MTFCA Forum

While I'm not interested in buying one, VW has an interesting TV ad running. It says, "Most people want to know how fast their car will go from 0 to 60. Isn't it more important to know how fast your car will go from 60 to 0?"

Certainly, this is a much more meaningful question, one that I think Henry Ford overlooked.

As we are incessantly bombarded by news and discussion about carbon emissions and
the end of the world, I watch as leadfoots pound their gas pedals for jackrabbit lift-offs
everywhere I go, and advertising that still tries to sell speed and I am moved to wonder
if the people from these two worlds of thinking are aware the other exists ?

I greatly fear you are correct. My 22 year old grandson has a theory. He says, half in humor and half not so much, that we have reached the end of the Darwin road. We are now as smart (as a specie) as we're gong to be. It's all down hill from here. We will slowly "de-evolve". One fact that he uses to argue his point is the fact that an ever shrinking percentage of people actually know how anything works. We're doomed.

hpetrino wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:35 am

While I'm not interested in buying one, VW has an interesting TV ad running. It says, "Most people want to know how fast their car will go from 0 to 60. Isn't it more important to know how fast your car will go from 60 to 0?"

Certainly, this is a much more meaningful question, one that I think Henry Ford overlooked.

Seriously - it matters how quickly you can come to a controlled
stop - in my opinion.


FJ

It took my Model T 92 years to reach 60mph.

I remember reading an article on the AC Cobra 427...I claimed 0-100 AND back to zero in less than 14 seconds !!! “It stops so fast, you’ll lose your chewing gum”

A childhood friend got the Shelby/Cobra bug back in the days when you could
still buy them at the Ford dealerships. He ended up with a 6000 mile 67 GT500
and later, a 67 427 Cobra. If memory serves, the published specs were 0-60 in
3.2 seconds, and 0-100 in 4.0

I remember the 0-100 and back to zero being under ten seconds. I never drove
his Cobra, but I did drive a different one on the road track at SIR. I was too scared
of wrecking it to really push things. The owner took me around the track a couple
times and then let me give it a go. The car is not much of a car ... just enough there
to hold the engine to the wheels and suspension, mount a steering wheel and seats.
You REALLY feel like you are riding a rocket. It went like a scalded cat and responded
to the controls with crazy tightness. If I remember right, the engine weighs more
than the rest of the car. There is enough brakes to stop a large truck, so dragging
this feather light car to a stop was G-force level experience. They are beasts !

In stark contrast to what we are used to in our Ts, the forces on the suspension in a modern car are waaay bigger while braking then when accellerating, the brakes have to turn all the kinetic energy stored in the moving car into heat to bleed off that energy and stop the car.
have a look at cars in endurance racing, while driving at night you'll see them going around with red hot brake disks.
High performance cars these days have ceramic brake discs because steel discs would melt in a second, in fact modern race cars have such fabulous brakes the shoulder harness can give you bruises on your shoulders under hard braking

Ruxstel24 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 4:05 pm

I remember reading an article on the AC Cobra 427...I claimed 0-100 AND back to zero in less than 14 seconds !!! “It stops so fast, you’ll lose your chewing gum”