The time it takes to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph

Miles per hour

Miles per hour is an imperial unit of speed expressing the number of statute miles covered in one hour. It is currently the standard unit used for speed limits, and to express speeds generally, on roads in the United Kingdom and the United States. It is also often used to express the speed of...

(0 to 97 km/h or 0 to 27 m/s) is a commonly used performance measure for automotive acceleration

Acceleration

In physics, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. In one dimension, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, since velocity is a vector, acceleration describes the rate of change of both the magnitude and the direction of velocity. ...

 in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the rest of the world 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) is used. Present performance cars are capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds, while exotic cars can do 0 to 60 mph in between 3 and 4 seconds, whereas motorcycles have been able to achieve these figures with sub-500cc engine for more than 20 years. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is currently the fastest production street legal car to reach 60 mph from a stop, reaching the speed in 2.46 seconds.

Criticism of magazine testing

Automobile magazines often post 0-60 mph times that they achieve in testing. Many have questioned the practices and methods used to test the automobiles. Typically criticism revolves around:

• "Roll out" here the car is allowed to roll for a certain amount of time or distance before the timing begins.
• General conditions: Air temperature, altitude, fuel level, etc.
• "Factory Freaks" which would be abnormally quick stock automobiles
• The public's inability to achieve such low times
• High level of differences between magazines
• Possible bribery or other unethical practices of the testers
• Optimizing the car's performance by making setup changes such as tire pressure
• The ability of the particular driver