Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'm amazed how fast even basic cars are today compared with muscle cars of 1970.

Mini-vans can book it!  Put one of those engines in a little Miada or something, and I bet you're in Stingray territory.

Just take a basic Honda Civic or Accord and compare 0-60 times with "muscle cars" of yore.  They compare pretty well overall.  The top Honda Civic would smoke nearly any muscle car.

So would the top Golf (which has AWD which really helps).

There was a period from about 1974 to 1984 when even the fastest cars were really slow, a 0-60 time under 10 seconds was "fast".  That was the nadir for performance for cars.

The key factor is torque and horsepower, or if you will power to weight ratios.  They are MUCH higher today, and yes, tires offer more traction, especially the summer tires.  Probably the best single thing to make your own car handle better is to add summer - and then winter - tires, in place of all seasons.

My 1973 Chevy Nova with a 5.7 L engine had 185 horsepower, which is trivial by today's standards.   A base Honda Accord has 192 (from 1.5 L turbocharged, up to 252 in higher trims).

And of course modern engines usually add fuel injection and excellent breathing and computer controls that mine lacked.  That Nova was considered to be a pretty fast car in its day, and it got 18 mpg on the freeway even at 55 mph.

  

That 300 horsepower was gross, my 185 horsepower was SAE net, a very different figure, about the same as 285 gross.

The air pump took away about 10 horsepower and some fuel economy.

https://ateupwithmotor.com/terms-technology-definitions/gross-versus-net-horsepower/

If you're saying that charging his EV is more expensive than an equivalent refill at the gas station (say 4 gallons for 30 mpg vehicle = 120 miles, which is probably ~$10 if gas is $2.50 / gal, which would be lower than usual) that's surprising. I just looked this up so I could be wrong, but supposedly the Model S has a 100 kWh battery capacity, which at $0.10 / kWh (which is more expensive than in most states except AK, HI, CA, NY, and New England) would also cost $10 to charge....... Maintenance costs for EVs should also be lower (no oil changes, fewer parts that could break, etc.).

Unless your friend is an unusual electricity rate structure (most residential customers have simple flat rates, though ComEd is one of the few utilities that offers real-time pricing to residential customers, which should actually help them save money as I did when I lived in Chicago - especially for him if he were charging his vehicle at night.... IL is also deregulated so he could've gotten a bad deal from a retail energy supplier if he signed up with one) I don't understand why that would happen....

Nah. That's not what I wrote.

I'm not sure why all cars don't use regen braking now in place of an alternator.

Probably the best single thing to make your own car handle better is to add summer - and then winter - tires, in place of all seasons.

What do y'all need winter tires for?