By Anthony Horner · Founder of FastTrack

0-60 Times by Horsepower (2026 Data)

More horsepower should mean a quicker 0-60. It doesn't, at least not reliably. Line up 36 cars from a 169-hp Corolla to a 2,107-hp Rimac and sort them by power, and the 0-60 column refuses to fall in step: a 500-hp Mustang trails a 510-hp EV by more than a second, a 668-hp Cadillac ties a 523-hp BMW, and a 1,578-hp Bugatti loses to a 1,020-hp Tesla. Horsepower is one input. Weight, traction, drivetrain, and how the torque arrives decide the launch.

This is the companion to our 0-60 times by car database. That page ranks cars by their 0-60; this one sorts by horsepower on purpose, so you can watch power climb while acceleration doesn't, and see exactly why.

How to read this table

The table is sorted by horsepower, low to high, not by 0-60. That's the point: as you scroll down, power rises steadily, but the 0-60 column jumps around. Columns:

• hp / 1,000 lb is power-to-weight: horsepower ÷ curb weight × 1,000. It's a far better predictor of 0-60 than raw horsepower, though still not the whole story.
• 0-60 is labeled in the Basis column: Tested means an independent instrumented run (Car and Driver, MotorTrend, Edmunds, and similar); Claimed means the manufacturer's figure, which usually assumes a prepped surface and often a 1-foot rollout worth a couple tenths.
• Curb weights are approximate published/typical figures, used to illustrate power-to-weight, treat them as ballpark, not exact spec.

0-60 by horsepower: 36 cars, sorted by power

Want to run the math on your own car? Drop your horsepower and weight into the power-to-weight ratio calculator, then estimate a quarter-mile ET from the same two numbers with the quarter mile calculator.

Four proofs: same power, very different 0-60

The clearest way to see that horsepower isn't the answer is to hold power roughly constant and change everything else.

Pair A, 500 hp RWD vs 510 hp AWD EV. The 500-hp Ford Mustang Dark Horse runs 4.0s to 60. The Tesla Model 3 Performance makes almost the same power, 510 hp, and does it in 2.9s, 1.1 seconds quicker on near-identical horsepower. All-wheel traction and instant electric torque put the power down from the first inch; the rear-drive Mustang spends the launch managing wheelspin.

Pair B, 523 hp AWD vs 668 hp RWD, same 0-60. The BMW M3 Competition xDrive (523 hp) and the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing (668 hp) both hit 60 in 3.4s. The Cadillac has 145 more horsepower and gains nothing, because a rear-drive car can only put so much power to the ground from a standstill. Past the traction limit, extra hp doesn't shorten 0-60, it just makes more noise.

Pair C, 1,020 hp EV vs 1,064 hp combustion. The Tesla Model S Plaid (1,020 hp) reaches 60 in 1.99s. The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 makes more power, 1,064 hp, and is 0.3s slower at 2.3s. Same story, higher up the ladder: the AWD EV's launch beats the rear-drive V8's, regardless of the horsepower on paper.

Pair D, 1,020 hp EV beats 1,578 hp everything. The 1,578-hp Bugatti Chiron Super Sport has 558 more horsepower than the Plaid *and* a better power-to-weight ratio (359 vs 211 hp per 1,000 lb), yet it's 0.4s slower to 60 (2.4s vs 1.99s). When even a huge power-to-weight advantage loses, you're looking at the real deciders: instant torque and traction off the line.

So what actually decides 0-60?

• Traction and drivetrain. Getting to 60 is mostly a question of how much power reaches the road, not how much the engine makes. AWD (and especially AWD EVs) launch without wheelspin; RWD and FWD cars hit a traction ceiling early. It's why a 300-hp AWD GR Corolla (4.9s) matches a 315-hp FWD Civic Type R (5.0s) despite less power.
• Weight. Mass blunts everything. The 670-hp Dodge Charger Daytona weighs about 5,800 lb and runs 3.3s; the 670-hp Corvette Z06 weighs 3,600 lb and runs 2.6s, same horsepower, 0.7s apart. The 717-hp BMW M5 (5,390 lb) ties the 523-hp M3 at 3.4s because the weight erases the extra power.
• Torque delivery. An electric motor makes peak torque at 0 rpm; a combustion engine has to rev into its band and shift through gears. That head start is worth tenths in the 0-60 window even before traction enters the picture.
• Being light beats being powerful-and-heavy. The 181-hp Mazda MX-5 (2,340 lb) out-accelerates the 200-hp Civic Si and the 232-hp Camry hybrid. The 740-hp McLaren 750S (3,060 lb) beats far more powerful cars because it barely weighs anything. Power-to-weight explains more than power ever will.

