PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - How would well would a W123 or W126 survive a side impact?

lietuviai · #16 05-13-2004, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dmorrison
lietuviai

Please let me do a little educating here. Forgive me if you already have knowledge of this, but by your post I am not convinced.
As an airline pilot we deal with high speed aborts with and without ABS (without shown as an emergency training situation)
these are the philosophies on braking with and without ABS.

Without ABS. You apply brake pedal pressure untill you get about a 20% tire skid situation. How do you know what this is?? Go out and practice. Apply the maximum brake pedal pressure until the tires start to lockup and then YOU must be the ABS sytem and release the brake pedal pressure to ensure that tires do not lock up When they lock up they start to ride on melting rubber that is under the tire. This melting rubber is very slippery and causes the braking to deteriate. So go out and practice your panic stops in the NON ABS car.

With ABS. Remember to slam the brake pedal to the floor as hard as you can, then expect to feel pulsing in the pedal as the ABS does its job. Maintain the pedal pressure and steer away from the collision. Many people want to slam on the pedal and have the car stop. The most worthwhile benifit of ABS is the ability to steer and maintain control of the car while getting maximum braking. We practice this in our High Speed aborts in the aircraft. Apply maximum pedal pressure until you have competely stopped.

So
NON ABS -- brake and you regulate the skidding of the wheels. If skidding you will loose steering and possible control of the car. So don't allow the tires to lock up.

ABS-- Stomp on the brake pedal ( expect pulsing in the pedal) and STEER away from the accident.

Sorry if I am lecturing but Driver training in the US is terrible when it comes to ABS vs. NON ABS technique and proceedure. Since the majority of drivers are taught by there parents your getting old information when you are taught and there are a lot of new systems that have come out in the last 10 years or so.
When teaching my kids to drive, I taught them that there are some real idiots out there driving. If you don't believe that, then just watch "Jerry Springer" once. Those people drive cars and are teaching their kids how to drive.

Dave

Dave, I do have quite a bit of knowledge in regards to stopping and skidding which is why I didn't land in the drainage ditch with the 300D. I chose to omit going into too much detail about my driving skills only that I have over 25 years worth and have experienced a variety of panic stop situations in a variety of autos & trucks and have had no accidents that were my fault.
In my panic situation with the 300D I didn't have too much time to gather my thoughts other than lay on the brakes and steer the car appropriately. My adrenalin prevented me from being an effective ABS system. The tire rubber did melt an created four annoying flat spots on my tires which to this day have not worn off completely. I am reminded of them everytime I go near the 70 MPH mark.
I will take your advice on the non ABS braking and give it some more practice as I have many seldom traveled roads in my area. I use a different philosophy for braking which has become more instinctive in nature to me and your suggestion gives me a slightly different perspective to apply.

123 300D driver, there was an idea to standardize bumper heights in Europe not too long ago but unfortunately it became satirized in a number of articles which ended up making grotesque disfigurations of the popular models of autos. I don't know what has become of the idea. I haven't had a chance to measure the bumper height of my wife's Tahoe but my guess would put it to around 32". None of my catalogs mention that. Interestingly though, the Tahoe measures about the same length as a W126 300SD and only about 4" wider.