The Toyota Circus...

ChrisSlicks · 02-24-2010, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by semtex

I had CNN on this afternoon for about 20 minutes. During that time, some Congressman made the point that more deaths have already been caused by unintentionally accelerating Toyotas than were caused by exploding Pintos back in the 70s. I have no idea if that's true or not. But if it is, then that does kinda put things in perspective as well.

Natural selection at work. Like Weatherman stated it should be pretty damn apparent how to stop or slow the car. There are 2 obvious solutions that any driver should know, jam on the brakes or bump it into neutral. The brakes will stop any car, even if the throttle is pegged, and unless it is a supercar with 500hp it will have little impact on stopping distance. The quote from C&D was "A Camry with the throttle pinned to the floor stopped shorter than a Ford Taurus under regular braking". I've had it happen to me back in the day of throttle cables, and while it is a shock for a second you react and take care of it quickly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by semtex

Just look at this forum and all the people who have crashed their cars as a result of switching their VDC off. As someone who never even drove a car with any form of traction control until 3 years ago, I just don't get it. Are people really so reliant on technology now that they can't even control a car unless there's an electronic nanny to cut the power to the wheels? I'm 39. Been driving since I was 14. The only traction control I ever knew of up to the age of 36 was my right foot and the gray matter inside of my skull. And guess what? It worked just fine.

Probably some luck too. I know I did my fair share of stupid stuff when I was 18, just made sure I did it by myself with no traffic. Most of the crashes were from drivers inexperienced with powerful RWD cars, that chose the wrong way to learn. Remember our accident and fatality rates are the highest per-capita of any of the developed nations. The countries with the best driver education programs have only 1/3rd the amount of deaths. So obviously education and experience are very important factors.

dad · 02-24-2010, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisSlicks

jam on the brakes or bump it into neutral. The brakes will stop any car, even if the throttle is pegged, and unless it is a supercar with 500hp it will have little impact on stopping distance.

Really!

Friends believe CHP officer did all he could to avoid crash - SignOnSanDiego.com

“The brakes were on fire,” Concepcion said.

ChrisSlicks · 02-24-2010, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dad

Really!

Friends believe CHP officer did all he could to avoid crash - SignOnSanDiego.com

“The brakes were on fire,” Concepcion said.

He didn't press them hard enough. If he just road the brake enough so that it maintained speed but didn't slow down then he would of smoked the brakes. At that point the brakes wouldn't have been very effective and the only option would have been to select neutral or park. Why he didn't think to do that nobody will ever know.

C&D repeated the test and managed to stop their car from 70 mph in 190 ft with the throttle pinned using only the brakes.

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