Conjuring up speed
Sir: We few sociopaths here in the former colonies who still consider automobiles to be politically correct celebrate Alan Judd's new motoring column in the pages of your magazine.
In an attempt to answer his query regard- ing the origin of the 0-60 acceleration stan- dard (22 July), I submit the following.
During a story I researched several years ago on the American motoring writer Tom McCahill, he revealed that it was he who conjured up the 0-60 immediately after the second world war. He noted that the tradi- tional English magazines, Autocar and Motor, used 0-50 as their standard, and he simply added 10 miles-per-hour 'for the hell of it'.
So much for scientific testing standards in the automotive community. Now all we have to determine is why you people decid- ed on 0-50 in the first place.
Brock Yates
Car and Driver, Farmstead, Route 19, Wyoming, New York, USA
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