I was driving home from work yesterday in moderate traffic. There were alot of cars on the road but it was moving steadily at 35-40mph. All of a sudden the car in front of me gets cut-off and slams on his breaks and stops within a couple of feet. I was about 12 feet behind him and moving at about 30mph when I slam on my brakes. Let me tell you I used every single inch of that 12 feet to stop. I doubt you could of fit a couple of sheets of paper between our 2 cars. It was very awkward that it took me that long too stop. I felt the anti-lock brakes pumping the whole 12 feet but the car would not stop.

Doesn't this seem awkward that I was only moving about 30mph and I need a good 12 ft to stop? When I first seen the car in front of me slam on his brakes I didn't think I would have any problems stopping in time but it was very scary moving toward him with my brakes pumping and my car still moving. By the way I was not sliding, the road was completely dry!

Now, my question is, was it my fault that it took me soo long to stop. The S2K is my first Manual Transmission car. My initial reaction when I seen the car in front of me stop short was to push down hard with both feet. I pushed down the brake aswell as the clutch. Is this the wrong move in this situation. Should I start to mentally train myself to only slam on the brake when I have to stop short? Is this why it took me so long to stop????

Any advise would help. Thanks

 

One of the most important things to remember about ABS is that it is not designed to stop you in a shorter distance but rather to prevent wheel lockup, thus allowing you to (hopefully) steer around whatever obstacle has entered your path.

Now under certain circumstances (deep snow, gravel), wheel lockup can be good and decrease stopping distance, and there is probably a case to be made that it would have been good on dry pavement as well in your case.

The thing to remember is to steer if at all possible - hold the pedal to the floor, let ABS do its thing and if you can steer around the obstacle, attempt to do so. The shoulder or even off the road (as long as it's not a cliff) may be a much better place to be than 3" inside the back of the car in front of you.

As far as manual transmissions go, yes, leaving the clutch engaged so the engine helps you brake will reduce stopping distance somewhat, but in most cases not enough to make any noticable difference...

 

First of all, you need more than 12' between you and the car in front of you when driving 30 MPH. Secondly, having a manual transmission has nothing to do with your stopping distance. You were right in hitting both the clutch and brake pedal. However, if you could have down shifted while braking, it would help shorten the distance. And thirdly, you should be thankful you had ABS since you probably would have skidded right into him and you would have been fault for not leaving enough distance between the two of you.

 

Have you ever driven in NYC rush hour traffic? I dont think I have ever seen cars with more than this amount of space between them between the hours of 4:30-6:30pm

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jcasta02
[B]

Have you ever driven in NYC rush hour traffic?

 

You need about 26-30 feet to stop from 30mph. But reaction time here is also key, not to mention the time to physically move your foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal. In an S2000, you should be more worried about getting rear ended when you do an emergency stop like that.

Also, remember to steer if you can - this has saved me from being rear ended a couple of times in the last year - even though I was able to stop in time.

The other thing is, don't tailgate... remember the guidelines for staying behind the car in front of you?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by s2ktaxi
[B]You need about 26-30 feet to stop from 30mph.

 

Actually, this is quite risky with the S2000. Given its tendancy to snap oversteer when you offload the weight from the rear by braking hard, you should be careful with this maneuver. In some other discussion, an owner reported spinning out on the highway after he braked hard and swirved to avoid the guy in front of him.

 

Let me try and get an overall opinion:

In situations where I need to brake hard and fast and there is no place to swirve, do I:

1. Pressed down on brake and clutch at the same time

or

2. Pressed down hard on the brake, dont pressed down on the clutch and hope the engine helps me decelerate.

????


Thanks

 

I personally favor depressing both clutch and brake. As you come very near to a stop, the engine at idle will try to drive the car slowly forward, fighting against the brakes. If you stop with the car in gear and the clutch out, you'll kill the engine. This represents work the rear brakes are doing that doesn't contribute to stopping the car.

As for downshifting, I suspect that the rear brakes are capable of locking the rear wheels when the weight transfers to the front in a hard stop. I suspect that the downshift won't really help slow you much, and making it may distract you from more important things in these critical few seconds.