0-60 Calculator

How the estimate is calculated

There's no simple exact formula for 0-60 time - it depends on the torque curve, drag, tyre grip and how cleanly the launch is judged - so this calculator uses a semi-empirical regression: 0-60 time = k × (weight in kg ÷ power in bhp)^0.85, with k set to 1.6. That exponent and k were tuned against typical published 0-60 figures so the curve lands on sensible numbers at three reference points, before any drivetrain adjustment: around 100 bhp/tonne (family hatch) gives roughly 11 seconds, around 200 bhp/tonne (hot hatch) gives roughly 6.3 seconds, and around 400 bhp/tonne (supercar territory) gives roughly 3.5 seconds.

Take a 190 bhp hot hatch on 1350 kg kerb weight, driver added (1350 + 75 = 1425 kg), running FWD. That's 1425 ÷ 190 = 7.5 kg per bhp, and 7.5^0.85 ≈ 5.54, so the base time is 1.6 × 5.54 ≈ 8.87 s. Its power-to-weight is 190 ÷ 1.425 ≈ 133.3 bhp/tonne, 44% of the way to the 300 bhp/tonne cap, so the FWD penalty is 0.4 × 0.44 ≈ 0.18 s, for a final estimate of about 9.0 seconds.

0-100 km/h: the same estimate, a bit further

0-100 km/h covers 62.1 mph, a touch past 60 mph, and that last stretch takes proportionately more time than a straight scale-up suggests, since acceleration eases off a little as speed rises. Rather than re-deriving the curve for a second target speed, this calculator applies a fixed 4% uplift to the 0-60mph estimate - matching the gap typically seen between the two figures in published data, not a separate physics model. For the worked example, that's 9.0 × 1.04 ≈ 9.4 s.

Why AWD launches faster than FWD or RWD

Off the line, the limit on acceleration is often how much force the driven tyres can put down before they spin, not how much power the engine can make. A FWD or RWD car sends all of that power through two contact patches, so at high output it can run out of grip before it runs out of engine. AWD splits the same power across four contact patches, converting more of a big power figure into forward motion early on. That advantage only shows up once there's more power than one axle can use, so this calculator ramps the AWD benefit and FWD penalty in from zero and caps them at 300 bhp/tonne - below that, traction rarely limits the launch.

Why quoted manufacturer times are hard to match

Manufacturer 0-60 figures are usually set by a trained driver on a prepped, high-grip surface, tyres and engine at ideal temperature, often with launch control managing wheel slip better than a human foot can. Some also use a rolling-start convention that shaves a fraction of a second off a genuine standstill run. A typical attempt on a cold, damp public road, on part-worn tyres, without launch control, will usually run slower - the conditions differ, not the car. Treat a manufacturer time as a best-case benchmark, not what you should expect on a stopwatch.

Does weight matter more than power at low speed?

In the first instant off the line, the limiting factor is usually how much grip the driven tyres have, not the engine's headline figure - a big number on the spec sheet is wasted if the wheels are spinning instead of gripping. But weight keeps mattering for the rest of the run: a heavier car needs more force to reach any given speed, which is the weight term doing its job in the formula above, at 50 mph just as much as at 5 mph. Grip decides the very first moment; weight relative to power decides the rest.

Accuracy

This is an estimate from a general-purpose regression, not a simulation of any specific car. Real 0-60 times vary with tyre compound and temperature, launch technique, gearing, road surface and conditions on the day, and this calculator has no way to know any of those for your car. Expect the result to be in the right region rather than exact - typically within about a second of a genuinely tested figure for a well-matched drivetrain setting, wider for heavily modified or unusual examples of a model. The result is also floored at 2.0 seconds for extreme inputs (very high power with very low weight), because below that point traction and launch technique dominate far more than this formula can account for and the regression is out of its depth.

Related tools

The bhp/tonne figure shown above is worth a closer look in its own right - the power to weight calculator breaks the same numbers into bhp/tonne, kW/tonne and W/kg with rough performance bands for context. If a spec sheet gave you power in kW or PS rather than bhp, run it through the kW to bhp converter first, then bring the bhp figure back here.