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A little test...... On level hiway, accelerate from 55 to 70 in 6th gear......
Now do the same thing again, but this time, instead of the gas pedal,
hold down the cruise control "accel" button............................. What a difference !
The S.O.P. feel seems twice as fast !
The difference is amazing........... I know that this quirk was mentioned in
"All Corvettes are Red", (Don't know the page number) saying that when the
car was in the development stage, they were trying to eliminate this "bug".
Guess they never did ! :yesnod: :yesnod:
I have not tried it yet, will next time I'm out and I remember. But, I'm wondering if it is real or percieved. Because you are just sort of sitting there, does it make it feel faster? Kind of like riding in a car when someone else is driving feels faster than when you are driving. This is because your concentration is totally on the forces acting on your body instead of on driving the car. Can't wait to try it to figure this out.
Also could be that the car does not accelerate as fast floored at that speed/rpm due to ineffeciencies of the throttle being wide open allowing too much air in. This probably is not an issue any more with computer controlled engines, but in the old days of carbureted (you remember them, don't you) engines it was a factor.
Steve, at 55 mph in 6th gear you're at around 1200 rpm. I would expect any car floored under those circumstances to not be able to use all the fuel you're asking it to consume. It makes sense to me that the car would probably have an easier time accelerating from 55-70 in 6th gear at approximately half throttle. Or...I could be full of crapola...
I have not tried it yet, will next time I'm out and I remember. But, I'm wondering if it is real or percieved. Because you are just sort of sitting there, does it make it feel faster? Kind of like riding in a car when someone else is driving feels faster than when you are driving. This is because your concentration is totally on the forces acting on your body instead of on driving the car. Can't wait to try it to figure this out.
Also could be that the car does not accelerate as fast floored at that speed/rpm due to ineffeciencies of the throttle being wide open allowing too much air in. This probably is not an issue any more with computer controlled engines, but in the old days of carbureted (you remember them, don't you) engines it was a factor.
"Perceived" could very well be the key here. When you have a passenger in the car and shift, the passenger will always mone forward and then backward while you have already anticipated the shift, so move less. (At least you feel like you do.)
According to my DIC (can I say that here?), well at least the elapsed time counting thingy, I didn't get notice any appreciable difference from WOT to using the cruise control. Now, I didn't have a really flat road so I took the average of six runs and it all came out a wash. I'm assuming you meant a really big difference, which I never got.
So, yes, I think your SOTP meter might need recalibrating ;-)
Another interesting test when your driving on a boring Interstate is to watch
the DIC for Fuel (MPG) with the Cruise ON and OFF. The Auto control will beat
your manal foot contol unless you are going up/down big hills. Yes, this is a
boring test but driving on Interstate highways can be boring until somebody
does something dumb.