0 to 60 mph
automotive acceleration performance metric
The time it takes a vehicle to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h or 27 m/s), often said as just "zero to sixty" or "nought to sixty", is a commonly used performance measure for automotive acceleration in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the rest of the world, 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62.1 mph) is used.
Present production model performance cars are often capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in under 5 seconds, while some sports cars and electric vehicles can do 0 to 60 mph in between 2 and 3 seconds. Motorcycles have been able to achieve these figures with sub-500cc since the 1990s. The fastest automobile in 2015 was the Porsche 918 Spyder, which is a hybrid vehicle that takes 2.2 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph. In June 2021, the Tesla Model S Plaid was measured to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1.98 seconds, not including the first foot of rollout.
History
The invention and popularization of 0 to 60 mph times as a metric for measuring a car's performance has been credited by some sources to automotive writer Tom McCahill, who started publishing 0-60 mph times in 1946 while writing for the magazine Mechanix Illustrated.
Methods
Measuring the 0 to 60 mph speed of vehicles is usually done in a closed setting such as a race car track or closed lot used for professional drivers. This is done to reduce risk to the drivers, their teams, and the public. The closed course is set up for test-drives in order to reduce any variables, such as wind, weather, and traction.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “0 to 60 mph” as automotive acceleration performance metric. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as automotive acceleration performance metric. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4545619. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2015, 2021 and 1946.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “0 to 60 mph”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 0 to 60 mph primary sources, 0 to 60 mph archive and automotive research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “0 to 60 mph”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “0 to 60 mph” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.