- We tend to look at classic cars
through rose colored glasses, okay?
Cars like the Corvette Stingray, 60s Mustang,
Jaguar E-type, BMW 2002, Pontiac GTO,
these are all amazing cars that I would love to drive.
But I was surprised when I found out
that a stock Honda Odyssey Elite, a family minivan,
has a 0 to 60 of 6.7 seconds.
That's faster than a Mustang Cobra.
I know 0 to 60 times aren't the golden standard
for a car's performance, but as time goes on
and cars get faster, more reliable, and better all around
I can't help but wonder, which modern family cars
are faster than legendary sports cars?
In this video we're gonna take a look
at five family cars that are not only faster
than legendary sports cars but some
that can stop faster, handle better,
and generally outperform all of them.
(upbeat music)
Before you blow up my comments talking about,
yeah, but older cars are better,
I know, okay?
It's cool if you think that too.
I'm not making this video so I can crap on old cars.
I love old cars.
I would totally rock this thing.
I just think it's amazing how far cars have come.
So that's why we're gonna see
how some iconic sports cars stack up
to modern family vehicles.
And we're gonna do our best to compare these cars
without ever leaving my apartment.
Let's kick this video off with one turbocharged
grocery getter that can rip through a parking lot
faster than most others.
(upbeat music)
The Chevy Equinox has never been the most exciting
midsize SUV on the market.
In fact, I don't think we've ever mentioned it
in one of our videos before.
But, the 2018 Equinox 2.0 T is a lot quicker
than you might expect.
For the third-generation they ditched the standard
V-6 from the previous car, made the car slightly smaller,
and dropped a 2 liter turbocharged four banger in it.
The quick revving engine and reduction in weight
made for a serious improvement in performance.
And thanks to that all-wheel-drive system,
the 2.0 T gets up to 60 in 6.6 seconds.
A 6.6 second 0 to 60 time would be respectable
for a sport sedan 10 years ago.
But that time coming from a crossover is pretty impressive.
It's a frequent Equinox, okay?
It's not even a high-end crossover.
We're talking about a middle-of-the-road car
for people who coach high school water polo.
The turbocharged and intercooled inline-4
produces 252 horsepower and 260 foot pounds of torque
all made into a nine speed automatic transmission
with a manual mode.
So how does it compare to one of the most iconic exotics
on the last 40 years, the Ferrari 308.
There's no way a shlubby crossover
can beat Magnum PI's car, right?
But it does.
The Equinox 2T beats every version of the 308,
the GTB, the GTS, quatrovalvole,
most by over a second in 0 to 60 times.
Both cars have 252 horsepower at their highest trim level.
But the Equinox has half the amount of cylinders
as the Ferrari.
That's amazing.
You could argue that the Ferrari came out
at the end of the malaise era
when power was choked by omissions laws
but I would still love to see the Equinox and the 308
on the track going head-to-head.
As far as handling goes the Equinox
most definitely feels more numb than the Ferrari
thanks to the power steering,
but 308's were notoriously prone to understeer
especially at high speeds.
Actually, let's talk about suspension for a second.
The Equinox 2T has McPherson struts
with tuned springs in the front
paired with four link independent suspension in the rear.
Again, we're talking about one of the cheaper SUVs
on the market and it's got suspension
that you would see in a high-end sports car in the 80s.
That's pretty rad.
The difference being though the Equinox
is tuned for a more comfortable ride
instead of performance, obviously.
The Equinox might not handle or feel as sporty
as the Ferrari but 30 plus years of improvements
in suspension technology, I think it kind of
levels the playing field.
(upbeat music)
Scion XP people have been the butt of jokes
for a long time.
And I'm not here to roast them.
I'm here to toast them instead.
This blocky boy is not only more practical,
it's faster than one of the most iconic muscle cars ever.
The second gen XB came with a 2.4 liter Toyota
inline-4 option that made 158 horsepower
paired with a five-speed manual.
Despite being one of the most divisive vehicles
in the last 20 years, it's actually a really great car
and very practical, very easy to get in and out of.
The XB has a quarter-mile time of 15.8 seconds
but that's the same as a 1968 Ford Turino GT.
