<VV> 0-60

[Padgett]

> > Anyone remember or have old mags and can give some representative 0-60 mph
> > times for muscle cars or high performance cars back in the 60s and 70s?

Well some of us were there then. Most famous (and weasle-worded by Porsche 
much later) was the 3.8 second 0-60 by the Pontiac 2+2 in the C&D 2+2 vs 
2+2 test in March 1965.

Legend has it that the 3.8 second time was due partly to the Milt 
Schornack/Royal massaged 421 SD engine, partly the experimental Firestone 
cantilever race tires, partly gears that put 60 mph in the range of first 
gear, and partly Jan's magic stopwatch (magazines often used hand-held 
stopwatches back then)

However you have to keep in mind that this was a time when performance 
tires did not exist, a time when any carlessness in the launch and failure 
to feather the throttle meant you "went up in smoke", and when stock cars 
were limited to 7" cheater slicks. I used to have a 70 GP 4-spd with an 
open 3.31 that friends called "Asphyxiation" because if you leaned on it 
from a stop the tires never stopped burning.

Besides the lack of tires, also keep in mind that the cars tested by the 
Magazines often bore no relationship to the cars you could buy in most 
showrooms. Marketting people like Jim Wangers had almost unlimited budgets 
and improbable but straightfaced magazine articles sold cars.

For example consider #15 in 
http://www.musclecarclub.com/musclecars/general/musclecars-50fast.shtml. 
Pontiac never legally sold a 310 HP SD 455. They wanted to but by the time 
the 73 EPA irregularities (a whole 'nother story) were cleared up and 
production started,  the GP, GA, and GTO 455SD options were gone and the 
production Firebird got a 295 hp version.

So you rarely saw real world numbers in magazines back then and if a really 
stock car like showed up it got trounced (seem to remember one test with a 
Buick Skylark GS-400 with two speed automatic that really looked bad).

Still if you really want 0-60s from the 60s, I can probably find some.

Padgett