burning rubber smell after short bursts of wide open throttle

Next time, pull over and smell around the car. Smell the brakes, tires, exhaust. You will be able to identify the source.

I would suspect a failing catalytic converter smell

 

Maybe undercoat overspray on the exhaust?

Regarding your need to blow past all these slow pokes, I'm gonna restrain myself, just say keep it safe-n-sane.

 

Got a nice chuckle out of that. Thanks for the laugh.

 

It wouldn't be insane acceleration burning the tire.
But it could be acceleration tied to binding brakes.

I'm for more careful investigation including next time it happens indeed pulling over as safely and quickly as possible and trying to determine where it's coming from.

Feel the tires see if they are warm.

 

I've only noticed burning smell like that after protracted high revving. Typical case was climbing a ski hill. I doubt it would be the issue with a short burst, not sure.

The one bad situation I can think of, and it happens: someone is stopped on the road, and it's actually for a (hidden) pedestrian. Personally I'd sit tight, stay out of the intersection till the guy get's his thumb out or whatever. Hitting a red light isn't the end of the world.

 

My wife's 2010 has made an unpleasant smell during hard acceleration for years. She never seemed to notice, but I have a "super smeller" (that's a Psych TV show reference) that always picks up on the smell. Of course today she is on a long driving trip and calls to say she smells the stink going up a hill - whatevs.

Here's the deal - the smell is not typical exhaust type smell but rather an unpleasant, almost electrical smell, but not exactly. It is somewhat unique, skunky even. It only happens accelerating up a steep hill or on aggressive passing. We always have the AC on (Texas) and set to recirc. I can tell the odor comes from the back seat area, not from the AC vents. I suspect that odd vent next to the back right seat that probably has something to do with the battery, right? Anyway, the smell is gross and now all of sudden wifey wants to do something about it - natually after all warranty has expired.

Has anyone ever given an authoritative, technical opinion of this smell? There are lots of forum posts about this all over PriusChat covering various models. I also found a fair number on the Internet at other forums. It's definitely a thing, but whether it is a thing to worry about I dont know.

 

Second gen's had a rubber connector hose over the hybrid battery, connecting to all the cell vents. It was prone to getting stinky. Not sure how that would tie in to hard acceleration though.

I'm familiar with hill smell; in most case I figured it was exhaust suspension bushings, over undercoat, getting heated.

 

When I say hill I'm talking not much of an incline and not sustained for more than a minute or two. The brief amount of time the engine and exhaust system are heating doesn't seem to be long enough to impact undercoating etc. Could be wrong, but this really strikes me as a smell that's coming from a system or process that changes slightly when the ICE and electric motor are both at maximum output.