Toyota UA-LAC

[Joshua Van Tol]

It's easily tested. Get yourself a late model toyota (or any car for that
matter), and some open road. Accelerate to 100 or so, and apply the brakes
hard while keeping it floored. Even the crappiest car will stop. It's been
at least 30 years since any reputable manufacturer has built a car with more
power than brakes. Throttles have been sticking open since they were
invented, it's just that recently even a relatively tame car has 200 hp or
more, where 30 years ago, they had 70. There's a lot more time to think and
react with those lower power levels.

Besides, I don't buy the premise that the CHP officer is incapable of making
a mistake. He didn't shift the car into neutral, for example, something his
training should have told him to do.

While Toyota obviously has a product problem here, I do think that pilot
error contributed. That accident in particular should have been preventable.

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:45 PM, john at westcoastgarage.net <
john at westcoastgarage.net> wrote:

> Joshua Van Tol wrote:
>
>> Well sure, if you're all meek about it, you'll overheat the brakes. Any
>> recent car regardless of where it's sold should be capable of at least one
>> full throttle stop, provided you get into the brakes nice and hard.
>>
>>  While I haven't been a passenger in any of the numerous reported cases
> involving runaway Toyotas, I think it's safe to say that in  the particular
> case I cited, with the CHP officer driving, probably didn't have issues with
> "meek" braking.  The published accident investigation report indicated the
> brakes showed signs of prolonged and severe application of the brakes,
> turning the discs blue and eating up the pads.  I think further discussion
> of this aspect isn't going to get us anywhere ...................
>
> John
>