Autocar's test drive, 0-100 in 14.5 secs ??? How?

Hi guys, its probably been discussed before, but ive been looking at the figures recorded by Autocar on a std car when it was launched and cannot see how they managed that 0-100mph time? the 0-60 i could see would be do-able with a grippy surface.

But 0-100 on a std 20vt is certainly not 14.5 more like 16.5, so the question is, was their car chipped or were the figs made up?

Cheers Davie

too be fair i think 0-100 time is achivable given 0-100 times in other cars. rover 220 turbo 15.1 , 3 door cosworth 15.7 , focus st 16.1 all of these cars i know arent as quick to 100 as a coop. the thing is most cars now aren't producing the power they should be and also its how its driven as the coop has a lot of grip for a fwd car but it still needs a decent launch.
the car is clearly quicker than a 16.5 time and the fact you can just about hit 100 in 3rd means there is no change up time.
i still think 0-60 and 0-00 times are usless as it really all boils down to the grip and launch of the car.

I've recently been playing with a new calculator on Excel. I'm using physics formulas for working out acceleration based on co-efficient of drag, weigh, frontal area, gearing and current speed. After using dyo data that was recorded for my Coupé as standard over 5 years ago the calculator brought back the following results.

0-30mph 2.50 (inserted manually as I don't yet have launch factored in)
0-40mph 3.31
0-50mph 4.85
0-60mph 6.08
0-70mph 7.98
0-80mph 9.91
0-90mph 12.03
0-100mph 14.59
0-110mph 18.21
0-120mph 22.10
0-130mph 27.28
0-140mph 35.57
0-150mph 48.41

Top Speed (mph) 159.3
Top Speed time (s) 146.9
1/4 Time 14.61
1/4 Terminal 100.1
1km Time 26.19
1km Terminal 128.2
1 Mile 36.28
1 Mile time 140.8

As I recently posted in my 'Forum ower: Tyre Grip' thread in the general chat section, Autocar recorded the following
0-30mph 2.5
0-40mph 3.5
0-50mph 4.8
0-60mph 6.0
0-70mph 7.9
0-80mph 9.9
0-90mph 11.9
0-100mph 14.5
0-110mph 18.3
0-120mph 22.3
0-130mph 29.2
1/4 mile 14.6s @ 100mph
0-1000m 25.9s @ 126mph

... and Top gear these numbers;
0-30mph 2.5
0-40mph 3.3
0-50mph 4.9
0-60mph 6.1
0-70mph 8.5
0-80mph 10.2
0-90mph 12.2
0-100mph 14.7
0-110mph 18.8
0-120mph 22.7
0-130mph 27.6

I'm confident they're right and the laws of physics seem to agree. I'd like to know why you are convinced they are wrong before I carry on yapping

Neither Davie, the coupe is capable of doing 0 - 100mph in 14.5 seconds, as there is standard coupe's who have gone to santa pod and achieved these times. S1MMA with a GTec chip managed a 13.9 @ 103mph, so would have been running around 250bhp

The main reason is that mine is fast to 60 but to 100mph seems to be pretty slow tbh, certainly my prev car a stripped out Calibra V6 running approx 195bhp felt quicker.

My car may not be running right to be fair (what the hell is up with it?)

My main reaon is that on torque stats calculator it shows 15.6 and i have found this extremely accurate so far.

Get your car on the rollers for a ball park figure that might indentify what's wrong with it. I'm sure it should be quicker than a Calibra V6 with nothing but a set of wheels and a seat

A factor that needs to be considered when discussing performance is the rpm at which peak power is made. I was recently reading an article abut one of the lastest hot hatches that had been breathed on by one of these 'tuning companies' (you know remap and air filter for £3,000). The actual car doesn't matter, they're all the same.

These cars regularly make something like 340lbs/ft at 2,200rpm and 300bhp at 5,800rpm. Wow you might think, and to drive one it would probably feel insanely quick, spinning up the fronts in third gear (which is probably good for only 85mph given that all sporty cars now need a 6 speed 'box).

When you realise that peak power at 5,800rpms means it is trailing off afetr here, you start to understand what this means for a straight line run. Chasing through the gears they're not all that fast. What is it making at the redline at 7,000rpm, 280bhp?

The coop on the other hand, makes good power high up the rev band even standard. It's comparatively light to modern monster hatches, and at least as aerodynamic, but with a smaller frotnal area. Tall gears also help, especially once you start upping the power.

The next time you see a car making higher headline figures than a coop, but making slower times, check the rpms they're made at, the cd, gear lengths and check out the rough frontal area.

There's a lot more to straight line performance than peak figures, and a 20vT does well in every discipline

I'd much rather see rolling acceleration times, 30-70, 60-100 etc, because unless you're actually drag racing your car most of your acceleration in real life driving, overtaking, accelerating onto a DC and so on, would be done from a rolling start (which obviously means the 60-100 is largely useless as well )

I could never get my head around how much faster it is compared to other cars of similar / more power. Astra VXR for example, Mazda 3 MPS etc. Has anyone done a recent test using a VBox or something similar?

Out of interest, How much further would a 14.5 second car be infront of a 17s car for example at 100mph?

I did a conservative 60-100 run and managed 9.9 seconds all in 3rd gear, is that on pace or a tad slow?

Did you read my post above?



It depends on how quick it was before those times. A Lotus Elise might be way in front of a Volvo T5 even if they both reach 100mph in 17.5s.

