Car&Driver: Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus

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MSI
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Car&Driver: Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus

Post by MSI »

Feb 2010: MIKE DUSHANE, Car & Driver
Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus, and Drivers - Editorial
In the article they state: First, What to Do if Your Car (Not Just a Toyota) Starts to Accelerate Uncontrollably: HIT THE BRAKES!
From their own testing at How To Deal With Unintended Acceleration - Tech Dept. comes the following: "We put unintended acceleration to the test and examine how to handle a runaway vehicle. With the Camry’s throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet—that’s a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry’s throttle closed. From 100 mph, the stopping-distance differential was 88 feet—noticeable to be sure, but the car still slowed enthusiastically enough to impart a feeling of confidence. We also tried one go-for-broke run at 120 mph, and, even then, the car quickly decelerated to about 10 mph before the brakes got excessively hot and the car refused to decelerate any further. So even in the most extreme case, it should be possible to get a car’s speed down to a point where a resulting accident should be a low-speed and relatively minor event."
See the full story Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus, and Drivers - Editorial
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