I hadn't realized how many times I got to the car with full arms and then had to set everything down to dig out the key
And then had to pick everything back up so you could drive with your arms full?? You have to put that stuff down anyway!
Ive been through many stupid WOT situations in my clunkers. Sticky cables, sticky throttle shaft bushings, floormats, etc.
Luckily i have a CLUTCH.
Ive gone to the effort to explain to my fiancee what to do if her car has 'unintended acceleration', but i think one of the problems in this case is the power of the car.
I was driving a plain-jane 03 v6 accord the other day thinking to myself how excessive family car power is these days, and that's not even a 'fast' family car.
Someone who's used to driving a crown vic might well kill themselves in a new v6 camry at wot. A new camry traps about the same in the 1/4 mile as the car i brought to GRM $2009..close to 100 mph.
I think this was DEFINITELY driver error. Just like that kid who got shot and killed in the subway by 'operator error'... a taser and a pistol look about as similar as a brake pedal and a gas pedal, when you think about it.....
The thing about running out of power brakes is ONLY if you release the pedal repeatedly. Assuming you have an intact vacuum system without huge leaks (on your new lexus...) if you put the pedal down and keep it there, you have full power brakes. Thats just how it is.
Shifter's arent hard, true, but consider how much the average driver knows about a shifter. If they know to go to neutral or park AT ALL, it's probably because someone told them, not because they have a clue why or how it does what it does.
Also, having been a transmission rebuilder for a while, i can tell you that putting it in park would probably not be much different from putting it in neutral at those speeds. The parking pawl will just bounce off repeatedly and never full engage. Some cars wont even let you get into park while moving, just like most of them wont let you out of park without your foot on the brake.
Anyway, if the brakes were flaming and the car was still going 120, it means you have too much power and not enough brakes in your grandma-mobile, and your brain wadnt up to coming up with any good ideas in the space from 70-120 while dragging the brakes (not instantaneous by any means).
And there are people all over the country letting their 16-18 year olds borrow their 'plain jane' family car that dont even know for themselves what happens when you put the pedal down because they never get over 3000 rpm (and thus DO NOT need 300 hp).
I doubt it would have actually spun that fast, but it was pretty funny to imagine granny trying to keep up when it kicked on. I ended up unplugging the thing from the wall and plugging it back in, which reset the controls.
