I have the same experience with my 2008 Trek 7.2 FX Hybrid. It out accelerates every other bike I have ever owned. It's also measurable.

When riding around town, I would occasionally get met at traffic lights by a group of road bikes. We would say "hi" and all that. Then my standard old hybrid with a rack and panniers with the older guy (me) in normal clothes would blow their doors off to the next stoplight. I would stick with them (at the front) until there was about a km stretch of non-traffic-controlled road. Then they would leave me in the dust, until the next stoplight.

BTW - I'm almost 60.