Cooler air is denser and contains more oxygen, allowing the engine to burn more fuel and make more power. Because of that, we also correct acceleration results to 60 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. Ambient weather conditions-we record absolute barometric pressure and wet- and dry-bulb temperatures trackside-determine how much power an engine makes.
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High-power, rear-wheel-drive cars equipped with manual transmissions are the most time-consuming, and finding the sweet spot of balancing wheelspin and clutch engagement (usually in the 3000-to-4000-rpm range, but it varies depending on the car) may take 10 runs or more.Īll of our straight-line acceleration results are the average of the best run in opposite directions, to account for wind. Conventional automatics may only require five launches. It is up to the tester to determine the best launch technique, and this process can mean that some cars (for example, a launch-control-equipped Porsche 911) require just two or three launches to get the best possible time. We also do not power shift, which is keeping your right foot pinned while completing a shift. We test in street conditions, so launch traction is low and not the level of stick you'd find at a local drag strip. No matter what you call it, this is the test that most people care about. And that means the times between vehicles equipped with manual and automatic transmissions clearly aren't comparable. In a vehicle with an automatic, the transmission downshifts (and the times are much quicker), so this metric represents a combination of transmission and engine responsiveness.
Top-gear acceleration, in a manual-transmission car, where we simply goose the throttle and don't downshift, highlights midrange power. The larger the difference between a 5-to-60-mph and a zero-to-60-mph run, the more lag an engine has this is particularly relevant today with the flurry of turbocharged engines. This test illuminates differences in powertrain flexibility. The rolling start is a C/D creation, in which we creep along at 5 mph and then accelerate as hard as possible. Straight-line acceleration consists of three different tests: the standing start (from which we pull all the zero-to-speed times), the 5-to-60-mph rolling start, and two top-gear acceleration tests (30 to 50 mph and 50 to 70 mph). Our VBOX 3i units (we have four of them) also have the ability to log vehicle data such as steering angle, engine speed, and throttle position through the vehicle's CAN communication interface. The VBOX is what we use to measure acceleration times, braking, and top speed.
Piggybacking it with a GPS base station (a device used to correct GPS positional inaccuracy) and a VBOX 3iSL (100Hz) can deliver positional accuracy to within one inch. We have various models of this data logger in our fleet, ranging from 10-Hz units (that's 10 points of data per second) to 100 Hz, and one of them even uses the Russian GLONASS satellite system in conjunction with GPS to deliver speed accuracy within 0.1 mph and positional accuracy within about six feet. government's GPS satellite constellation to record speed, position, and acceleration. The heart of our test equipment is the Racelogic VBOX GPS data logger. What we do there can be compartmentalized into three basic categories: straight-line performance, cornering/handling, and top speed. Our dynamic testing is performed on a closed test track.
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"What are those procedures," you ask? Read on for the full details on how we collect more than 200 data points on the roughly 400 vehicles that we test every year. There is no question as to whether or not our test results are comparable because we follow the same procedures with all cars, without exception. While the Mustang fanboy may be upset his performance numbers don't one-up the Camaro's and, conversely, enjoys confirmation that the Camaro's visibility figures are far worse, we hope all readers can appreciate our transparency and objectivity when it comes to test results. More recently, we've added a panoply of static tests to measure cargo space, interior stowage pockets, infotainment response time, and the size of blind spots, among other things. At that time we went by the name Sports Cars Illustrated, and we tested the old-fashioned way: with a handheld stopwatch and not the high-precision GPS test gear we use today. Our testing started back in 1955, a year before the interstate highway system even existed. For more than 60 years we've been answering the objective questions-How fast? How quick? How much grip?-comprehensively, and with an authority based in experience that our readers have come to rely on.
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