Even though it's not quite the car
that Starsky and Hutch drove, they drove a Grand Turino,
the Turino GT was considered fast, nimble,
and a pretty competitive muscle car
that could roll with the big dogs.
Even with a 2 ton curb weight.
The 1968 GT model came with a 390 cubic inch V8
that could bring it up to 0 to 60 in 7.7 seconds.
But while the Torino GT and the Scion XB
had the same quarter mile time,
the Scion actually has the GT beat in 0 to 60
with a time of 7.4 seconds.
Pretty impressive.
I'm not trying to write off the Torino.
They are sick cars and of course there were better engines
that you could option but it's pretty surprising
that a Scion XB, a car that you regularly see
clapped out, driving without hubcaps,
can beat a classic muscle car at the drag strip.
The Tornio GT was known for having great handling
especially at high speeds so if they raced
on anything other than a drag strip,
the Torino would most likely beat the XP in the twisties.
Although I will say it would be a hard-fought battle.
Just saying, those XPs can whip 'em.
(upbeat music)
One of the most boring yet surprising family cars
on this list is the Chrysler Sebring Limited.
That's right, the car that everyone's aunt drives
is a sleeper.
For years, Chrysler was getting a lot of flak
for making boring, underpowered cars.
They responded by making cars like the Crossfire,
PT Cruiser GT, and a high end trim level,
for one of their best selling family sedans, the Sebring.
The 3.5 liter V-6 in the third gen Sebring
makes 235 horsepower and 235 foot pounds of torque.
Almost a perfect horse torque, equal horsepower and torque.
Sure, it's not that impressive for a heavy family sedan,
but when coupled with a six speed automatic transmission
with close gears, it brought that car up to 60
in 6.8 seconds.
Nothing to scoff at for a Sebring.
You're gonna spit coffee all over your computer
when I tell you that that 0 to 60 time
is faster than an Aston Martin DB5, aka,
James Bonds car in "Goldfinger'.
The Sebring is a full 1.7 seconds faster to 60
then the 64 DB5.
The same model year that was featured in "Goldfinger".
One of the big reasons cars perform better nowadays
is the tires.
Tire technology improved light years
in just a short amount of time.
According to the managing director of Kumo Tires,
"Even the dry pavement traction and handling
"of the street tires available 30 years ago
"wouldn't measure up to the wet surface performance
"of today's high performance tires."
That's pretty awesome.
Tires are also lasting longer,
becoming more puncture resistant,
and new compounds make more grip than ever before.
New passenger vehicle tires actually deliver
twice the tread wear of the same level of tires
30 years ago.
That's a huge improvement.
It's worth mentioning that all the 0 to 60 times
of the classic cars we've been talking about
were done on old tires that just couldn't hook,
they could not hook up.
And that's a huge problem.
Power means nothing if you can't put it to the ground.
Onto the next.
Minis have always been regarded
as some of the most fun cars to drive.
The Countryman SE All4 has a 1.5 liter
three cylinder engine with an additional electric motor
and it can beat most of your favorite muscle cars
all while hauling the kids baseball equipment in the back.
The inline-3 and electric motor make 221 horsepower
and 284 foot pounds of torque
which combined with the quick launch
of the All4 four-wheel-drive system
results in an almost too good to be true
0 to 60 time of 5.9 seconds.
I think that's faster than our Mustang.
This is very impressive when you consider
the Countryman SE is the heaviest mini to date.
5.9 seconds is pretty quick.
And I'm not just saying that because
I'm from central California.
To put that in perspective, that's quicker
than a Mercedes 190 E Evo II,
one of the sickest cars ever made.
The Countryman has almost a full second
on the Mercedes which has a 0 to 60 time of 6.8 seconds.
The Evo II was known as one of the best handling
production cars of the time so it'd probably
destroy the Countrymen in any test other than 0 to 60.
With self-leveling air shocks in the back,
the Evo had the highest cornering grip
of any Mercedes at the time and one of the shortest
braking distances of any car tested
by car magazines at the time as well.
I feel like out of all the comparisons,
this is the one that really illustrates
how far cars have come.
The 190 Evo II was a homologation special Mercedes
built so they can compete in group A rally racing.
But after being beat by the all-wheel-drive
Audi Quattro, Mercedes realized the EVO
would probably be more competitive in DTM racing
or the German touring championships.
