Category: Automobiles

First published here five years ago today.

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Smarter than the driver

Dan Neil reports on some intelligent new safety technology:

The new M45 is also equipped with Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) — now fairly commonplace in luxury cars — that above certain speeds maintains a pre-set following distance with the help of radar or laser emitters in the car’s nose. When the car ahead slows down, you slow down.

In Albuquerque (and elsewhere) this feature comes with an optional “Road Rage” setting that allows you to program your car to speed up when the vehicle in front of you slows down.

First posted here two years ago.

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‘We never exceeded 175 mph’

Last week Sports Illustrated opened its 53 years of archives (or “Vault” as they call it) with free access. A particular favorite article of mine was Brock Yates’s 1972 “From Sea to Speeding Sea,” — “The Cannonball was an out law auto race—unsanctioned and definitely unwise—but off they went, roaring their way toward L.A.” Yates drove the winning Ferrari with racer Dan Gurney from NYC to LA in 35 hours and 54 minutes.

A couple of excerpts:

Determined to find a car to race in the Cannonball, the three men had looked in the Times classifieds in search of a “driveaway” deal—an arrangement where one drives another’s car to a destination for nominal expenses. This is a common tactic used to transport personal cars by people who don’t like to drive long distances. The Long Island gentleman wanted his new Cadillac Coupe deVille driven to California. Opert & Co. obliged, nodding hazily at his firm orders that his prized machine not be driven after nine o’clock at night, not before eight o’clock in the morning and not run faster than 75 miles an hour. Naturally, all the regulations would be violated before the car left Manhattan.

A yellow 4-4-2 Oldsmobile Cutlass appeared in the rearview mirror. It was running fast, coming up on me at an impressive rate. Two guys were on board and I sensed that they were looking for a race. They drew even and we ran along for a way nose to nose. I looked over to catch eager grins on their faces. I smiled back and slipped the Ferrari from fifth to fourth gear. We were running a steady 100 mph when the Olds leaped ahead. I let him have a car-length lead before opening the Ferrari’s tap. The big car burst forward, its pipes whooping that lovely siren song, and rocketed past the startled pair in the Oldsmobile. I glanced over at them to see their faces covered with amazement. Like most of the populace, they had no comprehension of an automobile that would accelerate from 100 mph that quickly. The Ferrari yowled up to 150 mph without effort, leaving the Olds as a minuscule speck of yellow in the mirror.

I slowed again and turned up the volume on the stereo. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos were sonorously singing I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail. I laughed all the way to Las Cruces.

Go read it all.

The Consumer Reports Cars Blog has excerpts from the CHP report on the San Diego Toyota Prius acceleration event.

It’s actually very interesting reading.

A Pennsylvania man died last Friday in a freak fire at a gas station. Authorities say that the fire was sparked by static electricity on the man’s body, and he died of inhalation of superheated gases. While this type of fire is very rare and fatalities even rarer, they do happen. To prevent them, you should do something terribly mundane: do not ever get back in your car while fueling, and make sure to touch a metal surface before fueling.

The Consumerist

Key point: “80% of static electricity/gas pump fires happen to women.”

To repeat: [D]o not ever get back in [and out of] your car while fueling, and make sure to touch a metal surface before fueling.

LINO LAKES, Minn. – Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car.

A jury didn’t believe him, and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. But now, new revelations of safety problems with Toyotas have Lee pressing to get his case reopened and his freedom restored. Relatives of the victims — who condemned Lee at his sentencing three years ago — now believe he is innocent and are planning to sue Toyota. The prosecutor who sent Lee to prison said he thinks the case merits another look.

Yahoo! News

Well I guess.

Here you go, have your cake and eat it too. Porsche is looking to prove that the best of both worlds don’t have to be mutually exclusive with the 918 Spyder concept scheduled to debut tomorrow at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Looking a bit like a Carrera GT evolved, the 918 Spyder is powered by both a 500-horsepower V8 and a pair of electric motors (one for each axle) producing an additional 218 horsepower or 160kW. At full gallop, the concept can theoretically reach 62 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds and nip 198 mph on the high end. On the flip side, Porsche says it can also achieve 78 miles per gallon and emit just 70 grams of CO2 per kilometer. . . .

Autoblog Green

Haven’t you wondered at least a little if it isn’t more than a coincidence that once the Government took over General Motors it got all into Toyota’s grill?

Currently —

6 states — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands — prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving. All but Washington have primary enforcement.

19 states, the District of Columbia and Guam now ban text messaging by drivers. The 19 are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. All but four — Louisiana, New York, Virginia and Washington — have primary enforcement.

Primary enforcement means the handheld/texting offense is reason alone for a citation. Secondary enforcement means the offense can be cited in conjunction with some other traffic offense.

A statewide ban on handheld cell phones and texting failed in the New Mexico Senate during the recent 30-day legislative session. Both are prohibited in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Gallup, Española and Taos, however.

“[N]o person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call or create, send or read text messages while such vehicle is in motion.” Hands-free phones are exempt. You are presumed guilty of making or receiving a call if the phone is “in the immediate proximity of” your ear.