Claimed vs. measured: your car is the only number that counts

Every figure above is a manufacturer claim or a controlled independent test on prepped pavement with an expert launch. Your car on a real road is a different number. Here's a measured example from GPS timing: a 2022 BMW X6 M50i ran 3.51s to 60 mph on FastTrack, quicker than BMW's roughly 4.1-second claim. That's a FastTrack-measured result, not a spec sheet, and it cuts both ways: plenty of cars trail their claim once tires, weather, elevation, and your launch enter the equation.

Horsepower on a dyno and horsepower to the ground are two different things, which is exactly why measuring your own 0-60 tells you more than any spec table.

Measure your real 0-60 and power-to-weight

You don't need a drag strip or a dedicated box. FastTrack uses your iPhone's GPS and accelerometer to time 0-60, the quarter mile, and rolling pulls to within a few hundredths of a second. Run your car stock, work out its power-to-weight with the calculator, then re-run it after tires, a tune, or shedding weight, and see which change actually moved your 0-60.

Then put it on the board: post your run to the FastTrack leaderboards and compare against other owners of your exact car. For the full ranking by acceleration, see 0-60 times by car; for the machines at the very top, see the fastest cars of 2026.

FAQ

Does more horsepower mean a faster 0-60?

Not on its own. Horsepower is only useful once it reaches the road, so weight, traction, drivetrain, and torque delivery often matter more over the short 0-60 window. In this data a 1,020-hp Tesla Model S Plaid (1.99s) beats a 1,578-hp Bugatti Chiron Super Sport (2.4s), and a 523-hp BMW M3 ties a 668-hp Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing at 3.4s. Extra horsepower helps most at higher speeds, in the quarter mile and beyond, not necessarily off the line.

What matters more than horsepower for 0-60?

Three things. Traction and drivetrain decide how much power actually reaches the pavement, AWD and instant-torque EVs launch cleanly while RWD and FWD cars hit a grip ceiling. Weight determines how much work that power has to do; a 5,800-lb car needs far more power for the same result. And torque delivery matters, because an EV's instant peak torque beats an engine that has to rev and shift. Power-to-weight (hp per 1,000 lb) captures the first two better than raw horsepower.

What is a good horsepower-to-weight ratio?

As a rough guide from this list: around 60–90 hp per 1,000 lb is a quick everyday car (5–7 second range), 120–160 is genuine sports-car territory (mid-3s to low-4s), and above 200 is supercar and performance-EV ground (under 3 seconds). It's a strong predictor but not perfect, traction still caps how much of that ratio a car can use off the line, which is why some high-ratio rear-drive cars don't out-launch lower-ratio AWD ones. Calculate yours with the power-to-weight calculator.

Why are EVs so quick to 60 despite their weight?

Electric motors make maximum torque from 0 rpm and most quick EVs are all-wheel drive, so they convert power to forward motion instantly and without wheelspin or gear changes. That launch advantage is large enough to overcome a big weight penalty over 0-60: the 5,300-lb Lucid Air Sapphire runs 1.89s and the 5,100-lb Rimac Nevera R runs 1.66s. Over a longer run, the quarter mile or top speed, weight and aerodynamics claw some of that advantage back.

How do I find my car's real 0-60 and power-to-weight?

Measure the 0-60 with a GPS timing app like FastTrack on a safe, legal, flat road, let it auto-start on launch, run several passes, and average them. For power-to-weight, divide your car's horsepower by its curb weight and multiply by 1,000, or use the power-to-weight calculator. Comparing your measured 0-60 against your power-to-weight (and against the spec-sheet claim) is the fastest way to see whether traction, weight, or tuning is holding your car back.