13 Vehicles That Go From 0 to 60 in Under 2.5 Seconds

2. Ferrari LaFerrari

When this hypercar was introduced, its strange name wasn’t the only curious thing about it. Under the gorgeous carbon-fiber body there was a 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine which had KERS system and an electric motor connected to it. Basically, LaFerrari was a Formula One car with the body on it and a place for two people.

The power output of two engines (gasoline and electric) is 963 hp combined which makes it the most powerful street-legal car Ferrari has ever built. As you could imagine, everything about the LaFerrari is crazy and extreme. From its $1 million price tag to celebrity owners and limited production to just 499 examples. Similar to the Porsche, Ferrari claimed that the 0 to 60 mph acceleration is possible in 2.8 seconds, but a few lucky testers managed to do it in 2.4 seconds.

3. Ariel Atom 500 V8

When they introduced this hypercar, its strange name wasn’t the only curious thing about it. Under the gorgeous carbon-fiber body was a 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine with a KERS system and an electric motor connected to it. Basically, the LaFerrari was a Formula One car with the body on it and a place for two people.

The power output of its two engines, gasoline and electric, is 963 HP combined. This makes it the most powerful street-legal car Ferrari has ever built. As you can imagine, everything about LaFerrari is extreme, from its one million dollar price tag to its celebrity owners. It also had a limited production of just 499 vehicles. Like the Porsche, Ferrari claimed that 0 to 60 mph acceleration is possible in 2.8 seconds, but a few lucky testers managed to do it in 2.4 seconds.

4. Bugatti Chiron

The newest Bugatti hypercar is a true technological marvel. Replacing the already fantastically advanced Veyron, the Chiron goes a step further. Not only in power but in design, engineering and performance. Just look at the specs: It has mid-mounted W16, an 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged engine bringing 1,500 HP to all four wheels over a seven-speed automatic gearbox.

The monstrous engine produces almost 1,200 lb-ft of torque. It is capable of pushing the heavy Chiron to 261 mph top speed. Thanks to its all-wheel-drive traction, specially developed tires, dual-clutch automatic transmission and 1500 HP, the Chiron can see 60 mph in just 2.3 seconds. Amazingly, despite the fantastic numbers, this car still isn`t the world’s quickest passenger vehicle.

5. Tesla Model S P1000D

Electric cars are the future of passenger car transport. In just a few years, zero emissions models have traveled a long way from being a novelty to being a regular production item and street décor. One of the cars that single-handedly transformed public opinion about electric cars is the Tesla Model S.

Not only did it display great comfort, quality, equipment and a decent range, it also displayed unbelievable performance and acceleration numbers. The most powerful Model S with the Ludacris update by the factory can travel to 60 mph from a standing start in just 2.2 seconds. This beats the whole line of gasoline-powered hypercars and sports models. You might ask how is it possible for an electric car to accelerate so quickly. The answer is the drivetrain and the specifics of the electric motor.

The Tesla Model S has all-wheel drive with four independent engines powering each wheel. The electric motor is a simple device that can produce its maximum torque immediately, unlike gasoline-powered engines that have to rev to achieve power.

So, in real-world situations, an electric car can accelerate much faster because it mobilizes all its power without waiting. In contrast, gasoline-powered cars need to build up revs and spend time chasing the ideal torque curve. No doubt electric cars will continue to deliver crazy performance. This is only the beginning.

6. Porsche 918

The second Porsche on this list has little in common with the 911 Turbo S featured earlier. They presented the Porsche 918 hypercar in 2013. It was the Porsche from the future with a hybrid powertrain consisting of 4.6-liter V8 gasoline and four electric motors, or two on each axle.

The combined output is 887 HP and 940 lb-ft of torque. Among the three hypercars they presented at the same time, the McLaren P1, the Ferrari LaFerrari and the 918, the Porsche is the fastest. It is also the most successful in terms of sales because Porsche produced 918 vehicles.

Like the 911 Turbo S, its factory specs are conservative, stating the new 918 can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds. However, numerous independent testers got even better results. The best so far is 2.2 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. This is even better than the Tesla Model S P1000D.

7. Lingenfelter Twin Turbo C5 Corvette

You may have heard about the Lingenfelter Performance company from Decatur, Indiana. This crazy tuner house has been in the business of making American cars go crazy fast for over 44 years. Whenever you see the Lingenfelter nameplate, you can be sure that the car is sublimely fast. The team from Decatur managed to give it a level of performance even the factory engineers thought was impossible. And that is the case with the C5 Corvette.

The Lingenfelter treatment included twin turbochargers on top of an aluminum crate V8 from Chevrolet. They turned the turbochargers for maximum pressure, making the output a scary 1009 HP Corvette. It included fat drag racing slicks in the back, a reinforced gearbox, a heavy breathing idle and a suspicious bump on the hood for the massive intake system. The car was technically street-legal, so drivers could register it. In fact, Lingenfelter built a few models for their customers.

