Accelerator jam car hits 135mph

Originally Posted by jellybaby

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...re/5094840.stm

So ... the police think there's something fishy about the story but they can't pin anything on him ...

[TheDaddy]

It's not the first time this has happened to an automatic car, it might be interesting to know how many times it has occured.

[Stuart]

A few years back, while I was learning to drive, I was driving my dad's Seat Ibiza and the throttle jammed. As soon as I realsied something bad was happening (the engine sound pitch rose as if it were accelerating), I took my foot off the accelerator. When the engine carried on accelerating, I jammed the clutch down and forced the car into neutral. Luckily, we were only doing 20 MPH.

Maybe something similar happened here? Although I would expect some physical evidence of this (maybe some damage to the throttle where it jammed).

[Escapee]

I remember the throttle jamming open on my mini cooper, the end of the throttle cable got caught on the inlet manifold as I accelerated in my boy racer days down the dual carraigeway. I only realised when I got to the roundabout that gives the option of either goes left or right.

I was told by a former Rolls Royce employee about a Silver Shadow that suffered from the throttle stuck open, it apparently wrecked the back wall of the garage it was kept in. He claimed they repaired it free of charge on the condition the story was kept away from the newspapers.

Probably a myth!

[Timeless Stew]

It was a common problem in Audi Quattro (Automatic --USA model) ten years ago. It was an intermittent problem. In the end Audi was forced to admit the problem and pay up...

[SMG]

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

I'd probably have tried kicking the accelerator first in an attempt to free it. Then put both feet (automatic = BIG brake pedal) on the brake pedal and possibly use the handbrake too.
If that wasn't enough to stop the car (but kept the speed at 70, as has been mentioned) then I'd simply change to neutral and let the engine go bang.

Switching off would be my last resort, as it does make the behaviour of the car rather difficult to anticipate.

The simple fact is I simply don't believe this tale. The design of a car accelerator system makes it quite unlikely to stick down. But, for the moment, let's accept it may happen.

Most cars these days have braking systems well able to stop the car. The only way to burn out a brake system is by not applying the brakes hard enough.

Lastly, now we also have to have some failure of the automatic box that stops him dropping into neutral? The odds of these events combining are stacking up rather a lot.

---------- Post added at 09:52 ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 ----------

But you might if you just wanted your 15 minutes of fame...

I must admit, had he tried the story after the event, then I'm sure no-one would even have remotely believed him. As it is, I haven't seen anywhere mention how long he'd been racing down the A1 before he called anyone.

---------- Post added at 10:12 ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 ----------

Didn't say so in the BBC article...

I did note that the driver said:
So had he been driving a manual he'd have kept his foot on the accelerator?

And how did he manage to avoid the 'traffic in front' - he was supposedly slowing down because of it, but instead he got through it at a minimum of 70mph?

You cant argue with any of that. There is no car I know of where an electrical failure will result in complete loss of brakes. Only a major failure of the master cylinder would result in complete loss & cylinders now have a double barrel safety built in. Should a brake pipe burst you would still have 2 brakes to stop you. I think the smell of bull**** has wafted a bit far here.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

It's not the first time this has happened to an automatic car, it might be interesting to know how many times it has occured.

Hopefully only once per car