Excerpt from Design award for the Burke http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/02/14/design_award_for_the_burke/
Brakes vs. accelerator: which wins? A stuck accelerator is a terrifying prospect, but an article in Car and Driver provides some counterintuitive solace: Modern brakes will still stop the vehicle. In fact, somewhat amazingly, the magazine's editors say that unless you're driving an outlandishly powerful sports car, brakes will stop your vehicle nearly as quickly as if the gas pedal were not stuck. To test their faith in brake power, the editors rounded up a V-6 Toyota Camry (one of the vehicles Toyota has recalled), a sportier Infiniti G37, and, for an extreme example, a V-8 Ford Mustang modified to produce 540 horsepower. With the Camry's accelerator pinned to the floor at 70 miles per hour, the driver of the Camry was still able to bring it to a stop in just 190 feet, a foot less than a Ford Taurus without its gas pedal depressed, according to the article. The results for the Infiniti were similar: That car took 170 feet to go from 70 to 0 under the out-of-control accelerator condition, compared to the usual 161 feet - a mere 6 percent difference. Brakes will stop a vehicle with a stuck gas pedal even at 100 miles per hour, Car and Driver found. The magazine's driver stopped the Camry going that speed, with the gas pedal floored, in 435 feet. Without a depressed gas pedal, the figure was 347 feet. (The numbers for the Infiniti were an even-more-impressive 326 feet vs. 320 feet.) Only at the outer limits of engine power can modern cars come close to overpowering their brakes, it seems. The 540-horsepower Mustang took a full 903 feet to stop from 100 miles per hour with the gas pedal jammed, compared to 324 feet without. Car and Driver does not excuse Toyota: It says that the manufacturer was slow to adopt industry-standard technology that cuts off the gas when brakes are applied. The company has pledged to make that change. Incidentally, should you find yourself in a runaway car, the best strategy is to shift to neutral while braking. *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