The 0 to 60 mph acceleration time is just under 2.0 seconds. To be precise, it is exactly 1.96 seconds to go from 0 to 60 mph.

8. Ford Mustang Boss SVT 429 10-liter

In 1969, Ford introduced the Boss 429 Mustang with a big, specially-built 7.0-liter semi-Hemi engine they designed for NASCAR. The engine had a 335 HP rating, but in fact, it delivered over 500 HP at high revs. Even though the Boss 429 was a sales flop only built as a homologation special, the legend survived. In the early 90’s, the engineers at Ford decided to build a one-off Mustang Boss 429 as a tribute to the legendary late 60’s muscle car.

Their idea was to take the new 1994 Mustang and old Boss 429 engine. They bored and stroked it up to 10 liters of displacement and married the two together. This created a Mustang with the biggest engine displacement in history and, as it turned out, the best 0 to 60 acceleration time.

With the rest of mechanics closer to a top fuel drag racer rather than a regular Mustang, the SVT Boss 429 delivered 855 HP. Astonishingly, it could run from 0 to 60 in 1.90 seconds flat.

9. Dodge Challenger Drag Pack

Drag racing is big in the U.S., so car manufacturers sometimes produce specially-prepared versions for racers in the stock car class. Those cars started its life as ordinary models, but have been turned into fierce drag racers by eliminating all that is unnecessary and adding more power.

The best example of this is the crazy Dodge Challenger Drag Pack model. It debuted in 2011 as a non-street legal model they sold only to professional racers and teams. Basically, this was a stripped-down Challenger with a Viper V10 engine, 600 HP and drag tires. This car appeared on race tracks across the country, shattering past records with a 0 to 60 mph time of only 1.80 seconds.

10. NASA Saturn V Rocket

Among the many NASA contraptions, the Saturn V rocket is the most important one. This was the rocket that carried a man to the moon, earning its place in the history of mankind. The Saturn V has five stages. The first one has five rockets to thrust Saturn out of the Earth’s orbit.

Each of those rockets has 200,000,000 HP of power. The initial thrust of this rocket can go from 0 to 60 in just 1.5 seconds. These were crazy numbers in 1969 and they are still ridiculous today.

11. Street Legal Alpha Omega Nissan R 35 GT-R

Ever since the Nissan GT-R R35 hit the streets in 2007, it has constantly posted sub-three-second 0 to 60 mph times. Simply, the hardware it got from the factory including a twin-turbo V6 and intelligent all-wheel drive. These are the perfect components for street racing success. The GT-R has managed to beat some much more expensive and exclusive machines.

In fact, it has declared itself as one of the fastest-accelerating sports cars you can buy today. Although it was capable out of the box, many tuners around the world wanted to see what it could do when taken to the maximum. One of those, Alpha Omega, managed to build an extreme GT-R delivering 1,455 HP to all four wheels.

After investing almost a quarter million dollars in labor and parts, this GT-R was crowned the world’s quickest Nissan. It had a 0 to 60 mph time of just 1.49 seconds. The record-breaking run was on slick tires, but the car was street-legal and could run similar times on street rubber.

12. Bloodhound SSC

The Bloodhound SSC project was a fantastic achievement. Richard Noble’s team managed to do something most of us thought was impossible. That is to break the sound barrier on land with a vehicle traveling speeds close to 800 mph.

Of course, if you want to go that fast, you need a vehicle with a jet engine. The Bloodhound SSC is basically a fighter jet without wings. In 1997, the team managed to break the sound barrier on a test track in the Nevada desert. This made Andy Green, the pilot, the first man in history to do so.

Since then, the team has been preparing to attack the 1,000-mph barrier also on land with an improved vehicle. You know the top speed already but what about the acceleration? The acceleration from 0 to 60 mph takes around a second, but that is an estimate.

13. NHRA Top Fuel Dragster

As you may expect, top fuel dragsters are the fastest-accelerating vehicles in the world. This is especially true when you look at the 0 to 60 mph times. By constantly improving the results, the current average of a top fuel dragster is somewhere around 0.7 to 0.8 seconds to get to 60 mph.

But, that is not the only impressive thing about it. The whole engineering behind the 10,000 HP engine they built out of a single piece of aluminum is fascinating. A top fuel dragster can reach the 60-mph mark in just a couple of feet after the start. Basically, it jumps from 0 to 60 mph on its way to more than 300 mph at the finish line.

These cars are exclusively for those who love to drive fast. Some of them are street-legal, while others are not. Some aren’t even cars, but there’s one thing they all share is a need for speed.

Also Read:

• Top Ten Fastest 0-60 Cars On The Planet
• 13 Fastest 0-60 Cars of The ’80s That We All Forgot About