If you’re like me, then much of your childhood involved comparing cars’ 0-60 mph times. This was the measuring stick used to compare performance of various cars, and it was always exciting when a new car (especially if it was an affordable one) could sprint to 60 mph under 6 seconds. The “0-60” standard has been indelibly scratched into my automotive psyche, which is why I think it’s worth writing this article about the new 0-60 mph record, because it is bonkers.
When I was a kid, 0-60 times in the 7s were considered OK for everyday cars. Front-drive machines like GTIs and Dodge Caliber SRT-4s were hitting low 6’s, and big America V8 machines like the Charger R/T and Mustang GT were in the 5’s. Pretty much only expensive cars — M3s, C63 AMG Mercedes, Challenger SRT-8s, Mustang GT500s, Audi R8s — could do 0-60 mph in the 4s. And the 3s were hallowed ground reserved for only the best of the best — Dodge Vipers, Ferraris, Corvette Z06s and ZR1s, Lamborghinis, and the like. That’s one of the reasons why the Nissan GT-R was such a big deal when it came out in 2008 — it could do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds at a fraction of the price of its competitors!
In 2008, when I was a rising senior in high school, there were no 2-second cars. Well, not really. Look at Car and Driver’s list of quickest cars of 2008, and you’ll see the Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano at 3.3 seconds to 60 mph, the Nissan GT-R also at 3.3, the Corvette ZR1 at 3.4, the Viper ACR at 3.4, and the Porsche 911 Turbo at 3.5.
Then came a big gap.
In terms of 0-60 mph times, was more than big. It was huge, gargantuan, enormous, tremendous — whatever word you wanna use. But it was more than big.
Then, after this colossal chasm came the Bugatti Veyron, which could do 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds.
The Veyron truly was in a league of its own, and it’s for this reason why I consider it the greatest car of all time. No, it’s not the best, but in terms of just engineering brilliance, the Veyron is, at least in my eyes, the GOAT. It made over 1000 horsepower from a boosted W16 engine, it had 10 radiators, it had a dual clutch automatic transmission, it had active aerodynamics — all this back in 2005! And I recall seeing a prototype in the streets of Berlin 2003!
The Veyron was simply larger than life. And yet, 20 years later, even it has been thoroughly displaced from the Mt. Rushmore of quickest cars for sale in the U.S. That’s because, when it comes to sheer quickness, electric cars cannot be defeated.
Even normal, run-of-the-mill EVs can do 0-60 MPH in the 4-second range as long as they have all-wheel drive. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, Tesla Model Y, and Mustang Mach-E will all do it, and the sports versions of those cars will hit 60 in the 3s. More importantly, the 2s are no longer sacred ground — plenty of EVs can do 0-60 in just a couple of seconds.
Check out Motor Trend’s list of quickest cars, and you’ll see the Audi e-Tron GT at 2.9 seconds, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N at 2.8, the Rivian R1S Quad Max at 2.6, The Tesla Cyberbeast and Rivian R1T matching the Veyron at 2.5, the Porsche Taycan in 2.4 seconds, the Lucid Air Sapphire in 2.2, and the Tesla Model S plaid at 2.1 seconds to 60 mph.
That’s just wild.
Today, though, Motor Trend’s Christian Seabaugh wrote this headline: “Record Setter! 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach Sets New 0–60-MPH Mark.”
“From a standstill. Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe the sensational 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, MotorTrend’s new undisputed 0–60-mph champ,” Seabaugh writes before getting into the good stuff:
The new 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach launches from 0 to 60 mph in just 1.89 seconds (2.10 seconds without our standard 1 foot of rollout). That’s 0.05 second quicker (with rollout; 0.04 without) than the second-quickest car we ever tested, a slightly heavier non-Weissach Taycan Turbo GT, and 0.18 second quicker than our previous 0–60 champ, a pre-production Tesla Model S Plaid, which hit the mark in only 2.07 seconds. (That latter figure, if you can believe it, was a disappointment to Tesla; the quickest production Model S Plaid we’ve tested needed 2.24 seconds.)
Holy shit.
1.89 seconds! Out of a production car!
Granted, it’s not cheap starting at over $230,000, and it doesn’t have a rear seat. But what it does have is 1,019 horsepower and 914 lb-ft of torque available for launches. The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package sends all that grunt through a two-speed rear transmission and single-speed front reduction — and through some wide Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS Elect NF0s — allowing the car to not only break all sorts production EV records at famous racetracks around the world including the Nürburgring and Laguna Seca, but now firmly hold the designation of 0-60 GOAT.
