If you start to brake at 100mph, you are a fool..... I think there is a
lot of foolishness here.
3 Toyota's have crashed in Connecticut, attorney general is on a tear.
I'd like to see Toyota take a few cars onto a test site and run them to
60mph and floor both pedals. The would put this issue to bed..
I'm betting a very high percentage of the cars that are being wrecked
are owned by folks that are upside down in them anyway.
It you need a car right now, by A 'yoda from a rental fleet, they are
running away from them
--
Pete Arnold 32°
"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and
mountaineering; all the rest are merely games." - Ernest Hemingway
On 3/13/2010 12:34 AM, Jerry Herrman wrote:
With your collective indulgence, I'd like to re-open the discussion of the topic
"sudden acceleration". You may recall in mid february I opened the discussion
with this submission in vol. 51 issue 39, or thereabouts:
( " So yesterday I heard what I believe was a public service announcement (by some
automotive engineer, I think) on the radio saying that the least powerful brakes are
going to easily overpower the most powerful engine.This suggests that applying your
brakes firmly in an unexpected acceleration situation would prevent a catastrophe.")
Responses from subscribers to this forum suggested that applying the brakes
firmly and immediately to stop the car would be successful, regardless of the
power output of the engine. Applying the brakes to merely slow down the
vehicle, most concluded, would likely result in overheating the brakes to the
point that they could be ineffective.
The recent report of a Prius driver's scary struggle with sudden unexpected
acceleration raises this topic again.
I am taking no position on this issue. I am asking questions to better
understand what is happening.
Here are several questions that circulate through my mind.
If a driver were to experience this phenomenon in a powerful car whose speed
has gone well above 100 mph, would there be any hope of stopping the car using
only the brakes?
Can a Prius whose driver is trying to brake the car continue to accelerate? How
powerful is the Prius engine?
Can all cars be shifted easily into neutral in the event of this emergency?
Is there any "down side" to turning off the engine in this situation?
Having driven a 240D for many years, sudden acceleration sounded rather
attractive . Now, not so much.
Jerry
1982 240D 60+ horsepower
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