Re: driving onto moving object

["Mark L. Chang" <mchang@ece.nwu.edu>]

On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Jon Moritz wrote:

> There was a commercial for a nissan something that drove down a runway
> supposedly at high speed and drove into a moving cargo plane.

Big plane, Nissan Maxima...

> Assuming I want to try this in a quattro:
> 1) What would be the effect of leaving the center differential locked or
> unlocked during this stunt?

Locked, since the fronts need to go to zero quickly, I would think the
center diff would be _very_ unhappy.

> 2) What would be the difference in performing this stunt with a rear wheel
> drive vs a front wheel drive or quattro?

Front wheel drive: need to ease off the accelerator or throw it into
neutral when the front wheels hit the ramp.  Then, ease up the ramp.

Rear wheel drive: Ease off the accelerator or throw into neutral when the
_rear_ wheels hit the ramp... then, ease up the ramp before you roll off
of it.

> I've always wanted to try this stunt since I saw another tv program years
> ago where cars drive into a moving semi.  The cars would then back out of
> the semi however I don't remember if the semi was moving at the time.

You mean Knight Rider?  That was Pontiac Trans Am, I believe... right?
Rear wheel drive car... automatic I believe...

I too have always wondered about this... my labmates and I just debated
this on the whiteboard :)... oh, what time can be wasted thanks to the
wonderful world of TV.

Back to your regularly-scheduled programming.

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