I simply don’t understand how if the throttle is more sensitive and the car accelerates quicker, the 0-60 time remains the same.
In: Technology
So in modern cars when you press the throttle, its not directly pulling on the throttle valve. All you’re pressing is an adjustable button. Built into the cars’ computer is a function that says for X throttle angle, open the actual valve by a Y angle. The throttle boosters just change the curve of that function so it opens at a steeper angle with less throttle input. But in either case you cannot open the throttle more than 100%, which is what it’ll be in either instance if your pedal is on the floor. It makes the car feel faster because your muscle memory calibrates how much throttle angle equates to how much acceleration, but thats all it is…it feels faster.
I don’t know much about it specifically, but my guess is the improvement that such a controller can make is rather insignificant compared to the bigger time delay of human reaction time. Even “slow” systems like a mechanical throttle are generally fast compared to human time perception.
No matter what the curve linking throttle pedal position to how much of the engine’s power you want, the maximum power doesn’t change.
You can make the car feel more responsive by making a small variation in pedal position open up more of the engine so you feel like there is more power, but all the car is doing is opening the throttle 50% even though you only pressed the pedal down 25%, this makes you feel like the car is more powerful than it is, but if you just floor it (like when you’re testing 0-60 time) then engine power will go to 100% in either case and theres no difference in the performance
If you’re doing 0-60 times, throttle sensitivity doesn’t really do much. You’re mostly driving driving at full throttle, so sensitivity doesn’t matter. And in the early part of it, you’re often limited by the tires anyways so more throttle may actually be slower because it causes additional tire spinning.
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