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Old 03-12-2010, 07:16 AM
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Wayne Maybury Wayne Maybury is offline
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Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Quebec, Canada, QC
Cobra Make, Engine: Johnex 427 S/C, 351W, 472 HP, 444 lbs. torque
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueRooster View Post
The brakes should always overpower the engine. Something smells fishy with the old man. He mentioned that he brought the prius in for a recall notice and they turned him away. Revenge anyone? To be a man, driving cars for over 40 years and to not put the thing in neutral is just humiliating.....I pity da fool.
Maybe the police officer is also a fool as he said he saw the brake lights on and he could smell the brakes overheating which means that the driver must have been trying hard to stop the car. The officer told the driver to also use the emergency brake along with the regular brakes which then did slow the car down.

Don't forget that Hybrids use the generator/alternator to recharge the batteries while slowing the car down. That is, the hybrid relies heavily on the charging system to do much of the braking. If the computer mal-functioned, isn't it possible that the electric motor combined with the gasoline engine were able to over-power the hydralic brakes (alone) which were not receiving the normal help from the charging system? I'm not saying that the driver did not share the blame by not putting the car in neutral, but we cannot assume that he was a total fool either.

Wayne
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