Quick thinking The lost art of the fast start

摘要

Along time ago - before the invention of launch control and paddle-shift gearboxes - there was only one way for the humble road tester to establish how fast a car could accelerate. Using a conventional manual gearbox (because that was the only choice available in the majority of the cars), you would depress the clutch, select first gear, dial up some revs and just go for it. If you were a master of your trade, you'd sometimes need only one run in each direction to match or beat the manufacturer's 0-60mph claim. The more powerful the car, the more difficult it was to get right, true. But occasionally you'd just nail it first time, having side-stepped the clutch with the perfect number of revs on board, then flat-shifted each gearchange from there to the end of the mile straight.