When just stepping on the brake (if the car isn't in nuetral) will cause the car to stall meaning you can hit the person infront of you because the clutch isn't in and the car jumps. Better to stick with clutch and brake!

 

Thanks

 

The brakes on the S2000 have saved me on several occasions. I have nearly been hit several times, including yesterday. The great brakes are the only thing that kept me & the car out of the "body shop". Say what you will, you will never get me to believe anything different.

 

the brakes on the s2000 are very good and you stop in less distance than many other cars on the road (given you're both going the same speed before stomping on the brake). however, it could have been that the car in front of you let off the gas and was coasting and slowing down before their gas lights ever went on and at the same time you might have been slightly accelerating, so when you hit your brakes, you were going faster than they were and had more momentum. another thing i find is i don't immediately brake when the car in front of me does because i wait to see if they're just tapping, and it takes me another fraction of a second to realize they've fully slammed on their brakes. all these things compounded could explain why it seemed to take longer than it should have to come to a stop. in just about any other car, you probably would have hit the car in front of you.

i don't think downshifting would have helped much in this situation.

 

Also keep in mind that if it is a cold day, your tires have less grip.

 

12 or 15 feet is less than a car length. Stopping that quick is pretty good. Let's assume the car in front wasn't stopped, but was slowing to stop itself, so it proably wasn't 12 feet total distance, but a gap of 12 feet that was closed to nil.

There is nothing that seems so short as the space between you and the car in front when you are on the brakes and it is closing up, and you are hoping you are going to stop in time.

-dB

 

Driving at 30Mph you need to ether leave more than 12' or get used to rear ending cars. No question about it.

The S will brake better than 99% of cars out there if you do it properly. It will actually stop better if you depress the brake pedal to take up any slack in the drive train, then apply enough pressure to brake but avoid the ABS kicking in. This is a skill not unlike knowing how much to turn a steering wheel for a given corner. Sounds complex to a first timer, but is second nature after some practise.

One thing I learnt on a defensive driving course was to cover the brake. That is, when you are travelling along a road and see something that could have the slightest possibility of getting in your way (car in side road, car in next lane, school kid near crossing, taxi anywhere ) you put your foot on the brake but only depress it very slightly. This puts your brake lights on (warns drivers behind) and loads up your drive train. It won't actually slow you at all (not noticably) but will mean that if you do have to apply the brakes suddenly they will be way more effective.

Sounds like in NYC you'll have your foot on the brake at all times, and if you let those taxis in you may as well have it in reverse.

Oh, and definitely depress the clutch with your spare clod. That engine is spinning and has a reasonable amount of momentum. It will be fighting against your brakes if you need to stop suddenly.

And whatever you do don't try and turn. Snap oversteer aside, the chances of you having enough reaction time to steer and avoid obstacles either side, if you don't have enough time to avoid the obstacle in front, is pretty slim.

When I was 18 I had a vehicle coming towards me make a right hand turn in front of me (we're RHD so a right crosses in our path) at a set of lights. I hit the anchors and slid, released them (no ABS in those days) swerved, hit them and slid into the curb and traffic light pole. Sounds pretty cool until I tell you that behind the pole were a couple of school girls waiting to cross. It was only the curb and pole that stopped me mashing them up pretty bad. In future I'll just hit the fool in the car.

 

Everyone keeps talking about needing more room to stop then 12ft. I am not positive about this distance, It was probably a little more but that is not really the point.

The point is that when I hit the brakes there was no fear in my mind the I might hit the car in front of me. I have been in plenty of situations like this before driving in NY. There is an instinct every driver obtains after driving for numerous years. You kind of know when you are in trouble or not. And when the car in front of came to a quick stop I did not have any fear that I would hit him. I stomped down on the brake and clutch and figured I would have stopped at about 4-5ft behind him. But when I started to get to about 5-6 ft behind him I was definetly at a speed that the car should have been able to stop at, but yet it kept moving foward with the brakes pumping. The last couple of feet were very slow motion movement but I couldnt stop. That is why I got scared. Because of the ABS there was no abrupt deceleration. I felt out of control because I wanted to stop and I felt the car was moving slow enough to stop but it just wouldn't.

Again I'll say that those last few feet the car must have been moving like 3mph but the brakes where still pumping and the car was moving foward. Now my question is: Is there any way to get around ABS. If in those last couple of feet I quickly took my foot off the brake and put it back on would that have disengaged the ABS ?

 

What I heard is that people tend to loosen the pressure on the pedal when feeling it's pumping (but still pumping), instead of applying as much pressure as possible on the pedal. Lots of cars nowadays have Brake Assist which will correct that.
In other words when you feel it's pumping, press it harder.

Just my

 

There are a lot of interesting points here, but it seems like your main questions are:

Did I do the right thing?
Answer: Yes, you did the right thing

-- Panic stop, both feet in to prevent a stall, let the ABS do what it's made for. Clearly there is no time for downshifting in such a situation. Sometimes you can steer around obstacles while ABS braking, but that depends on the car AND the situation (sometimes there's nowhere to go.)


Is this how my brakes are supposed to work?
Answer: Maybe, maybe not.

--Sounds like your car didn't decelerate as quickly as you expected. Either your expectations were to high, or something is wrong with your car (a real possibility), or something in the situation decreased the traction. There are few, (if any?), production cars that stop as quickly as an S2000. Definitely get it checked out. Then find an abandoned parking lot and find out what your car can do. Autocrossing and driver education track days are really good for finding your car's limits.

Following to close? To those who don't deal with it daily, the unfortunate reality in commute traffic is that's how traffic flows. Two-second rules, distance rules don't operate, even though we all learned these things when we learned to drive. Probably the thing that decreases safety most in commute traffic (besides sightline obstruction by SUVs and minivans with tinted windows!) is lane transactions, and lane transactions increase when there are gaps. If you leave 1.5 carlengths, somebody will move in there. Leave another gap, someone else moves in. Nothing wrong with leaving space when you can, but it is just not possible to have traffic flow safely if you are the ONLY driver doing it.

"Covering" the brake is a GREAT suggestion, in those situations where you might need to slow down as AusS2000 suggests. Almost half of total stopping distance in an unexpected situation is "reaction time". Reaction time includes perceiving the situation, deciding what to do, having your brain send the signals to your foot, etc, then actually pressing the brake pedal. This time can be as much as 0.75 to 1.5 seconds with your foot on the gas, but while "Covering" the brake reaction time CAN be cut down to tenths of a second.


Anyway, definitely get your brakes checked out. If everything is working fine, it's possible there was some other factor--slippery road, cold tires, etc.--that was in play at the time.