New Mazda MX-5 2.0 litre 0-60 5.9 secs

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How do the Americans do it...?

In this Car & Driver test, they timed a new standard 2.0 litre MX-5 at 5.9 secs in the 0-60 drag race. From the sounds of things the only difference from normal is that they used 'premium gas' which one poster reckons boosts power from 155hp to 167hp.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2016-mazda-mx-...

Should I assume that the 155hp Mazda for the UK 2.0 litre engine is conservative too?
Do the American mags have better drivers than ours or super sticky asphalt?? How do they consistently get such punchy acceleration numbers? Like their gallons, perhaps their miles are smaller than ours...?

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Pintofbest said:

I was reading an old Evo the other day with a Corvette and it mentioned something about US measuring the time after the car had moved something like 11.5 inches - kind of like a rolling start. They thought it was worth c0.4 seconds so might explain it. I'll try and find out the facts rather than make them up from my poor memory :-)

Thank you all for these responses.

I guess I have been too sceptical about the speed of these new MX-5s: if the C&D times are only exaggerating by 0.4 secs, the 2.0 litre is punchier than I thought.