What is "Fast"?

Joshy

Joshy

Joshy

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Right, let's have a proper discussion about this then.

This stems from the 328i thread where I personally can't believe that people are describing a 8 second to 60 car as "Fast". To me the thought of 8 seconds to 60 being thought of as fast is utterly ridiculous but it would seem from the reactions in that thread perhaps the comment is not as crazy as I initially thought?

Yes, I know 0-60 times are mostly meaningless but unfortunately they are just about the only universally comparable measure of acceleration available .

My gripe is that my first car, a mildly fettled 205 XS isn't miles away from the 8 second mark in it's spirit to 60 (8.4Sec was clocked with one of those G-Meter thingys). I certainly wouldn't dream of labelling something that wouldn't have pulled a noticeable lead on a spotty teenager in a 1.4l hatchback as a quick car, let alone something fast.

Then again, the last car that has made me think "This is fast" was a 621BHP Continental GT Supersports, so perhaps it's me who has the warped sense of speed? :p

Another question, should fast be considered on a sliding scale due to factors such as age? Again my thoughts as a "No". A car is either fast or it isn't. It could be "Quick for what it is", but to me that is completely different from a car being a quite simply "fast", and even then I wouldn't say that a near top of the range converitable with a 8sec 0-60 time was particularly "quick for what it is", but that's (seemingly) just me.

So, what is "Fast" to you? A Zero to sixty time within X amount of seconds? An impressive top speed? Absolutely relentless acceleration? Something that is just a little bit quicker than your average family car? Or do you subscribe to the "Screw all of this straight line willy waving, it's the corners and only the corners where it counts" mode of thought?
 
Bored by the start of this thread already.

Day to day normal car - 8s 0-60 is fast.
Compared to supercars or heavily modded cars - 8s is terrible.
 
0-60 in sub 6 seconds

150mph plus top end

However 0-60 doesn't really tell the whole tale, it has to pull well past 60 upto around 120, so small wheezebox engines with short gearing to get in quick 0-60 times need not apply.
 
I think it's all relative to your experiences - if you've driven nothing but 1.2s that would struggle to out drag a lawnmower jumping into something that will hit 60 in 8s is going to feel like an absolute rocket ship.

If you've spent your time thrashing around in 2.0 turbos and 4.0 V8s managing 60 in 5 or 6 seconds, then 8 would feel fairly slow really.
 
I've only ever been in/drove one fast car and that was a 350bhp ford sierra cosworth. I've been in a civic/accord type r that felt nippy but not "fast". So going off what I have experienced I'd say any car of a similar weight to the above and 300bhp + is fast.
 
Top end means sod all. Wouldn't even consider looking at it when buying a car.

I'd use 0-60 just to roughly gauge how quick a car is.

My car is 7.02 sec to 60 and I wouldn't call it fast - I'd say sub 6 seconds is fast but it all depends.

When I first got my car however it felt really quick, so it all depends on what you are use to.
 
My opinion is:

Road cars that are fast are cars that allow you to cover any given stretch of road in a manner which is significantly faster than the average car or driver.

This means that an E36 328i is fast, yes. You can accelerate hard out of corners which you can take faster than in slower cars, the chassis is communicative enough that you can feel how the car is behaving which lets you push on even harder.

IMO it's a mugs game to say "sub 6s to 60" as you end up defining cars that'll do that dash in 6.1 as slow compared to cars that will do it in 5.9, which is just ridiculous. Same with top speed really. It is a blend of all performance factors, it is about covering ground quickly.
 
8 seconds is nippy.
7 seconds is pretty quick.
6 Seconds is fast enough.
5 Seconds is fast.
<5 seconds is pretty ****ing fast.
<4 seconds is LOLOMGWHATMYFACE?!

That is how I see it, anyway. You have to remember that 7-8 seconds was fairly fast 15 years ago, especially as far as consumer cars went.

Which 328 are we taking about, though? An E36 manual should be doing it in around 7 seconds?
 
Depends on the car and the driver i.e. an extremely capable and potent car can dull any sense of speed and acceleration, whereas a much slower car with less deadening and wayward handling can feel hillariously fast. Likewise a dedicated driver in a slower car can feel much faster than a potent car being driven in a point-and-squirt fashion on the straights.

I tend to class sub-6 second cars as 'fast', though, on a numerical basis - although I take strong consideration on things like 30-70 or 0-100 when trying to assess how 'properly quick' something is.

It's not all in the figures though so you have to treat each car induvidually.
 
You cannot launch anywhere near as hard in a "proper" auto as you can in a manual, remember. Once rolling, there isn't really anything in it.
 
It's a 15 year old car, only the latest autos with much better technology have brought the difference down (and in some cases made the auto faster).
 
Morba said:
You can, if you do it right
Click to expand...

The torque converter saps most of the energy from the launch, which is great for not spinning up the rears or bogging down the engine but generally stops you from getting that "perfect" launch. I spent a good while in my E36 auto looking for the perfect launch and it didn't really ever happen. Easy to nail it time after time in the manual :)
 
Morba said:
Pretty much lol, just don't hold the brake too long!
Click to expand...

Heh, you should have seen the abuse my old auto MK2 Golf had. It was basically a GTi but labelled something else. It had the 1.8 engine with big bumpers etc.

Anyway, so it was free and it saw many "launches" in the aforementioned manner, also attempting perfect J turns in an automatic is always fun, and I became quite accustomed to the clicking noise when throwing it in park whilst still moving. I even managed to get good at judging how long it'd take to stop.

After all that, the engine seized following HGF with no action taken :cool:
 
Had a sub 4 seconds to 60 car for 6 months, was totally unreal and amazing fun, but did get bored with the running cost and every Fiesta/Corsa/Etc wanting Traffic Light GP's :/
 
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