It racked up a ton of DTM wins
and is regarded as one of the most dominant
racecars of its era.
The homologated road version is detuned
to a degree but I think it's crazy
that a bloated mini can beat it to 0 to 60 miles per hour.
The electric motor paired with the tiny three cylinder
of the Countrymen may help it off the line quicker.
But the Evo II is still a legit racecar
and better in basically every other metric.
Speaking of three cylinder cars,
one of the most significant improvements
that has happened in the last 40 years is engine efficiency.
I'm sorry, did you think you were
getting through this without learning?
You're in the science zone (beep).
(upbeat music)
I'm not talking about gas mileage
which has also gotten way better.
I'm talking about the fact that tiny three cylinder engines
are able to make as much power
as top-of-the-line V-8's back in the 70s.
They weigh basically nothing, they're super fuel-efficient,
and they can grip.
I'm talking engines like the 1.5 liter ecoboost
from the Fiesta ST or the one
from the BMW I8 that makes 227 horsepower.
That's crazy.
There are a number of reasons
engines are becoming increasingly efficient.
Old V-8's didn't have the technology
to regulate gas consumption.
Each cylinder was fed the same amount of fuel
no matter how much work it was doing.
So there was a lot of lost energy.
Nowadays, cars can turn off at stop lights
instead of idling which saves gas.
Some engines can deactivate cylinders
when the motor has a decreased workload.
And most of all, turbos are being used in more models
making the combustion cycle way more efficient
which makes it possible to get the same amount of power
from a smaller engine.
A smaller engine means less weight and more space
in an engine bay which is an efficient use of space.
The EPA estimates that only 15%
of the chemical energy of all the gas
your car uses gets converted to mechanical energy.
That's a loss of 85% from gas tank to the wheels.
Just idling in traffic accounts for 17%
of that loss of energy but most of it
is lost through heat and friction.
62% to be exact.
Every little improvement gets a percentage
of that lost energy back but we still have
a long way to go.
I still love the sound of a big block engine
but you can't deny how awesome these small displacement
turbocharged three pod engines are.
That's the end of my rant for now.
Onto the next.
(beep) The Plymouth Barracuda
was one of the very first muscle cars
to ever make it to production.
The Barracuda might have looked fast
but it was anything but.
The 1967 Barracuda had a 0 to 60 time of 13 1/2 seconds.
I'm not talking quarter-mile time.
That's a 0 to 60 from a muscle car.
So what beats this classic muscle car?
Well, most cars.
But one little garbage bucket in particular,
the first generation Chevy Aveo.
This rebadged Daewoo has a 1.6 liter engine
making 103 ponies and can crawl to 0 to 60 in 10.3 seconds,
a full 3.2 seconds faster than the Barracuda.
So that's freaking bonkers.
I love classic cars.
I would love to have a 67 'Cuda.
Even if it got embarrassed by an Aveo.
Look, I'm not ripping on these cars.
And I wanna point out that by the same token
legendary sports cars from decades ago
are better than some sports cars nowadays.
The Porsche 959 can go over 200 miles per hour.
And it was built in the 80s.
Would I wanna go to hundred miles per hour
in an 80s Porsche?
I don't think so.
But compared to a car we recently had in the office,
the BMW M8 Competition, driving the 959
seems way more fun.
Both are incredible machines, but the driving style
is way different.
Even though modern cars are getting quicker
and more efficient, the feeling of operating a machine
is what people connect to.
And let's be frank, that feeling is disappearing.
Having said that, let's look at some more butthole cars
that can beat legendary sports cars.
The PT Cruiser GT is equal to the 1976 Lamborghini Countach.
The 2013 Honda Accord V6 ESL is faster
than a Porsche Carrera RSR 2.8.
The 2009 Ultima SE is faster than a 1984 Lotus Esprit Turbo.
The 2009 Nissan Cube is faster than a 1974 Dodge Challenger.
That's embarrassing.
What are some other cars that are surprisingly quick?
Hit me up in the comments, let me know.
Also, hit me up at nolanjsykes on all social media.
Follow donut at Donut Media as well.
Cars are fun.
Be kind, I'll see you next time.
Cars are fun.
Be kind, I'll see you next time.
Great, I did it.