This is a Top Fuel dragster,
and everything about this vehicle
is designed for maximum acceleration,
from its triangular shape
to its specially formulated racing slicks
to its 8,000-horsepower engine.
It's all to help this dragster hit 60 miles per hour
in just eight-tenths of a second.
But when it comes to production cars,
automakers are still racing to be the first
to achieve a sub-two-second 0 to 60.
So, why is it seemingly impossible for a production car
to go from 0 to 60 in under two seconds?
Back in 2016, engineer and YouTuber Jason Fenske
tried to find the shortest possible 0-to-60 time
in a production car.
Based on current technology,
he calculated it would be 2.05 seconds.
So, how did he get there?
For acceleration, maximizing grip
is more important than increasing power.
All the power in the world is useless
if it isn't being applied to the pavement correctly.
You need to have the maximum amount of traction possible.
But just like a car needs
as much traction as possible to take off,
it also needs it to stop.
To illustrate how quick a car can decelerate,
automakers use the distance it takes a car to brake
from 60 to 0 miles per hour.
Since they both require maximum traction,
you can use the formula for braking distance
to determine a car's best 0-to-60 time.
For his calculations, Jason used the current record
for shortest braking distance,
which is 90 feet.
Plugging that into the formula for braking distance
along with 60 miles per hour, or 88 feet per second,
for initial velocity,
you get an acceleration of 43 feet per second.
When you plug that into the formula
for velocity and solve for time,
you get 2.05 seconds.
That means that according to the laws of physics,
the limit for 0 to 60 miles per hour
in a production car is right around two seconds.
The biggest reason for this limit
is street-tire technology.
Race cars and dragsters use completely smooth tires
with low air pressure for a reason.
This gives the rubber as much contact
with the pavement as possible, increasing grip.
Street tires have to sacrifice grip
in order to be safe for public roads.
They feature grooves that reduce the amount of rubber
in contact with the ground.
These grooves are needed for wet roads
because they provide a channel for water to escape.
Regular tires also need more air pressure,
which also reduces grip
but is necessary for uneven pavement and bumps.
And unlike soft and sticky Formula 1 tires,
which need to be replaced after 50 miles,
regular tires use a hard rubber compound
that's less grippy but can last up to 90,000 miles.
But tire technology continues to break boundaries.
Much of this has to do with tire companies
and automakers developing cars together.
In 2018, the Dodge Demon became the first production car
to be released with street-legal drag radials.
Well, barely street legal.
Dodge warned buyers not to use them
in wet weather or on highways.
But on the racetrack, they allowed the Demon
to reach 0 to 60 in just 2.3 seconds,
the same time as a Model S.
This trend of automakers and tire manufacturers
developing technology together has continued.
Recent examples include Pirelli and Porsche's Taycan,
along with Michelin and Bugatti's Veyron.
It could be exactly what's needed
to raise the bar for how much grip
production tires can achieve.
Besides road-tire technology,
drivetrains place a limit on acceleration.
Gas-powered cars waste time
with the number of moving parts it takes
to get usable energy from a single engine.
Fortunately, electric cars opened new doors in this area,
with motors that can send torque to wheels instantly.
In an EV like the Model S,
which features a motor for each axle,
electric torque vectoring can control
how much power the front and rear wheels receive.
A supercomputer inside the car uses sensors
that monitor the vehicle's behavior.
This helps it determine how to distribute torque
between the wheels for maximum traction.
And this can be changed hundreds of times every second.
But a new wave performance EVs may be the answer
to hitting the sub-two-second benchmark.
Their drivetrains feature up to four
different high-powered motors, one at each wheel.
The ability to control each individual wheel
makes this distribution of power even faster
and could be key to improving grip on production cars.
But even with the grippiest tires possible
and the most advanced electric drivetrain,
perfect road conditions are the final element
to going quick.
Unless you've got clear skies,
a perfectly flat drag strip,
and a sticky surface designed just for racing,
you'll never actually know what your car is capable of.