Fun In A Prius

[r04drunner1]

So what ways do we have fun in our Prii?

I'll start

Stealth mode

- watching pedestrians do a double take as I cruise silently past them

- the surprise on a cat's face, who had been nonchalantly strolling up the road, then casually looked back and suddenly realised a car was following him!

[Jan&tone]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

[r04drunner1]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

[duncanda]

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

[CO2SLAVE]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

I think that both these last 2 statements ( not Jan& Tone) are somewhat misleading because they make the assumption that the other car was trying to out -accelerate you , but believe me I had a 1 series diesel and there is no comparison on performance.

Economy, smoothness and comfort yes but seriously a Focus ST with over 200HP ! with a 0-60 time of just over 6 secs ??

[r04drunner1]

I can't speak for anybody else, but my experience is that it is possible to get a very quick standing start from the Prius if you know what you are doing. Remember, the full torque of the electric motor is available from zero revs. That is capable of surprising other drivers at the Traffic Light Grand Prix, especially if they do not have their turbo "on the boil" just as the lights change. In that situation, published 0-60 times are not as relevant as you might think. 0-30 time would be more like it. Besides, those 0-60 times will have been achieved by test drivers using some advanced (and mechanically unfriendly) techniques - the kind of things that 95% of drivers will NOT do to their own car on the road.

The point of the thread is "fun" not "racing". The Prius has a widely held reputation amongst performance car drivers as being slow (to put it mildly!) It's funny to demonstrate otherwise in a standing start situation, even if the other driver is not racing. Much to their surprise! :)

To balance this, one other item of fun you can have with your Prius is when you casually tell other drivers what real world MPG you are achieving in stop-start traffic... :)

[Opifex]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

I think that both these last 2 statements ( not Jan& Tone) are somewhat misleading because they make the assumption that the other car was trying to out -accelerate you , but believe me I had a 1 series diesel and there is no comparison on performance.

Economy, smoothness and comfort yes but seriously a Focus ST with over 200HP ! with a 0-60 time of just over 6 secs ??

Neither contributor said that they beat other cars in a 0-60 drag race.The first simply says they were quicker away from the lights. The second that they had got to 50mph before they were overtaken. Both seem credible to me.

From standstill the HSD drive delivers a high torque which gives a very rapid acceleration that isn't matched by a conventional drive. As the speed builds up the torque of the conventional drive increases so the boy racer will eventually overtake you.

Personally I've never understood why the 0-60 time is used to advertise cars as it has very little relevance to real-life driving. The only time I can think of where full power is used from standstill to 60 is when leaving a layby on a fast dual carriageway. Since most traffic lights are in built up areas a more useful figures would be the 0-30 time. For overtaking on trunk roads I would also like to know the 40-60 time.

[CO2SLAVE]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

I think that both these last 2 statements ( not Jan& Tone) are somewhat misleading because they make the assumption that the other car was trying to out -accelerate you , but believe me I had a 1 series diesel and there is no comparison on performance.

Economy, smoothness and comfort yes but seriously a Focus ST with over 200HP ! with a 0-60 time of just over 6 secs ??

Neither contributor said that they beat other cars in a 0-60 drag race.The first simply says they were quicker away from the lights. The second that they had got to 50mph before they were overtaken. Both seem credible to me.

From standstill the HSD drive delivers a high torque which gives a very rapid acceleration that isn't matched by a conventional drive. As the speed builds up the torque of the conventional drive increases so the boy racer will eventually overtake you.

Personally I've never understood why the 0-60 time is used to advertise cars as it has very little relevance to real-life driving. The only time I can think of where full power is used from standstill to 60 is when leaving a layby on a fast dual carriageway. Since most traffic lights are in built up areas a more useful figures would be the 0-30 time. For overtaking on trunk roads I would also like to know the 40-60 time.

Yes fair enough point , I was not doubting what they were saying but I was simply pointing out that someone reading this might think the toyota hybrids are quicker than they actually are.

[wass]

When you look at it, there are quite a few different forms of transport which have better starting torque ( for their size) than conventional cars. One of them is the humble hybrid, another is the milk float and then there's the steam engine. even a determined push biker will out drag a boy racer up to around 5 mph.

[r04drunner1]

Yes fair enough point , I was not doubting what they were saying but I was simply pointing out that someone reading this might think the toyota hybrids are quicker than they actually are.

No worries, dude, some constructive challenge is welcome! It allows people to clarify. Thanks for chipping in.

Must say, I had expected more scope for "fun in a Prius" than just surprising boy racers with our getaway torque.

Are the rumours true? Are we Prius owners really a boring bunch???

[timberwolf]

Ah, I knew there was a reason why I liked my Prius, it is boring!

[thedeanobeano]

I have got to state that the gen 3 prius is not that slow from the lights.

Its not fast per se, but its quicker than people realise.

mind you, flooring it makes it sound like the clutch is slipping...

[Dave R.]

I bought my flat cap soon after getting my Prius

Totally agree that EV, or "stealth mode" is mandatory for cruising round supermarket car parks.

[duncanda]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

I think that both these last 2 statements ( not Jan& Tone) are somewhat misleading because they make the assumption that the other car was trying to out -accelerate you , but believe me I had a 1 series diesel and there is no comparison on performance.

Economy, smoothness and comfort yes but seriously a Focus ST with over 200HP ! with a 0-60 time of just over 6 secs ??

[duncanda]

I know I've now got a Yaris, but my Gen3 always surprised boy racers at traffic lights.... I was doing 30mph before they had even started :)

Yep, same goes for the diesel bimmer that I burned off at the lights while recording an 80 MPG average on a recent trip

Ha ha, agree with you both. Should of seen the surprise of a boy racer in a Focus ST. We were doing 50mph (legally), from standing start before he pulled away from me. Power mode is pretty quick.

I think that both these last 2 statements ( not Jan& Tone) are somewhat misleading because they make the assumption that the other car was trying to out -accelerate you , but believe me I had a 1 series diesel and there is no comparison on performance.

Economy, smoothness and comfort yes but seriously a Focus ST with over 200HP ! with a 0-60 time of just over 6 secs ??

I know what you mean, but this happened at traffic lights where the road is three lanes going into two and the ST was in lane 3 and I was in lane 2, so I assumed that the ST wanted to out accelerate me and get into lane 2 in front of me. I guess I was also being a "boy racer" and caught him by surprise and he couldn't get his turbo spinning quickly enough.

[CO2SLAVE]

Nice! I have done the same on occasion. I think most people think hybrids are an easy target at the traffic lights and then dawdle away from the lights. It is probably a good thing to make them get a move on because when you have 3 lanes into 2, or 2 into 1 people can inconvenience you.

The element of surprise is a wonderful thing'