They are important when merging onto freeway traffic.

 

[Jose Jimenez voice] Oh I hope not. [/Jose Jimenez voice]

 

^^^gimme a brake!!

 

Well, both the stopping and acceleration performances are given so the consumer can do intelligent comparisons between cars. When everyone else in the industry measure stopping in terms of "distance", it is hard to compare when Mercedes talks in terms of "seconds". When you are driving at 60 MPH, you can judge distance and say "I need Y feet in front of me in case I have to do a panic stop." It is very difficult to measure "I need X seconds in front of me ...". I know some people can translate "X seconds at 60 MPH" to "Y feet", but the average consumer cannot do such conversions easily.

 

in interesting feature found on most if not all benz's over the last few years is a feature called Brake Assist System.
the braking system monitors the throttle position and brake pedal.
If the time between a rapid throttle release and pressing the brake is determined to be an emergency stop, the system will brake the vehicle at full capacity i.e at the stops of ABS capability until either the break pedal is released or you have come to a full stop.
they found through accident analysis that most people did not apply braking hard enough, early enough.

and let me tell you, full braking is remarkable.

 

Amen, I finally used full braking on the S after our recent brake meet to seat the brakes in. Remarkable is the word that comes to mind.

 

I was instructing a driver in a Porsche 997 GT2 last weekend. I now have a new standard for what is remarkable in "full braking".

 

can you say eye strain?

 

how many drivers out there do you think have ever experienced full braking in their cars?
it's sad that most drivers wander through life without testing the vehicle limits under controlled conditions.
Then the emergency arises and they have no clue what their car can and can't do.

 

Even better is the zero to sixty and back to zero. I rode in a friends '66 AC Cobra 427 and it was as close to a rocket ship as I'll ever get, with the sound to match!