|
|
Join CanadianDriver’s Facebook group
Follow CanadianDriver on TwitterBy Jim Kerr
My son now has his learner’s licence: beware!
Actually, he is doing a fine job of learning to drive, with only minor errors and nothing that has caused any damage. Riding along as his co-pilot, I am trying to give him as many different driving experiences as possible so that he will be better prepared when he ventures out on his own, and that includes driving all of our “fleet” of vehicles.
Between my pickup truck, my wife’s compact car and my antique cars, there is a variety of weights, sizes and driving performance. Because I drive hundreds of vehicles every year during test drives and at the shop, I have become used to quickly adapting to different vehicles. However my son, in his limited experience, quickly noticed what I often take for granted – different vehicles have different throttle response.
Throttle response can aid or hinder driving confidence. When you step on the gas pedal you expect the vehicle to accelerate, but as I said before, not all are created equal. Take my truck for example: as a mid-90’s V8 with automatic transmission it has more than enough power, but when you step on the throttle lightly it seems nothing is happening. Keep stepping a little more and suddenly there is a surge of power that, in my son’s case, is often followed by a spinning tire and then a quick release of the throttle as he becomes aware of what is happening. It doesn’t inspire smooth starts or confidence. Now this situation is easily overlooked on warm pavement but icy winter roads could be a problem. Hopefully he will have learned how to control the throttle better by then.
My wife’s compact car is another story. The throttle is very responsive right from the start. As soon as you feather the throttle, the car wants to surge ahead and it is easy to quickly exceed the speed limit. On the other hand, passing on the highway isn’t as quick as the pickup truck because the throttle is already open more at highway cruising speeds.
Pages: 1 2 | next >> View full article on one page
|
at 8:58 am
Being a user of manual transmissions and exclusively throttle by cable, I can say that although throttle by wire Mazdas seem to come the closest to intuitive as far as throttle response, I have never driven a throttle by wire car where the throttle by wire was a welcome edition. Lexus IS is slow to close the throttle. Civic SI is a three position switch. Audi A4 feels like you only get a vote as far as how much throttle is applied. With throttle by cable, you feel the tension build in the cable and at the peak of that tension you can feel exactly how much the throttle moved. You can then take off however you want using the clutch. Your son’s perceived throttle differences are half the torque converters fault.
at 12:43 pm
I am not a fan of this drive-by-wire thing. We already drive via a wire: a steel one, one that has only the slightest chance of malfunctioning. Having a computer controlling how much throttle my engine gets is a scary thought to me. Add to that the fact that these throttles are designed to feel different at different times, and I’ll stick with a mechanical cable. I like things to be very predictable, and when you drive your vehicle on a regular basis, every movement you make has a predictable response. By the sounds of it, that predictable response would differ depending on what day of the week it is. No thanks.
at 3:33 pm
My 2004 Nissan Quest had a very jumpy drive-by-wire throttle. Low-speed bumps would occasionally trigger an accidental stab of the gas pedal, which would in turn set off a series of embarrassing lurches. I don’t blame drive-by-wire; I blame the marketing guys who probably told the engineers to make it feel 60% sportier.