In Albuquerque it’s $100 the first time; $200 each successive offense. In Santa Fe, $100. If I were a police officer I could pick up an easy $1000 for the city just driving between here and I-25 (six miles) on any given day. Why is this law so cavalierly violated?

Tobias posted this last week. Besides, it’s the law.

You don’t have to break the law to make some time in west Texas.

I recommend you click for full-screen mode.

Autopia has the backstory as Jay Leno remakes Rendezvous — after a fashion.

And here’s the real thing, the greatest 9 minutes in auto film (and sound).

Guess before you click.

A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy escorting Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade was hit this afternoon at Gibson and Carlisle.
 
Police say a woman drove around two police units blocking the intersection and hit  a car driven by a sergeant with BCSO.

ABQNews

She drove around two police units blocking an intersection!

The Consumer Reports Cars Blog has done the homework and …

Whatever the cause of runaway acceleration, there’s a simple solution that could save your life.

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Move the transmission to Neutral.
2. Use the brakes to come to a stop safely on the side (or off) the road
3. Shut off the engine with the transmission in Neutral
4. Put the car into Park

. . .

Shutting off the engine during an uncontrollable acceleration is another option, but we recommend against that. First, killing the engine will not allow you to slow down any sooner than shifting to Neutral will. Second, you can lose power steering assist, making the car difficult to control. And finally, if you should manage to turn the key all the way off, that could lock the steering wheel mechanism, making a safe stop all but impossible.

Who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1920? It’s a common name, one you hear most every day.

I’m reading Douglas Brinkley’s Wheels for the World about Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company.

When the company was founded in 1903 it included 12 stockholders (including John and Horace Dodge!). One of the 12 proposed a thirteenth who wanted to invest $500. Henry Ford said no, thirteen was unlucky.

He was right. It was unlucky for the would-be investor who was denied. That $500 would have profited $1,750,000 by 1919.

(When Henry and son Edsel Ford bought out the original investors in 1919, the two Dodge brothers took $12.5 million each on their original investment of $5,000. They had also been major suppliers of engines and other components in the early years, and in fact bought the stock in 1903 not with cash, but in lieu of what Ford owed them.

But the story continues. Both Dodge brothers contracted the flu in 1919 and died the following year, John 55 and Horace 52. Their widows sold Dodge Brothers in 1925 for $146 million. Walter P. Chrysler bought the company for $170 million in stock three years later.)

I hope this is stating the obvious, but if somehow your car keeps accelerating even after you take your foot off the gas pedal, like the recent crash in California that killed four, keep calm and PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL and coast until you can safely pull over.

The engine is what powers your vehicle. The transmission is what transmits that power to the wheels. Putting the car in neutral disconnects the engine from the wheels.

Why the off-duty police officer in California did not realize this in time, I do not know. But the solution, whether automatic transmission or standard (stick) is to PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL.

This is safer than turning the ignition off.

Do NOT try to put the car into PARK or REVERSE while going forward unless you are intending on buying a new transmission. Put the gear into NEUTRAL (N), which is next to DRIVE for this very reason.

First off, scientifically, there are different kinds of distractions.

• Visual distractions take your eyes off the road.
• Manual distractions take your hands off the wheel.
• Cognitive distractions take your mind off the road.
 
. . .
 
But texting is a “perfect storm.” It requires you to look at the keyboard, manually manipulate the keys, and think about what you’re writing. This means texting is a visual, manual, and cognitive distraction all in one.

Consumer Reports Cars Blog has more.

President Obama signed an Executive Order last night banning federal employees from texting while driving on Government business or if using Government-paid phones in their own cars.

Consumer Reports Cars Blog also has this:

Data from Virginia Tech shows that texting increases your odds 23.2 times of having a crash. That’s off the charts compared to drinking (even odds), eating (1.6 times), or applying make-up (3.1 times.) Some distractions, like talking to a passenger or adjusting the radio, actually improved safety and had a protective effect, possibly by combating fatigue or having the passenger serving as a collision warning device.

From 2006:

NewMexiKen is thinking that it would be impossible to get a traffic citation for violating this sign’s instruction and turning left.

If a deputy is present, it’s OK to turn left.

If no deputy is present, and you turn left anyway, who will write the citation?

[2009 Update: There’s a traffic light there now.]

“Toyota is recalling 3.8 million cars and warning owners of certain late-model cars to immediately remove their driver’s side floor mat to avoid accelerators getting stuck.”

Consumer Reports lists the cars.

This problem apparently killed a California state trooper and three members of his family recently.

We’ve talked about this one and wonder why he didn’t put the car in neutral, but we weren’t there …

On August 28, 2009, off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor and three members of his family were killed when the 2009 Lexus ES they were riding in sped out of control, crashed into another vehicle, rolled over, and burned. News reports stated that someone in the Lexus called 911 and reported that the car was speeding out of control and that the brakes weren’t working. Initial police reports said that the driver’s floor mat had interfered with the pedals.

Consumer Reports Cars Blog

It was a dealer loaner. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t turn off the ignition. But make certain your floor mats are not getting all crumbled under the pedals (one of mine does!).

And be careful out there.