1.89 seconds. Wow!
Top Image: Porsche
Sorry but I’m not as excited as you about a difference of .21s. That’s only like how long it takes to blink.
Just because it’s a marginal difference doesn’t mean the record wasn’t beaten.
The wagon version with the least horsepower available is an absolute dream car, but the sedan is just a faster way to look hideous
I am tired of hearing 0 to 60 cars times in America without testing times on turns. Anything going straight can make a record but it isn’t impressive if it can’t do it on a track. Just get an idiot to strap himself into a missile you have a record. It isn’t impressive if it doesn’t require steering.
OK– but this car also has the production car record at Laguna Seca and the sedan record on the Nürburgring (7:07.55), so it can take turns also.
0-60 in 1.89 seconds is roughly 1.445g (as opposed to about .5 g at a 6 second 0-60). The shuttle launch peaked at about 3g.
In a street legal car. Mind blowing.
My wife and I were talking about this recently that 1000 hp was such a big deal when I was in high school (also class of ‘08, millennials ftw) and now, for 80k, you can buy a 7 passenger suv with roughly 1000 hp. I also used to think 6 second 0-60 was a good bench mark for a fast daily driver. Now I have an 8 passenger 4×4 full size suv that can knock that out in just about 6 seconds while carrying me, my wife and kids, 2 dogs and a canoe on the roof. Wild times.
Interesting wife that will converse about stuff like that! Please prioritize taking care of her and your kids over whatever you are driving.
Absolutely! It’s nice to be able to talk about anything and even if there is no interest in the topic by the other person (cars from me is a great example), we’re both pretty good at carrying on conversations and contributing to them.
Interesting. When I was a kid, 2.8 and 217 mph was the standard. I remember looking in the back of Top Gear mag, and noticing a tie around there, unless you went up the the 918 level.
Meh. We all know that in 1985 a DeLorean could accelerate so fast it actually was measured in BACKWARD TIME.
Suck it, Taycan. Or should I say Tay-Can’t?
Those things where a hazard though, I got sick of boy racers travelling back in time on my street and having to call the fire brigade to put out the strips of fire they left.
Correct me if I’m wrong but there were no Demon 170s ever in press fleets or officially tested, correct?
Dodge claimed 1.66 seconds but that’s never been “officially” verified.
Regardless, prepped launches from 0 mph don’t interest me too much. There’s obviously a reason they don’t publish them, but 60-130 mph times would be the most interesting (dare I say the most real-world applicable?)
The Taycan, with its 2 speed rear transmission, probably has an edge on most other EVs in that region. No idea about any gas cars.
A potentially interesting metric would be cars with the smallest time difference between 0-60mph and 1/4 mile. This doesn’t exactly give you 60-130mph, but does tell you something about acceleration at speed. So this Taycan would have a 60mph to 1/4 mile time of 7.3s. Vs Bugatti Chiron Super Sport with a time of 6.9s.
There are also some websites that give 100-200kph numbers but they are all user reported.
60-130 is definitely not real world applicable. You are going from freeway speeds to lose your license speed.
In Germany I can assure you a 100 to 200 kph time would be very applicable to the real world.
There are plenty of things that are applicable but not legal.
Unless you also believe all quarter mile times are just for reference on a dragstrip.
I go from a stop to 60 miles per hour many times per day. Not with my foot pinned to the floor, but it is a range of speed that I, and all drivers, operate vehicles at daily.
I have never gone 60-130, even on a track, even with a car around 3,200 lbs with 300hp. You need a really long straight to hit 130. I have to imagine that 99.9% of drivers in America have never driven more than 110mph.
So how is 60-130 more applicable than 0-60? (Sincere question, not trying to be snarky).
60-130 is a reasonable proxy for proficiency at highway roll racing.
You may find no use in that stat, or find it distasteful to measure or publish (an objection I hinted at in my first post, when I mentioned that I understand why reviewers wouldn’t publish it), but we need not pretend that this type of racing doesn’t occur in the real world, or that it’s any less legal than 0-100, quarter mile times, or any other published number that goes above 70 or 80 mph.
