I must admit I am a bit confused as to how far a tenth of a second equates to in distance vs 0-60 times in seconds.

For the sake of argument...lets say that our sub 7 second cars (sub 6 seconds in the case of the GS430), would hit 60 mph in roughly an eighth of a mile???

So if my GS430 runs a 5.8 second vs a 540 at 6.0 seconds...how far would I be in front of him at the eighth mile marker???

I chose to evaluate 0-60 times as they seem to be more realistic in street racing vs a area to do a full quarter mile blast...

 

your car will be a car length ahead of the 540i auto. if u wanna compare 5.8 vs 6.0. However, in reality, the 430 can pull about 1.5 car length ahead to the 540i auto AS I have endlessly tried ^^.

Manual is a different story, make sure you have a great launch with power brake to take the lead, and the race will be bumper to bumper all the way. (that's if he knows how to drive a 6 speed)

 

if you have any games like Gran Turismo, what i would suggest you do is buy a car in the game that does 0-60 in about 5 sec. And run it 0-60 in 5.8 and then again at 6.0 in a new game, watch the ghost from the old run and you will know, hope u see what i'm saying

 

Normal 1/8th mile speeds are in the 72mph range.

Do this: find a safe road. Reset your trip counter, Launch the car, look at the speed right after it kicks over .1 mile. Should be close to 60mph (a little over 500 feet)

normally about 1 car length is about .1 sec at 60 mph, but when you factor the distance into it.. everything breaks down. The car lengths might not be much more but at the time you are doing 70, he is only doing about 68. You got to a speed 2 mph faster in less time and only slightly longer distance (approx 18 feet).

 

Thanks for the replys...

It has become apparent as to why the launch is so important. Thus a car length for each tenth of a second would be an accurate assumption.

i.e. a C5 being at least a second faster than a GS430 (0-60), would be 5 car lengths ahead at roughly on tenth of a mile...

Am I also coorect in assuming that the drivers who do the testing for the car magazines are excellent at shifting manual transmissions...if so...real street times would be somewhat slower...assuming your average BMW owner can't shift as well?

 

0-60mph times can be misleading. Two cars that run 6.0 does not mean they will be even at 60mph in distance. I am asking around for someone to give me a plain english explanation for this.
Kinda like if someone runs 15.1@95mph and another ran 15.0@94mph. Slower car got to the line first. Will re post when I get a good example

Car number 1 does
0-10 1 second
0-20 2 second
0-30 3 seconds
0-40 4 seconds
0-50 5 seconds
0-60 6 seconds

Car number 2 does
0-10 1 second
0-20 1.5 seconds
0-30 2 seconds
0-40 3 seconds
0-50 4 seconds
0-60 6 seconds

Car 2 would have traveled a farther distance in the same time of 6.0 seconds.

Car 1 would have average ~30mph for 6 seconds while Car 2 would have averaged ~40mph for the 6 seconds.

Note that car 1 was taking longer at the higher speeds so in theory car 1 if it still had the acceleration advantage after ~50mph it would slowly reel in car 2 further down the road.

 

car two woudl be faster, in the quarter mile its measured by time not speed, always the one with the lower time will cross the finish first, regardless of speed.