how often do you try to beat people off the line?

Only if the people in the other cars don't know it's a race. Road test times run from 3.0 seconds to 3.5 seconds for 0-30. 3.0 seconds is starting to get into the slug category, 3.5 seconds is worse. A Prius is not a quick or fast car except in some owners imaginations. A Prius does what it was intended to do very well, being quick or fast were not part of the plan.

They are great cars, there is no reason to make up things about them.

 

Conventional cars have to rev the engine while holding the brake (or holding the clutch) to get a quick start. The Prius will instantly start pulling ahead of the "fast" car without a fuss. The fast car has to make a fuss to accelerate that quickly. If they published 0-20 mph times starting from idle for all conventional cars would have their 0-20 mph times increased. 90% of the time it's the 0-20 mph time that is most useful acceleration metric from me. Even quick 20 to 30 mph is instantly on tap without the lag or power build up in a regular car. Again this can be more useful in many situations. FYI I nearly always jack rabbit start when I have the chance, because it has very little negative impact on fuel economy as long as all the kinetic energy is efficiently used, as such I quickly accelerate to the speed that will either allow me to not use the brakes/regen or else the least amount of brakes/regen possible while trying not to bother too much those that don't get accelerating to a red light gains you nothing. I'm thinking of an idea for a bumper sticker, "High MPG Secret: Speed up quickly, Slow down slowly." I'm sick of the "high mpg wannabe" drivers that do this the other way around and can't figure out why their mpg is so bad. The Prius ECO mode encourages this fallacy.

 

I am one of the lucky one's whose gas pedal goes all the way to the floor when asked.

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"Speed up quickly, Pretend you have no brakes"

 

This is simply NOT true. The Prius is slow off the line period.

Those of us who have raced them at a drag stip can confirm the 2.6-2.8 60' times which are horrid. Throttle response is great because of the electric motor but that doesn't make it fast.

 

No, I never do that these days, especially in a Prius. This car has helped change my driving habits, likely for good.

 

Is THAT why I look like an old fart! Here I thought it had something to do with white hair, Social Security, and Medicare. Can driving our new Prius reverse the "old fart" process? Maybe turn me back into a "young burp", or was that a "young Turk "?

 

Could I at least buy that decal for the nitro power option? JATO rockets would also work, I suppose.