Cammisa tested one against the Lucid Air Sapphire on both prepped and non prepped surfaces. Spoiler it doesn’t go well for the Dodge https://youtu.be/KE20h6v0fSQ?si=G2fW5lUOHf_hfG8B
Those results might be why Dodge chose to do their bragging via claimed times vs 3rd party test cars.
Not that 9.7 is slow, but the claimed 8.9 seems pretty unrealistic unless something shady is going on.
Y’know, I grew up always astounded by the ever lowering 0-60 times, it was a huge deal when I was younger, and yeah, the Veyron was amazing. But it sort of seems to have become absolutely meaningless now that a 30k EV can do 3 second 0-60s, just another number that can be slapped on anything now.
Sedans with no rear seat always entertain me. Look at those vestigial rear doors.
All the better for loading the back after the Costco run
When I got my driver’s license on my 16th birthday in 1975, my parents had a ’65 Olds Dynamic 88 with a fairly big V-8 and the best 0-60 time I could coax out of it, ironically on my way to church, was 10 seconds. With an open diff and a soft suspension, power braking was pointless. Even just flooring it from a standstill resulted in a roasting right rear tire.
So that was my benchmark for a “fast” car. My ’86 Accord LXi managed to match that time with a lot less drama. And got more than 2x the mpg on the freeway.
My current DD, a ’17 Accord V6 can do the deed in less than six seconds and still get better fuel economy than the ’86. Close to 40 mpg if I adhere to my usual five over the speed limits on a long drive.
I didn’t take physics and don’t know how to calculate the G forces a 0-60 in less than two seconds generates. I’m guessing it feels like a catapult launch from an aircraft carrier.
0-60 in 2 seconds is ~1.36 Gs (average acceleration). Would need actual speed and time data to calculate instantaneous acceleration at different points.
Fun fact, an aircraft carrier catapult is 0-165mph in 2s. Rough maths puts that as a 0-60mph time of 0.8s at 3.4g
Thanks for doing the math. I have never experienced anything close to that G-load. And hope nor to/most likely will never do so.
“When I was a kid, 0-60 times in the 7s were considered OK for everyday cars”
When I was a kid (in the late 1970s), a good 0-60 time was anything in the 10 second range or less
The typical slush-box-equipped car from that time was so sloooooowwww…
My favorite car growing up was the Maserati Bora, a top-level supercar. I believe it came in at 6.8 seconds.
I’m right with you. Bandit’s T/A must’ve been seriously breathed on, cuz I remember those years (and Z28s) being pretty damn slow.
I think something changed when V6 Camrys and Accords could blow the doors off of most 60s muscle cars. Ever since then, the mystique of acceleration is gone.
“I think something changed when V6 Camrys and Accords could blow the doors off of most 60s muscle cars. ”
Actually that all started with the 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Altima#Third_generation_(L31;_2001)
That was a FWD family sedan that could do 0-60 in the high 5 second range to low 6 second range.
The more powerful Camries and Accords came after that.
And yeah… the mystique of fast acceleration is more or less gone for me as well. These days I’m more interested in a combo of ‘good enough’ accelleration with the best efficiency I can afford in a vehicle that meets my needs.
Not sure that’s what started it. The 2000 M5 did 0-60 in 4.8
I guess you’re talking about affordable cars though. Nevermind
Ha! Yeah. Affordable.
Only used BMWs were affordable. Until you had to fix everything that was broken.
Yeah… I’m talking about lots of performance for a relatively low amount of money that was unheard of in the past.
Altima has to share the credit with the 2002 WRX… econobox with mid-5s to 60. I guess you could count the Maxima, too, which could put the new-found power down a bit better than an Altima.
Yeah but both the WRX and Maxima were more expensive. According to Edmunds, the Altima 3.5 SE started at $22649
https://www.edmunds.com/nissan/altima/2002/st-100003021/features-specs/
While the WRX started at $1000 more and the Maxima $2000 more.
https://www.edmunds.com/subaru/impreza/2002/st-100002235/features-specs/
https://www.edmunds.com/nissan/maxima/2002/features-specs/
Note that I’m not dissing the WRX or Maxima. I like both of those.
But the Altima was an undeniable performance bargain… and it was practical as a daily driver too.
Shortly after my buddy got his v6 2001 Firebird in high school (which was objectively a cool car at 18 and a lot quicker than what most of us drove in our not-very-wealthy high school) his dad replaced his old accord with a new 2006 accord v6 coup. Now, I know the v6 firebird isn’t exactly fast, but with a stick and all that torque it felt really quick.
