Do Not Use Cruise Control in Rain

I don't think you offended anyone, and this certainly doesn't qualify as a hanging offense. The way you responded is exactly why these things go around and around. It sounds scary, so you quickly share it with friends, who share it with other friends. I just wish more people took the time to analyze these chain letters before sending them on.

Tom

 

"Took off like an airplane?" Probably not in the sense of lifting off.
Bad choice of similies, if intended to express the quality of suddenness.

Perhaps she meant "took off like a rabbit," or "like a shot from a gun."

My Grandmother who died at 101, grew up as the "Age of Flight"
advanced. For us flying is just a daily occurance. For her generation, it
was a true revelation and a wonder; higher, faster, farther, bigger. I can
hear her saying "took off like an airplane," to mean it went quickly.

 

When I was a kid, I heard stories of 1959 Chevy's, with massive horizontal fins -- who's rear ends would lift off the pavement at 115 mph.
Probably urban legend ... or was it ... ? ...

And cruise-control was just a glimmer in their tail-lights ....

 

That was a safety feature - when the rear end lifted, the car would slow down until the rear wheels came back into contact with the pavement again - a mechanical speed governor. And you probably thought those fins were just for decoration. :madgrin:

Re: Being offended by the original post - I wasn't offended, but my BS meter did peg momentarily - first when I read snoops.com (sic) and then again when I read the part about the Lincoln becoming airborne.

 

Yeah, nicely preserved piece of Detroit iron, by the look of it. From back in the days of $0.25 -0.30/gallon gas and 8 - 10 mpg max! When cars were designed solely by the styling(!), advertising and marketing departments, and the engineers were told to stuff any old V8 under the hood!

Gone for good, though the mindset still lingers.

 

Perhaps the curators of the USS Intrepid (berthed in NYC) could help us launch one at NJ as I'm pretty sure the seaplane catapults were not reinstalled on the USS New Jersey in Camden.

 

If you try that Jim, make sure to pick up a bogus flight suit at an Army-Navy store --
Then pose for the media, saying "Mission accomplished!"

(how many more days?)

 

The airplane bit...there is some truth
Driving a 2007 Grand Prix on cruise at 78, hit a wet patch of road car hydroplaned and did 2 1/2 360's and when in the ditch almost rolling over, yes for a long few seconds - it flew. Had rained there earlier, and car drove out of ditch OK, but ruin RR tire (cupped badly from hitting concrete in ditch). Wife said speedo hit 130 before I got control. Not fun We drove on to Taos alot slower and GP got traded in on Prius later.

 

So from what i understand, you hydroplaned, spun a few times, and ended up in a ditch. Going 78 mph into a ditch probably WOULD make you airborne for a few seconds.

As for the 130... it wouldn't surprise me entirely to see it jump up while the wheels spin with no traction... I know in the Prius if i'm having trouble getting traction from a dead stop the speedometer jumps around wildly as the wheels spin and then the traction control kicks in to stop it.

 

No question you can lose control and roll a car, or have it leave the road. The point is that you didn't go 130. The fastest you went is 78, unless you fell down into a very deep ditch. Cruise control will not make a car go faster when you lose traction. It can make the wheels spin. Hydroplaning was your problem, and would have occurred at that speed with our without cruise control. Perhaps without cruise control you could have reacted faster and regained control.

It is possible to have cruise control run away and cause uncontrolled acceleration, but that is not from slippery conditions. That would be from failed equipment or bad design.

Tom

 

+1

At most, you'd hydroplane, the wheels would slip as you slowed down a bit, then you'd hit a dry patch and the get a jolt as the wheels found traction again, making you think the car was suddenly accelerating by a huge amount. But the sensors and computer chips in the car can respond in as little as a millisecond, much quicker than you could possibly react and hit the brakes to stop any extreme acceleration.

 

It's interesting how people perceive slipping as acceleration. A good case in point is when a bump activates traction control on the Prius, which causes a switch to friction-only braking. When that happens, there is a very short interval when the magnitude of the braking vector is reduced. People are very sensitive to acceleration forces and perceive this short reduction of braking as "shooting forward" even though their speed never increases.

Tom

 

This is not noticed in Prius only. The Civic Hybrid that I owned for almost 5 years before getting a Prius felt exactly the same when a bump would kill the regineration while braking.