0-60 testing - how do you do it?
 

How do you guys do it?

Please walk me through your proceedure to get the best time.

Thanks. SmileWavy

Well, getting good 0-60 numbers single handedly is tricky, but if you are looking for ways to check and see if your modifications have made a performance difference, there are better tecniques.

If you can find a level rarely traveled road, try this:

Cruise down the road at the bottom of third gear. Cruise at the lowest speed that you can reasonably pull.

Get a stop watch ready.

Go to full throttle.

When the tach passes a major mark, lets say 2000 rpm, start the watch.

Run to redline in that gear, and stop the watch when you hit redline.

By doing it this way, you take out a lot of variables, and wear and tear on the gears. You can always use a handheld stopwatch and do 0-60 runs, but the shifting is tough on the trans to get good numbers. And as you need two hands, tape the watch to the wheel.

There are other devices that advertise this function, such as the G meter, but I can't vouch for the accuracy.

Or take a passenger...a very small one! You may have issues such as speedometer inaccuracies and speedometer lag that will affect the number.

Yo can check your speedometers accuracy by driving down a highway with any kind of mile markers. Time yourself for an indicated 60mph mile, and check your time. Then do the math to determine the actual speed.

To get the best time, you will need to experiment a bit. Depending on pavement, you will need to adjust your clutch release and revs to get the right amount of wheelspin at launch. The idea is to get the revs in the powerband right away, while spinning thetires as little as possible, with out bogging. After that it's just a matter of banging the shifts quick and clean. Usually, the redline is the shift point, but it could be lower in certain cars in order to stay in the sweetspot of the powerband. (The spec Miata guys have used data aquisition to determine the best shift point that results in the best acceleration G loads.) The 2-3 shift is tricky if you have the dogleg there.

Getting good numbers isn't a nice thing to do to your syncros, clutch or tires.

But the question to ask is do you want a new clutch and new tires after the testing or do you want to save your tires and clutch and get the best 0-60.

If you want a new clutch and tires you rev the engine to about 1500-2000 rpm and let the clutch go you should let the tires spin just slightly and you redline the engine and shift to second as fast as you can with out f*&king up the transmission and you hit 60. Thats how the car company's do there 0-60.

Now if you want to save your clutch and transmission and tires you play it by ear and do everything smoothly you show get the best 0-60 that way.

But to the best 0-60 you have to do it like 7-10 times and average the totals or you can see the best time out of all of them when you are done.

Edit: :rolleyes: he beat he to it.

Find neighbor with Viper; Give the finger while both are in the car, try to out accelerate. If he can't catch you, its under 4.5 secs.

benchmarking properly without some sort of calibrated gear is going to be very inaccurate even if you did do it 10 times and took averages...

next thing would be to actually perform it in good condition : you need to get moving without spinning, and actually shift at the exact good moments... practice practice practice

I launch conservatively when I do it, probably around 3,000 rpm and slip it until the gear's engaged. Then it's basically up to you, but I'm pulling the car outta gear before I put the clutch in going into 2nd and then I just peddle the clutch fast and slam it into gear, wind it out and you'll have some breathing room before you gotta grab 3rd which is the easiest shift (just use the same technique except slam it diagonal up to the right). My car's on its 3rd clutch since new and this one has maybe another 5-10 launches left on it, since I don't do it often this clutch should last me another 2 years or so.

My technique is lousy, I'm sure. (And I keep my g-tech in the garage so that my car stays out of the shop.) But here's a clip.

When I was at Car and Driver, the Road & Track misfits used to time their 0-60 runs using a small stopwatch the driver held in his mouth and bit to start. We used a fifth wheel.

Stephan

top speed benchmarking is surely a lot easier.
just drive around Rotterdam as fast as you can,
wait one or two weeks

you will get a full report sent to you



and a bill to go along with it...