Watch this tiny racecar break a world acceleration record
The Formula SAE offering from the Academic Motorsports Club of Zurich created a car that can accelerate from 0mph to 60 in just 1.513 seconds.
As it stands, cars have not yet broken the 2-second barrier for 0-60mph acceleration. A 2.2-second blast in the Porsche 918 Spyder, Car and Driver reported, but nobody has yet broken into the 1's. Racecars, on the other hand, are getting quicker and quicker. And one just broke the world record with an almost terrifying 1.513-second hustle to 60.
The car is named Grimsel, and it's part of Formula Student, an aptly named competition where students build open-wheel, Formula-style racecars. The car, which was built by Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ), positively dominated the previous world record of 1.779 seconds. While it packs just 200 horsepower, its electric motors put out an astounding 1,254 pound-feet of torque, and the whole package weighs 370.3 pounds.
Because traction is important to off-the-line acceleration, Grimsel is outfitted with a traction-control system that can meter out power distribution to each individual wheel. Will regular passenger cars ever get this quick? Unlikely, but automakers are always determined to one-up each other, so it's not like the industry isn't trying.