These are the quickest ten cars yet to have been the subject of a full Autocar road test, as verified by our own timing gear. And guess what: the legendary McLaren F1 is no longer anywhere among them.
Acceleration claims for new performance cars are easy to make, but often tricky or even misleading to compare. When it comes to standing-start acceleration, judging cars on like-for-like terms isn’t always easy, with slightly different benchmarking standards often skewing your comparisons.
European manufacturers most commonly claim standing-start acceleration for their cars in 0-62mph because it’s equivalent to 0-100kmh; but some UK-based firms still claim 0-60mph instead. Meanwhile some American-based car-makers who claim 0-60mph performance do it on the basis of a ‘one-foot rollout’ drag-strip-style performance measure which disregards the first foot of the car’s acceleration run, and therefore isn’t a fair basis for comparison with any ‘from rest’ figure. Because this is now such conventional practice in North America, it’s usually not even acknowledged, making it very problematic to compare standing start acceleration claims made by, say, Chevrolet or Tesla with those of Porsche, Ferrari or Mercedes-AMG.
Even if everyone dealt in like-for-like terms where acceleration claims are concerned, though, isn’t there a better and more representative measurement of real-world performance potential than a 0-60mph claim? The answer’s yes; and it’s one that also balances out the advantages often given to brand-new performance cars by super-sticky ‘cup’ tyres, electronic launch control systems, active four-wheel drive systems, and torque-rich electric motors that can, between them, provide performance that’s much more instant than it is long-lasting.
Below is a list of the fastest-accelerating performance cars ever to have been subject to a full set of Autocar’s independent performance tests as part of our standard road test procedure. They are ranked not on 0-60mph pace but instead primarily in order of their roll-on, through-the-gears acceleration from 30- to 70mph; with standing quarter-mile acceleration used to break any ties arising between cars of the same pace.
So we’re not dealing in manufacturer’s claims here. These are verified acceleration statistics repeated and averaged out over two directions and on a level surface; in cars fully fuelled and with two occupants onboard; not fluked on one occasion and in one direction with a following wind, or conducted on some gluey dragstrip surface that’s worth a few bonus tenths off the line. This is our definitive, empirically backed list of the fastest road cars to which we’ve ever fixed timing gear. And you’ll be amazed what misses the cut.
30-70mph: 1.7sec | Standing ¼-mile: 10.1sec at 147.9mph | Test date - 2.3.11
