You're right, 0-60 times aren't worthless, but I do believe that it's the wrong measure for a good "at a glance" review. Always go straight to the 1/4 mile elapsed time & final speed, or something similar in distance. 0-60 is obviously where races can be won or lost, but with high-powered cars, the advantages gained between 0 and 60 can be attributed to many things far less exciting and enticing than brute power. My frustration is in the popular habit of debating 0-60, when terminal speed at the end of the 1/4 mile, or the elapsed time that the car can hit 100 mph or higher, is so much more telling. I'll offer one last example of how 0-60, in some cases, is like tossing an olympic swimmer into a child's plastic wading pool, and timing laps. And this one involves a Porsche!!!
Back in the early 80's, my stepdad had the most ferocious street-driven 930 Turbo I've ever seen. Actually, it was an original black on black 1976 911 Turbo Carrera, packing a 934 race motor that had come from a wrecked 24-hours of Daytona car. It was a monster. It had a VDO 2-bar boost gauge, and we would sometimes run boost that peaked at 2.5 bar. Later, we started popping head bolts, and we learned to stick closer to 2 bars if we wanted things to last, but anyhow..... With the old 4-speed non-overdrive tranny, the car was geared for high-speeds. That meant that 1st gear was tall, and you really had to be careful getting her going in first gear. The motor was very high-strung, would stall easily, or conversely would rev like a lit match and toast the clutch. We took the car to the drag strip once, to see what we could do with it. The launch was a laugh. Basically, as American V8's would spring away from the start line and power down the strip, Scot was just barely inching away from the start line, feathering that clutch, the motor wanting to bog, and once the clutch was fully engaged, waiting for what seemed like an ETERNITY for the big turbo to get past it's enormous lag-time and make boost. The 60-foot times were absolutely horrendous, I could have beat that Porsche to the 60' line on foot. No kidding. Anyhow, I ran against Scot in my 1988 Mustang GT convertible, slightly modified. It ran 14.10's at 98 mph consistently. I beat the 930 to the 1/8th mile cone. Just after that, Scot came past me like I was driving in reverse. The car sounded like a heavily boosted chainsaw. After beating him to the 1/8th mile mark in a 14-second Mustang, Scot posted a not-that-great 12.80 elapsed time.......... AT 133 MPH. From a roll, on the road, there was not a streetable car in North Florida that stood a chance against that car. But if you measured it 0-60, it looked like it couldn't beat a Diesel Rabbit.
. In reality, I've got nothing against the European magazines. I just made the comment for the sake of what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