Assuming both FWD cars I'll use the clio sport 182 and Fiat Coupé 20vT. The coupé would be 17 metres in front (nose to nose that is) @ 398m and the clio would be doing 93.8mph at this point.

that is slow :-( it should be 8.5

Oh dear :-(

Im gonna have to find whats wrong with it.

Boost leaks all checked and ok
Fuel filter changed, recent service.

Does have a dump valve fitted in the plastic pipe , a bailey atmo one which has been disabled by the looks of it, the pipe that goes to the nipple(oooerr missus) has been removed and a bolt put in the vacum feed pipe, could the dump valve be leaking boost this way?

Im sad its not running 100% saved for ages for a good example as well :-(

No it shouldn't. 60-100mph is usually recorded 'through-the-gears'. He said 60-100mph in 3rd gear. A coop will do 70mph in second.

You can't really measure it accurately without proper tools and conditions but it doesn't sound too far off.

I remember my first coop Standard but did 100 closer to 14 than 14.5 Get it looked at...

Either way, it was only just slower than a Honda NSX to 100 back in 1996, costing 22k remember !! Now Thats impressive and given today, 13 years later, most 200-250 BHP cars can not really go much quicker than 0-100 in 15 seconds or so, i dont think the coupe got the plaudits it deserved at the time.. Although it did win every group test going at the time !

I might be wrong but i only think performance of the lower end of the market ie warm to hot hatches (most hot hatches bing 200 BHP + anyway) and the top end ie supercars (ie, read.. more power) has improved markedly.. the Coupe segment hasnt really moved on that much in real performance terms.

Reconnect the pipe to the top of the baileys DV. I take it the top of the DV is not blocked or connected to anything? If so it's likely leaking boost.

What is your full boost reading and when do you see it in rpms?

Reconected the dump valve and tested the 60-100 again in 3rd gear (on a safe private road) and managed 9.07secs

Much better!

Agree with the above that the Fiat Coupe was not praised anywhere near as much as it should've been, it's a craker of a car!

Davie now a happy chappie :-)

Glad that's sorted

I have a dynolicious recording on my iphone where i managed 14.5 0-100mph but at Shakespeare County Raceway i couldnt manage this.

my best time was 14.75 @ 95mph or fastest terminal was about 96/97mph in 15.5

bit disappointing to manage that on a g-meter but not be able to do it on the drag strip with so much more grip for launching.

Ry

Maybe, just maybe the 'dynolicious recording on my iphone' isn't very accurate?

Little update, since the service my car is feeling stronger and stronger, what was a 9.9 sec 60-100, turned to a 9.07 sec, and now averaging 8.67 and feeling much stronger at the top end.

All timed on same road and conditions. Shows what a good bit of maintenance can do!!

Chuffed!! :-)

my old coupe ran 13.92 at 103 mph so 0-100 im guessing was around 13.6
it was std apart from a gtec chip and a decat pipe on a std exhaust system so 14.5 easily possible when a coupe was fresh and new.
some coupes are way faster than others even at the same spec

thats is true!

I dont think my new le would go sub 14 though.
my old 1 even though my le has a blueflame was faster than the le no problemm, ollies coupe pulls a couple car lengths on me between 2nd and 4th and his is exactly the same pace as my old 5speed 20vt. So now I know why some people dont believe a stage 1 coupe can keep up with a e46 m3 and beat the soft top, some are faster than others.
My other mate dan has a naples colour coupe the same spec as my old one and my old one used to have its pants down, they are all that little bit different, my new Le although low ish miles on the clock and fsh 2 owners and seems to be in v good nick just doesnt pull quite as hard as my old 20vt.
Davie if yours hits 0-100 in 16.5 id get a rr check or check the throttle is opening fully or even the tyre tread or it just may be a tired old coupe oh and if it means that much to you and it would me, get a full service and buy a gtec off grehamL and happy days.

theres a you tube vid astra vxr vs fiat coupe
that will show you the difference its a rolling start though.

What this one!

Shameless plug for your own video!

I'd just like to make a point regarding these sub 14.5 0-100mph times on drag strips. The launch is WAY better than a magazine like Autocar will acheive. It's a rubber track. You'll see 60' times as low as 2 secs for coops on here, but in reality, you'd never see a sub 2.5 on the road.

In short, don't compare the 'pod with road test data; it isn't a fair comparison.

With my moderator hat on, I'm concerned that this thread is in danger of turning into a 'vs' thread and as all know those are forbidden.

If it does, expect the thread to be locked or deleted...

Neil

Ive never measured the 0-100 time and since my thorough service, i believe mine will actually do it in less than 14.5 as my 60-100 in 3rd gear time is right on the money now.

I was initially dissapointed when i got it but im chuffed now, what a great car!

Why would that mean that it would get to 100 in less than 14.5 seconds then? How are you measuring 60-100mph? Judging by the speedo inaccuracies on these cars, you should be going from 63-105mph, or even up t 66-110mph depending on the year.

Get it on a dyno, send me the results for every 50rpm and I'll ask the laws of physics how fast it is

Obviously the speedo etc is out, i was measuring an improvement on my car by using the same technique each time, on the same road, start stopwatch at 58mph in 3rd floor it and waited for around 102, it doesnt matter how accurate it is to compare to anyone else's car. I did it to measure an improvement in my car and that was all it was intended for.