Posted on 03/08/2010 6:42:10 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
“Remember when the accelerator stuck on your 38 Chevy and you turned the key off and then on again and blew the dual Smithy Steelpaks off...”
Smitty. You meant Smitty. Had a set on a 49 Ford powered by a 283 Chevy. Sweetest pipes ever. People would literaly follow me into parking lots to ask how did I get that sound. Taking the pipes up and over the back axle and then out the sides was key, though I don’t understand why. Those were the days.
:-)
Easy fix for this:
Put a big herkin’ battery switch in series with the battery pack, like any decent boat has.
Put a RED handle on it and label it “EMERGENCY SHUTOFF”. Done deal.
“People are idiots put the fricking thing in neutral and stop”
That will blow an engine. Easier just to switch off the ignition key, bring the car to a stop. Save the car, save the engine, save the passengers or other drivers on the road, prevent an accident.
Smitty is was everyone called them but they were embossed with the SMITHY Steelpak logo in a script style...
Whoa, that sounds right! Thanks! The set on the Ford was old when I got the truck, but I bought a set for a vette once and they were kind of a light copper color, IIRC. A lot of people said they would get too loud eventually but I don’t remember a problem with that, heh.
There are some interesting discussions on UI at edmunds.com in the forums. One is “Toyota on the Mend 2010?” and the other is just about UI. Edmunds is going to sponsor a contest to get to the bottom of this, so put your thinking caps on, because I believe the prize is $1 million.
That’s why there is a check valve on the booster. There should be enough vacuum there to assist the brakes for at least one cycle if not two once the booster has accumulated any vacuum (which is almost instantaneous from initial ignition), especially in a car that’s less than 15 years old! This is the case in any car I’ve ever driven (some of them 1975 models). This is a standard safety feature! Shut off the ignition and you still have power brakes. In many of my old Ford trucks I would try all sorts of things - turning off the ignition while at highway speeds was one of them (we drove 55-70 on many gravel roads as well and did this too) and I never had any trouble braking. Regardless of if the car had power assist or not, it would still stop a lot faster than one with the engine running, a stuck accelerator and hot brakes!
I don’t know if people can get the car in neutral or not (there may be a lockout), but the governor should keep the engine from revving too high anyhow. One way or the other, the driver should at least be able to cut the ignition off half a click (they probably cant get it to the wheel lock position while in any gear other than park anyhow - another wonderful safety feature that has been in use for at least 30 or more years).
Excellent. I also ran Walker Continentals on the 59 vette for a while. That was my “quiet” period. Stuck them into the ground, filled them with Coca-Cola and left them overnight before installation. Refined sounding...
I used Mitchell glasspaks for years and now Flowmaster is the big thing. Allied Mfg in Benicia Ca still makes domed glasspaks like Mitchell’s were...
Mitchells were good stuff. I’m afraid to try anything on my 08 Frontier. Can’t imagine getting a decent sound out of a V6. Nice getting OT with you though.
Prius.... going 95mph...right. I didn’t think those things could go more than 50mph with a tail wind.
Everybody ain’t dying either so I would SAY he didn’t do something he should have.
But you forgot an important point.....he was driving a loaner vehicle that he was unfamiliar with.
The Lexus loaner had the push-button ignition that must be depressed for 3 seconds to turn the engine off.....something the officer probably did not know at the time. Also, the automatic gearshift layout is very confusing, so in a panic, going from D to N is not intuitive.
I believe this unfamiliarity with the vehicle contributed to the unfortunate deaths.
It is a push-button ignition.
The Prius is a hybrid....turn the engine off and you still have battery power to move th car.
Second, since everything is computer-controlled in these vehicles (ignition, shifter, accelerator, etc) it is unknown how many failures take place when the acceleration occurs.
Believe it or not, kill switches are illegal in automobiles. Thank your gov't that is looking out for your safety.
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