5 Cars With Surprisingly Fast 0-60 times

As said by Jeremy Clarkson on the very first episode of Top Gear back in 2002, 0-60 times and top speeds don’t matter. I strongly disagree with that, because not everyone gets the chance to take cars on tracks, and are usually limited to highway pulls, or quick bursts of speed after a red light. Not to mention, pulling up to another sports car at a stop light can lead to a GTA V styled “impromptu” race, which is always cool to see. However, in all seriousness, 0-60 times still do matter, so I’m going to compile a quick list of unassuming ‘sleeper’ cars that have been made by manufacturers with very impressive 0-60 times.

It should be noted that this list is in the order of how surprising the time is for the body the car boasts, not the actual time.

1. Nissan GTR

I know…. I did it. I couldn’t help it. I’ve spent too much time on Car Throttle, and I knew this needed to be up here. However all hate aside, this car actually had a spectacular 0-60 time. For a car that costs a little more than a Mercedes AMG, and actually costs less than a bunch of them ($110,000 - $120,000), it ROCKETS to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds. That, to put in perspective, is just as fast as a Bugatti Veyron, and only 3 tenths of a second (0.3) slower than the Super Sport. One would expect the twin-turbocharged V6 engine to propel this car at crazy speeds, but this is unheard of. This car surprised me with its performance, and that’s why it made the list. You already know it’s going to be good, but it’s just so much better than you expect. You get Bugatti performance, for a fraction of the price. I’ll take that any day.

2. Fiat Abarth 695 Biposto

This car does have a much lower 0-60 time than a lot of the cars on this list, and so it should. It boasts a modest 190 hp 1.4L Turbocharged I4 engine, with a 6-speed manual transmission. However, it still pulls an impressive 5.9 second 0-60 run. Abarth has taken this fun little city car, and turned it into one of the coolest factory sleeper cars I can think of. Despite having some sporty trim and some sporty rims, this car looks like most other Fiat 500’s. And that’s why it’s on the list. You wouldn’t expect this thing to keep up with your sports car, but it will for a while. If it doesn’t, it’ll at least put up a good fight, which just adds to the element of surprise. This car also sounds incredible, and cost much less than the cars it can compete with, so I had to add it to this list.

3. Subaru Forester 2.5 XTE

When someone says ‘fast Subaru’, Impreazas and BRZ’s come to mind. But people tend to forget how fast Subaru made some of their non-Sti cars. The Forester 2.5 XTE was fitted with a 2.5L flat 4 engine, with 230 hp. This is in close competition with the Imrpeza WRX, giving the Forester a 0-60 time of 5.2 seconds. This is very close to many automotive makers’ 5 second mark that they try to beat. The Forester comes surprisingly close to that mark, and the surprise from this relatively stock looking car when it is able to pull a 0-60 time of 5.2 is quite large. For that, this car makes it onto this list.

4. 1994 Ford SVT Boss Mustang 10.0L Concept

This car, I didn’t know existed until literally five minutes ago. I was looking up the 0-60 time for the Ford SVT Lightning F-150 (5.1 seconds, actually quite impressive, and surprising coming from a pickup truck). I did the times in order of fastest to slowest and this came up. This car does 0-60 in 1.9 seconds….. Now, this car does achieve this time on drag slicks, and this was a concept car, with only one being made, but just look at it. Does this look like a car that could kick the crap out of any Supercar in a straight line? Because it doesn’t, and once again, that why it made it to this list. This car had a supercharged 9.8L (apparently 10.0L) enigine that produced 855 hp, which is why it was able to make such incredible times. This car never went into production, mostly because ford didn’t need power like that, but this car still boasts incredible stats, and is impressive even 20 years later.

5. Tesla Model S P85D 'Ludicrous Speed' Upgrade

Finishing this list is a car I’m sure some were waiting for. Equipped with the ‘Ludicrous speed’ upgrade, no, not the F-777 song , this Tesla Model S does 0-60 in only 2.8 seconds. It also has (converted from KW) 762 hp. Yep, that’s pretty crazy, especially coming from a car that looks almost identical to the base model. Once again, a nice comparison is that this car takes one tenth of a second (0.1) more time to get to 60 mph than a Bugatti Veyron. Not to mention the fact that this car, when accelerating provides 1.1 G’s, which will feel faster than free-falling. If that isn’t enough from an electric sedan, I don’t know how to impress you.

I just also want to add a quick note, this is a list made by me, so my opinion might be different than yours. This is also my first blog post, and it also took me over an hour, so please go easy on me in the comments. If someone has already done a post like this, let me know and I’ll remove it. Otherwise, thanks for reading and hope you learned something new. Also, if there’s another car I missed (because there are more than 5 unassuming cars in the whole world), let me know in the comments.