? 2.6 sec 0-60 ? Did it in a friend's Plaid and did not love it.
Whenever I do a mere sub-4 (barely) in the EV the wife punches me hard ("I've had 2 kids and some of my internal organs relocate when you do that")
Incredible engineering feat though !