[Glossary](/glossary.md)/[Mobility](/glossary/category/mobility.md)

# Effective speed

The speed a vehicle can actually hold on a given ground type, rather than the cap printed on its specification sheet.

Also known as real speed, achievable speed.

[Top speed](/glossary/top-speed.md) is a limit the engine may never reach. Effective speed is what the engine, the weight and the [ground resistance](/glossary/terrain-resistance.md) produce together, computed per terrain type, and it is usually well below the quoted figure on anything soft.

It is the number that explains why a vehicle rated at 55 kilometres per hour crawls across a field while another rated at 45 crosses it comfortably.

## Related terms

[Top speedThe highest speed a vehicle is allowed to reach, which it only attains with enough engine power and forgiving ground.](/glossary/top-speed.md)[Terrain resistanceHow much each ground type slows a vehicle down, quoted for hard, medium and soft terrain, where lower is better.](/glossary/terrain-resistance.md)[Power-to-weightEngine horsepower divided by the vehicle's weight in tonnes, the single best predictor of acceleration.](/glossary/power-to-weight.md)[AccelerationHow quickly a vehicle reaches speed from a standstill, which matters far more in practice than its top speed.](/glossary/acceleration.md)

[Every World of Tanks term](/glossary.md)

## Navigation

- [unicum.gg](/index.md)
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/Hqbfb8YPbU)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/unicum-gg/unicum.gg)

## Indexes

- [llms.txt](/llms.txt): the API, the MCP server and the other machine-readable surfaces.
- [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt): the same, with every endpoint's parameters inline.
- [sitemap.md](/sitemap.md): every section of the site, down to the individual pages.