What Difference Does 65 Years Make?

I was looking up the gear ratios in mph/1000 rpm for my every day transport and it struck me that the first four were very similar to the ratios of my SS Jaguar. I then looked at some other comparative figures such as length and weight only to find that they too were very similar. Thus armed I thought I would tabulate these and some other numbers that are easily obtained just to see how much cars have changed in 65 years.

OK, so the energy density of Diesel fuel is about 10% greater than that of petrol but to haul a car of similar bulk and weight with 40% greater speed whilst using less than half the fuel quantity is a significant improvement if not in quite the same league as the performance improvement of computing devices over the same time frame. (Computing 1940 to 2005: Calculations/second/$ improved by a factor of 10,000,000 to 1)

                                Mondeo TDCi 130*     SS Jaguar 2½ ltr    SS Jaguar 3½ ltr

Length                            15' 7”                            15' 6”                          15' 6”
Height                              4' 9”                              5' 1”                              5' 1”
Width                               5' 11”                              5' 6”                            5' 6”
Wheelbase                          9'                                 10'                               10'
Front Track                          5'                                4' 6”                             4' 6”
                             
Weight                           31.3 cwt                       32 cwt                      32 cwt
                             
Max Power                    128 bhp                      104 bhp                   125 bhp
Max Torque                   245 lb-ft                      135 lb-ft                   185 lb-ft
                             
1st mph/1000                     5.74                              5.6                           5.96
2nd mph/1000                   9.48                             9.54                        10.16
3rd mph/1000                   14.2                            14.68                        15.64
4th mph/1000                   20.9                            20.16                        21.48
5th mph/1000                   28.74                                               
6th mph/1000                   35.82             
                             
30-60 in 4th                       8.5 sec                        15 sec                     14.5 sec
30-60 in 5th                     14.2 sec                            -                                 -
0-60 mph                           9.5 sec                        17 sec                     13.8 sec
Max Speed                     129 mph                      87 mph                  91 mph
                             
Fuel Cons.                         48 mpg                       19 mpg                 18 mpg

*Read Jaguar X Type 2.0 litre Diesel if you prefer.