That accord blew the doors off of it.
Yeah, right? I just dumped my 3800 after eight years of perfect reliability. It has torque for days, and is pretty damn quick even in a LeSabre.
The replacement is a Toyota Solara with the 3.3. It’s only a couple hundred pounds less, but absolutely creams the Buick. Not even close.
[Larry David shrug] Eh.
I want to launch this so, so much. I want to play with it. I want to hoon it. This is good parsh.
We know, Stef – we’ve met you…
I know I don’t need to say it, but…
the parsh is good
That’s a crazy price tag, but not so crazy that these things will just sit in collections and never get used. T
he side benefit of it being electric is that you won’t have the lambo dude revving it up and going one block to the next red light at top speed. That should keep the use of this party trick down some.
Can’t even imagine.
The useful bit is not the launch, it is the full on overtake grunt. At 50mph it is nice to overtake without fear, at 80 mph on a public road? not funny really.
Absolutely right, people are often startled and give me surprised looks when I pass them on a single lane country highway.. Typically Im cruising at 45 and when I floor it I’m up to 70 in .5 sec, its far too much fun.
I have the N Grin Shift (incredibly stupid name) in my Kona and it’s amazing for passing. For 20 seconds it drops you to the lowest viable gear instantly, it overrides whatever mode you’re in and turns everything to full asshole, and gives you overboost/10 extra horsepower.
99% of the time it’s a stupid gimmick but if I ever need to pass on a country road it sure comes in handy. I just push it and I’m gone and the car is loudly farting at whoever I’m passing. Obviously I don’t use it very often because I try not to be a total jagoff on public roads but whenever I’m in rural VA (which happens fairly often) and some dingus is doing 40 in a 55 as far as I’m concerned they’re asking for it.
This Taycan doesn’t interest me beyond the stat listed. It’s a morbidly obese thing.
Now if we were to get a sub-2,500 lb electric TVR or Lotus with 1,000+ horsepower motivating it…
Race cars do that. I’d like to see the opposite, three tons with the same power-to-weight ratio you just mentioned. A legit 2400+ hp in a diesel Bentley or a truck would be fun to see.
You’ll need some pretty high c ratings on those batteries then. And you’ll be traction-limited until you can get it going fast enough to produce some downforce. But yeah, drop a Model S rear axle and as many battery modules as you want to carry and away you go.
I saw a video a while ago with a Tesla-swapped Datsun 510 – they’re very light and it was mighty quick.
There is no shortage of batteries able to provide that c-rating. I’m partial to the LoneStar Sleeper Cells.
Stupid and pointless. The average idiot has no business having that sort of acceleration underfoot. There oughta be a law…
It’s been that way with motorcycles for a long time, and for a lot less money. $3k will get you into the 2 second range.
Aunt Selene can’t get her fifty year old hands to keep the handlebars straight long enough to even get going, let alone launch like that. This though? It’ll make her a threat to everyone in front of her on the way to and from the local Hobby Lobby.
The average driver does a max of 16sec 0-60 in daily driving. Aunt Selene probably even less. It’s the fresh recruits with room temp APR you gotta watch out for, as always.
It’s a little scary how fast and aggressively the Aunt Selenes drive their 300hp CUVs these days. I swear, many woman, my bestie included, only have two positions while driving – gas or brake to the floor. And then she wonders why she goes through tires and brakes… And as Jeff Foxworthy once joked “NO DEPTH PERCEPTION”. When I am riding with her, I am pumping the imaginary brake pedal every time we are approaching stopped cars. <eek> I am not a good passenger at the best of times.
Sadly I agree, went to a 3 day Skip Barber school 25 years or so ago. Learned more than I ever would have on the road, also learned my limits. Joe Average (including me) has no business with this kind of firepower behind the wheel.
I did the rally school in VT about that long ago and learned a ton. Done a few instructor-led track days too with the BMW club. It makes you a better driver for sure.
I just lack much need for speed. My 6ish seconds to 60 BMWs and Mercedes are more than fast enough, and rarely use more than half throttle in the 300+hp Mercedes, there is just no need. I have the most fun in my 75hp Spitfire. You can drive it flat out all the time and nobody notices.
That is impressively fast. Just… wow. That said, I still say that anything less than four seconds should require a special license. And/or we could put governors in place to prevent this sort of thing on public roads.
