I took my Prius on the expressway for the first

The Prius does 0-60 in 10.0 secs -- that ain't bad.

Maybe we also need a 0-60 in how many gallons? :lol:

 

I'm always slightly puzzled by people who complain about lack of acceleration or up-hill torque, who then confess they haven't actually tried pushing the pedal all the way down...

 

LOL! When I went to the drag strip, it was totally random who'd they pair you up against, just depended on the lines and who they pointed to. The best I'd done w/my automatic (don't shoot me) Z was ~14.5 and my best in my automatic Max was ~14.9. When the other guy runs a 16.7+, I've TOTALLY decimated them. If the other guy runs a <13.3, they've decimated me. I gotten a # of shockers, but nevertheless, I've seen people go out there w/REALLY wimpy cars too.

The craziest is when you see really old (50s-60s) heavily modded cars w/o the original engines running in the 7s! Current stock Ferraris [except the Enzo] and Dodge Vipers run the low 12s!

 

Talking about the Prius in the same context as a sports car is really silly.

The Prius is a lot of things, and is an engineering triumph, but it is not a speed demon. It doesn't pretend to be in any way, and it aims to meet and exceed the average power needed, instead of the PEAK.

That being said, drag racing your Prius makes no sense... go on a 1000 mile endurance marathon run instead. See how your 350Z does in terms of fuel compared to the Prius.

 

Someone else mentioned this before, but I think it's important to reiterate it:

Push the pedal all the way down and forget that you hear the engine rev high.

When people complain that the Prius is extremely lacking on the highway, I'm convinced they're just spooked by the sound and the behavior of the CVT at highway speeds, and just don't push it hard enough. The thing does not shift, it just revs higher and higher.

Conventional wisdom for a regular 5 speed automatic with that kind of noise would be that you're already in top gear and you're just about to run out of room to accelerate... keep it like that and you might do damage.

That's not true... ignore the sound, just push it.

I think that the Prius has decent passing power... not fantastic mind you, but I've passed at 80-90 MPH range with no problems.

 

scary? that's funny. I am yet to find merging scary

 

Sure, I'll take you up on that, on one condition.

We also run a "Full Tank Distance/Time" run.

Here's the deal.

We both fill our tanks up and run until we run out of gas. The best distance/time wins. However, we both have to travel the same total distance.

I'll even go first. After I run out of gas you know how far you have to go and how long you have to beat my time.

Shouldn't be any trouble with your speedy Z.

The only caveat is, only one tank of gas is allowed. If you run out of gas before my distance, you have to push your Z to the finish line to complete the race, and calculate your total time.

We can decide the overall winner by the percentage time difference in both runs.

 

Seems like a tortoise versus hare setup. Good show!

The 350Z has nearly twice the fuel tank capacity of the Prius, and gets 25 highway miles/gallon. If he drives only highway at a reasonable speed (say 55 mph), he might be able to squeak by 500 miles to a tank... but if he drives it like a sports car, forget about it.

But put the Prius in the hands of a veteran hypermiler, and they'll blow way past 500 miles on 11 gallons.

 

A long time ago it a galaxy far, far away (Michigan in the 60's) my room mate in college had a SAAB 86. For those who don’t know we are talking 3 cylinder 2 cycle engine. His had the oil injection so you did not have to add oil to the gas. Now that 2 cycle had one thing torque at the low end. On a whim he, with a cheering squad of drunks, took the car to a local drag strip for the Friday night challenge. He beat them all and won the day! The handicapped by cubic inches of the engine. Now I no longer remember how many ci the engine was but it was 850 cc. He got a huge handicap and most of the drivers jumped the start the rest could not catch him because of the low end torque. We were invited back entry fee waved the crowed loved "Oscar" BTW my old room mate is now racing cobras in classic sports car races.

 

The engine revs high because you're asking it for a lot of
*horsepower*. What accelerates you is torque, but to keep that
torque up as RPM [of everything, including wheels] increases,
that's more *power* required. So the engine, which produces a
fairly flat torque curve over its RPM range, has to rev right up
near its 5000 rpm limit to give you that *power* to keep
accelerating at the rate you're trying for.
.
If you back off on the pedal, you're asking for less accelerative
power and so RPM starts falling back down.
.
_H*

 

I used to date a girl who had one of those where you DID have to add a quart of oil to the gas tank when you filled up.

It absolutely panicked the gas station attendants, especially at full service stations where you had to try to get them to pour the oil in themselves.

 

Remember, the Prius Power Split Device can also use ICE 'power' to drive a generator to drive the electric motor simultaneously, and, if it can be held in the right RPM range the motor generates GOBS of torque. Or, it can adjust ICE and generator speed to force the motor into the right RPM band and take power for the motor from the battery.

Now, at any given speed, we don't know what speed the ICE and generator have to run to bring the massive torque of the motor into play, but the Prius does.

So, as folks have said, if you want to accelerate as fast as possible, just floor it and let the car decide how best to accomplish that. The ICE may make sounds that don't relate at all directly to what you would think of as normal 'max power' application, and as you keep it floored, the ICE may even vary speed.

That's one of the weirdest things about the Prius. It has a mind of its own.

 

So where's Vespasian? It's been over two weeks since this was posted.

Dude (or dudette), did you go out and romp on it on a few on-ramps? Results?

 

My previous company car was also the 260HP Grand Prix. Nicer seats and definitely better acceleration above 35-40mph, even with the Prius floored.

However, I didn't consider the Grand Prix long when it came to purchase a car with my own $$. The Prius has enough zip to merge on the DC beltway aggresively and I've never been worried about merging at speed. On the otherhand pulling out into traffic from a dead stop the Prius is at least as good.

My 300C on the otherhand has autostick (pseudo-manual) transmission that provided plenty of low end torque. I love my Prius for many things, but as other posters have pointed out, it's not a sporty car.

Cheers,
Jeff