Comparing 0-60 times between my 2007 Sport and 2012 Limited for grins

[robtmc]

Found an old stopwatch and decided to get a rough idea how my two different generation 4Runners compared. Both have just shy of 80k miles and well maintained with oil changes and filters. Yes, read the endless threads, spare me.

Was coming over to our Arizona house and thought, why not, after reading endless posts about the 5th gen sluggish throttle response and apparent lack of power that disappeared with enthusiastic throttle use.

Seems road tests have the 2012 Limited at sub 8 seconds, about the same as the 2007 4WD Sport. I could get the Sport just under 8 without brake torquing, just mash and hit the stopwatch. Full of potential error, sure, but has to be in the tenths of a second. Altitude around 300 feet.

2012 runs fine, especially if really thrashing it. The throttle is sluggish in normal driving as advertised and reported. That said, at an altitude of around 2500 feet, best I can get is around 9.5 seconds. Done in both directions, slightly less that full tank in both.

Previous owner did put 275/55 tires on the 20 inch rims, but that would be a minor difference in effective gearing. 4WD in the Limited, 2WD setting in the Sport. Will repeat the 2007 test in 4WD setting when I get back.

I sure was expecting WFO performance to be closer than that. We love the truck, gets 20+ mpg cruising at 80 mph, no complaints. 2007 seems to be in the ballpark, the 2012 well behind, well behind some published numbers.

Just a casual observation for amusement in case anyone else did casual acceleration measurements.

edit: It occurs to me there might be some serious lag in the speedometer response. I will retry with the "performance" feature of the Scangauge II. Only lag would be the OBDII latency.

 

[5thToy]

+400 lbs stock, no increase in power. Predictable.

 

[xtacles]

Thanks for sharing! Kind of a fun little project, but like you mentioned there are a litany of things keeping it from being scientific haha. 2,200' of elevation difference and tires sized other than OEM are pretty huge.

 

[Charles Bronson]

Every 1,000' in altitude reduces power in a naturally aspirated motor by 3%. Turbo motors, especially late model ones, will increase boost to compensate for the reduced oxygen at altitude, thus they aren't nearly has impacted by altitude. This is why turbos kick ass.

20" rims have a ton of rotating inertia and will kill acceleration. A Limited on 20" rims will undoubtedly be slower than a TRD or SR5 model with the smaller 17" rims.

Running in 4WD is killing acceleration and adding unnecessary driveline drag, but since it's a Limited, there's no way to run 2WD.

Turn off traction control completely so that all the traction nannies are off or at least dumbed down as much as Toyota will allow. This means holding the traction button down for over 5 seconds so all the traction lights come on.

 

[robtmc]

20" rims have a ton of rotating inertia and will kill acceleration. A Limited on 20" rims will undoubtedly be slower than a TRD or SR5 model with the smaller 17" rims.

Running in 4WD is killing acceleration and adding unnecessary driveline drag, but since it's a Limited, there's no way to run 2WD.

Yabbut, as I said, I read in several place the measured 0-60 times and they were far more close, 20" wheels and all. With no wheel-spin, what would the traction control do?

 

[Charles Bronson]

Yabbut, as I said, I read in several place the measured 0-60 times and they were far more close, 20" wheels and all. With no wheel-spin, what would the traction control do?

The nannies may still be neutering power, you just can't feel it. Turn traction control fully off, depress the brake hard, floor the gas, and release brake about 1 second later. These trucks have low stall torque converters and tall gearing. They need all the help they can get to get off the line fast and into the powerband which starts around 3000rpms. Brake stalling like this will add some much needed torque multiplication through the torque converter to get more quickly into that powerband.

As for timing the runs, using a stop watch isn't very effective for both the start and end of the run. You need a true timing device. Also, magazines usually allow for a 1 foot roll-out before the timer even starts. 1 foot might not sound like much, but it is and usually accounts for around a 0.5 second difference in 0-60. Magazines also brake torque like I noted above.

Lastly, your 275/55R20 tires are 1.1% taller than stock (245/60R20) and a whopping 12% wider than stock. The taller tire is hurting torque multiplication and the 1.2" wider footprint is creating more drag. Also, the larger and wider tire has more weight and that weight is in the absolute worst place for acceleration.

There's a lot working against your 2012 Limited's performance and plenty of reasons to explain why it's not accelerating like you think it should.

 

[John in NC]

Good read, thanks.

I also find it interesting that just about any 4runner from the first to now gets roughly the same gas mileage.
Stock in every way, most 4runners when new got probably a combined number in the range of 16-19 mpg. Again average of city/ highway. You'd think that number would have improved over 35+ years.

The 3.0 might have gotten worse mpg than the rest minus the v8.

I'm at probably a combined 18.5 mpg. If just highway I'm regularly getting 22mpg if I keep the speed in check.

 

[Charles Bronson]

Good read, thanks.

I also find it interesting that just about any 4runner from the first to now gets roughly the same gas mileage.
Stock in every way, most 4runners when new got probably a combined number in the range of 16-19 mpg. Again average of city/ highway. You'd think that number would have improved over 35+ years.

Quite true about the MPGs, but keep in mind that these trucks have gotten much larger, heavier, more powerful, way more safe, and more amenities. With the exception of the somewhat rare 4th gen V8 4runner, the 5th gen 4runner is the quickest/fastest 4Runner ever made.

It's too bad that Toyota never implemented direct injection or 8 speed automatic into the 5th gen. Those two improvements alone would have netted a 20%+ improvement in MPG plus more power and way stronger acceleration. They've also had DI and 8 speed autos available since 2000-freaking-8.

 

[El Dusty]

+400 lbs stock, no increase in power. Predictable.

All 5th Gens have 1GR-FEs with dual VVT-i so there is a power difference.

VVT-i: 236 hp (176 kW; 239 PS) at 5200 rpm with 266 lb⋅ft (361 N⋅m; 37 kg⋅m) of torque at 4000 rpm when tuned for 87 octane

Dual VVT-i: 270 hp (201 kW; 274 PS) at 5600 rpm and 278 lb⋅ft (377 N⋅m; 38 kg⋅m) at 4400 rpm on 87 octane

Technically the 5th Gen has 2 more hp (less torque) than the 4th Gen V8s w/ VVT-i...