I’m trying to make my “bicycle”/microcar reach this acceleration benchmark with hub motors in all three wheels. In increasingly fewer parts of the USA, it’s legal to operate without a license, registration, title, tags, insurance, ect.
If I had to choose a 2-3 car fantasy garage, a Taycan Sport Turismo would probably be my daily.
Same. That’s my one car fantasy garage.
Tire technology is the limiting factor for 0-60 mph times. On the road with currently-available DOT approved tires, 1.9 second 0-60 mph is about the limit. However, on a drag strip, 0-60 mph of under 1 second is very much possible in a street legal car, especially if you decrease the tire pressure and do a burnout to allow a better hookup.
That’s about 1.5 G. That’s pretty nuts for a car, but in terms of outright acceleration, pretty tame. About half of space shuttle launch acceleration. I’m no scientician though, so I don’t know how lateral acceleration (perpendicular to gravity) of 1.5 compares to a vertical acceleration (in line with gravity) of 3g. It feels like twice as much I’m sure, but in terms of acceleration it might be only slightly less.
1.5g accel, but there’s increasing stuff where you can have peak braking decel approaching 2g where tires are the limiting factor.
Then you have stuff peaking near 2 sideways, which is where the real excitement is. Lateral gs are always cheaper anyways. It’s easy to reach 1.0-1.1g sideways in affordable, normal stuff, but acceleration adds another 0 to the price.
I can’t even imagine what that’s like for the senses. I still remember being blown away when I put my foot to the floor in my dad’s A6 with the supercharged V6 for the first time. The fastest car I’ve ever driven statistically speaking is a Camaro SS and this absurd creation and that takes more than twice this long…although I want to say the PHEV X5s have been clocked in the high 3s as well? I did get to mash the go pedal with a full battery on a country road in one of those once and it was definitely a Spaceballs ludicrous speed experience.
Anyway, certified Taycans are a great buy if you can swing one. I’d say you have to compromise on the range but Porsche EVs usually outperform EPA estimates in practice. Matt Farrah just drove one from Michigan to LA and didn’t have any issues.
I don’t think I’ve been in one that can do sub-2, but I did a ride-along in a friend’s Alpha GT-R back in the 2010’s. I think it was an Alpha 9 with ~1000 whp, and again, if I recall, he said it did 60 in about 2 and a half seconds.
What I remember was the shock. Especially back then before torquey electric cars were a thing, my brain was not ready to watch the world outside the window go from a stand-still to a highway speeds faster than I could say “holy ____”. It was both frightening and intoxicating.
As a driver? You’re more prepped for it. You know when it’s happening, how much, and you have the steering wheel for additional bracing.
As a passenger? It starts getting weird below 3. It can be legitimately nauseating in cars with inadequate damping. There’s folks who drive goofy stuff, that as a passenger they’ve learned to pass because they’ve learned they might heave.
I believe what’s in the garage is barely sub-3? Honestly? I don’t care for that aspect. I have it for other reasons, and standing starts aren’t ever a use case. It’s just a party trick to show off to other people, with no point for myself at all. Once cars got into the low-to-mid-4s I feel that’s good enough for anyone, unless you go to a drag strip regularly.
Yup, in all the YouTube videos I’ve seen of EVs accelerating hard, the passenger usually gets caught off guard and slammed into their seat, but the driver is braced and expecting the Gs to hit. Holding on to the steering wheel is also a big help.
Weirdly, I found launching the Taycan Turbo GT easier to process than I expected. That sense of control really just adds to the feeling of omnipotence.
Only thing faster than that is the depreciation it will experience!
Hey-oh!
That’s great. My car does it in around 4 seconds flat and I can’t imagine wanting anything faster than that.
Complete agreement. I’ve something that squeaks into the 2s despite being RWD, and it’s a shoulder-shrug to me. I don’t use launch control anywhere. It’s irrelevant. 4-ish is a legitimate goldilocks zone where it’s very quick, but reasonable.
I had one that could do mid-4s, very much RWD traction-limited. I found it boring. It didn’t matter what gear you were in or how fast you were going, foot down = license shredding speed pretty much immediately. Fun in Europe where you could actually use the performance somewhat – in the cop and traffic infested States? Yawn. Reality is I never drove it any faster than the GTI that replaced it, and the GTI was both more practical AND more entertaining to drive. More involving.