Last week I wrote on the comparison between today’s cars and those of 40 years ago. This time I looked at the relative performance of the sports cars of yesterday, and family sedans of today.
The comparisons I took from a Jaguar E-Type (1961) and a Ford Focus (2017)
Performance figures for E-Type Jaguar 1961
Zero to 60 mph: 6.3 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 18.2 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 15.5 sec
Performance figures for Ford Focus 2017
Zero to 60 mph: 6.9 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 17.0 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 15.1 sec
Putting the two cars side by side on a drag strip, the Focus shopping trolley is 0.6 seconds slower than the E-Type to 60 mph but after that, the E-Type is lagging behind the Focus in zero to 100 mph by 1.2 seconds and is even slower over the quarter mile by 0.4 of a second.
The car we all thought was the fastest thing ever on wheels, would not keep up with today’s supermarket trolley. Mind you, what would you rather have in your garage? A Focus or an E-Type?
