I had a pdf of a traffic study done to measure how quickly people merge onto the highway. The average time was 16-17 seconds IIRC.
I wish I could find it, but I think it was lost on one of my old PCs.
But if you want to make the highways with a faster limit speed do you not need to improve the acceleration time?
Say if I want the highway speed limit to be 150kph and having the same acceleration ramp length.
Of course there might be other factors as well.
And if the Spark/Mirage can only accelerate at 15 seconds (assuming just the driver), what would its fastest possible acceleration time be when it is fully loaded with passengers and cargo?
And carrying-on, I hate those drivers that stop near the end of the acceleration ramp;
Wouldn't a faster acceleration car be safer in that scenario?
The tests were set up on ramps off of intersections so they could see how long it took average drivers to go from a stop to the end of the ramp onto a US highway. I can't remember the speed limit on the highway, something like 60mph.
The Mirage does 0-60 in something like 11 seconds with the manual and 13 with the CVT, depending on the test, so faster than what traffic was doing on the tested on ramps.
As long as you can match highway speeds by the end of the ramp, you'd be ok. If ramps are built to standard (~1200ft, 360m), it should be fine.
It wasn't long ago that we had lots of 70hp Civic DX, 55hp Rabbit diesels and 48hp Sprints rolling around, and they weren't lighter than the Mirage, but had really tall gearing.
These are also sold in Europe with an even smaller 1.0L engine. Autoroutes, autobahns and autostrada tend to flow quicker in certain sections that what we have here.
Stopping at the end of a ramp is stupid, but I've seen every type of vehicle do it.
Thanks for the comments but you didn't answer my questions.
1. But if you want to make the highways with a faster limit speed do you not need to improve the acceleration time?
Say if I want the highway speed limit to be 150kph and having the same acceleration ramp length.
2. And carrying-on, I hate those drivers that stop near the end of the acceleration ramp;
Wouldn't a faster acceleration car be safer in that scenario?
And in regards to the low displacement engines, were they not manual transmission.
We have to assume that all these new vehicles have auto or CVT transmissions that don't have the greatest acceleration.
Moreover those older vehicles also had a lot lighter weight with the increase safety demands.
What were the acceleration times of those 70hp Civic DX, 55hp Rabbit diesels and 48hp Sprints anyways?
More or less than 15 seconds?
And lets stick with roadways here because in Europe
a) have better driver training
b) they mostly drive manual