The Brief And Annoying Period Where Car Ads Bragged About 0-50 Times

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Car advertisements person ever stretched nan truth, but successful nan early 1980s, immoderate manufacturers recovered a much imaginative measurement to do it: conscionable alteration nan decorativeness line. If you've spent immoderate clip digging through aged car ads, you've astir apt noticed thing overseas tucked into the capacity claims of a fewer early-1980s models. These claims advertised 0-50 mph sprint times alternatively of nan industry-standard 0-60 mph benchmark that had been successful usage since automotive journalist Tom McCahill pioneered it successful 1946. 

McCahill apt chose 60 mph because state-level velocity limits already hovered astir 50-60 mph astatine nan time. That logic flipped erstwhile President Nixon signed nan 55 mph nationalist velocity limit into rule successful 1974 arsenic a consequence to nan 1973 lipid embargo. Autoweek notes that car companies of nan era "had to" advertise 0-50 times alternatively of 0-60, though there's seemingly nary general regularisation that ever explicitly required it. Still, nan applicable inducement was clear capable connected its own: 60 mph was now an forbidden velocity connected American highways, and benchmarking against it felt progressively disconnected from mundane driving reality. 

As Hagerty's Jack Baruth summed it up, 0-50 and 0-55 were nan "bastard cousins" of 0-60. They were metrics that existed not because they were much meaningful, but because nan cars couldn't look bully without them. The instrumentality was wholly legal, arsenic location was nary norm requiring a standardized sprint region successful advertizing copy. Automakers facing an uphill capacity conflict simply picked a number that worked successful their favor.

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Chrysler was 1 of nan astir brazen practitioners of nan 0-50 trick, and nan 1982 Dodge Charger 2.2 – 1 of the worst cars from an arguably awesome automaker – is simply a notorious example. On paper, nan car made 84 horsepower and 111 pound-feet of torque from a 2.2-liter four-cylinder successful a assemblage that traced its roots backmost to nan system Dodge Omni. Squaring that up against a Mustang GT aliases Camaro Z28 successful a straight-line trial was ne'er going to extremity well.

Because of that, Dodge brought nan National Hot Rod Association successful to officially timepiece nan title astatine 50 mph alternatively of 60, stamped nan results connected a mag spread, and called it a day. Two years on, nan 1984 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z repeated nan formula. When MotorTrend put it head-to-head pinch nan Mustang GT and Camaro Z28, nan numbers told an uncomfortable story: nan Daytona ran a 0-50 clip of 6.01 seconds against nan Camaro's 5.37 and nan Mustang's 5.90.

When scaling nan disappointment to 60 mph, nan spread only widened. The Daytona Turbo Z clocked 8.22 seconds against 7.41 and 7.43 for nan Camaro and Mustang, respectively. Advertising 0-50 didn't make nan Daytona Turbo Z accelerated — it conscionable made nan scoreboard easier to look at. Ironically, while Dodge was engaged gaming acceleration benchmarks pinch nan Daytona Turbo Z, it was simultaneously stuffing a Lamborghini V8 into a Daytona down closed doors. Later on, nan 1985 exemplary twelvemonth saw nan presence of nan turbocharged Shelby variant. This gave nan Daytona Turbo Z 146 horsepower to play with, and nan full 0-50 charade softly vanished from Dodge's advertisement copy.

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The 0-50 instrumentality had a difficult expiration date, and conscionable for illustration really it (supposedly) came, it was taken down pinch a statesmanlike pen stroke. Bill Clinton signed nan National Highway System Designation Act connected November 28, 1995, handing velocity limit authority backmost to individual states. A fewer U.S. areas still person debased velocity limits connected nan interstate, but 60 mph isn't arsenic universally outlawed arsenic it utilized to be. Following nan repeal, 35 states moved to raise their limits to 70 mph aliases higher, and nan rationale for advertizing a 50 mph sprint collapsed overnight. 

Cars were getting faster, limits were climbing, and 0-60 reasserted itself arsenic nan only number anyone wanted to spot successful an ad. The only trace of nan 0-50 era successful modern times comes from a fistful of archived mag ads. These days, location are moreover a fewer mill cars that really tin deed 60 mph successful 2 seconds aliases less. So nan thought of bragging astir a 0-50 sprint now seems little for illustration a trading instrumentality and much for illustration a punchline.