[MR2] MR2 news from Top Gear

[William Brandt]

Sounds like a low tech problem and possibly high tech feature (no key 
system) for the disaster ;-)

Imagine a massive recall for -- floor mats.

Years ago I had a 67 Camaro with a peculiar problem - the accelerator would, 
seemingly on its own, suddenly and without warning go full throttle. Made it 
interesting when on a few occasions going from red to green at the light the 
engine would suddenly go crazy, the car would fishtail with me trying to 
control it....

Turns out the motor mounts were bad - the engine would rise up, the firewall 
would catch the throttle as it was rising further pulling the throttle back.

GMs solution? Recalled 9 million cars and not better motor mounts but a 
cable tying the engine to the subframe.

I think Bob under stress it is easy to have "tunnel vision" and ignore the 
obvious - but you do wonder why he didn't put it in neutral - heck the car 
even has a rev limiter so the engine wouldn't blow...

(High tech helping in this case)

Bill
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Schultz" <bob-schultz at comcast.net>
To: "'William Brandt'" <wbrandt1 at sbcglobal.net>
Cc: <mr2 at mr2.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:14 PM
Subject: RE: [MR2] MR2 news from Top Gear


>
> BTW anyone know what is behind the stuck accelerator problem with Toyota?
>
> <snip>
>
> The floor mats get stuck holding the accelerator down and when this 
> happens
> people seem to stop thinking and just don't figure out how to either turn
> the engine off or put the car in neutral
>
> There is a 911 call out there from a South California Trooper who drove
> himself and his family off the road killing all in the car and maybe 
> others.
>
> The car was doing 100 mph or more when he crashed.  He was driving a new
> Lexus ES330 loaner.  This car may not have had an ignition key but why he
> didn't think to just try putting the car in neutral is beyond me. The call
> is chilling and went on for long enough that he should have figured out 
> what
> was going on.
>