I read that in my old school paper R&T, interesting article.

Another way to achieve the same effect is to build the car so it shakes, rattles and makes a lot of sound and torque steer like my 1989 Cavalier Z24, it felt fast (I believe it was 0-60 of ~8 seconds). I wish I could back to back it with my ATS, I bet the Z24, though much slower would feel a lot faster because of those reasons and lesser stability around corners, etc.

 

Nice, and fun article. I guess I would settle for a Challenger Scat Pack. (Who am I kidding, I drive a minivan. I'd probably feel like a Challenger V6 is a rocket. )

In addition to the factors the writer mentioned, I think most people perceive extra power and extra speed when the time between pushing the throttle and feeling acceleration increase is small. My friend with a Nissan Leaf says it's a rocket - even though any V6 family sedan will beat it to 60 mph, let alone in the quarter mile. But when you ride in the Leaf, tap the throttle and the car starts speeding up in less than a tenth of a second. You feel like it's way faster than it is.

 

I trust my butt-dyno implicitly. I don't care what anyone says.

 

I think its also something to think about for performance cars where the sensations of the drive are as important as the numbers. It's why some people prefer the sound and performance delivery of the smallblock, even when the TT3.6 provides similar performance. If driving is a kind of performance art -- what kind of show do different makers want to provide? You know it's important when the new Z06 is much faster, yet many still lament the loss of the n/a 7 litre.

 

on paper the ECO BOOST Mustang sounds fun and EX BEING TUNEABLE but the vid reviews I have seen the "emotion" under the hood is missing/incorrect as "fart cans" and BOV valve hiss is NOT a MUSCLE CAR sound
I believe this "isolation" trend in cars EX the Chevy Cruze is why people feel it is slower compared to noisier CIVICS and Mazda3's