performance limiter...

One of the companies that mail shot me (northern tools I think) had an interesting device the other day that would do exactly what you ask. It was an inflatable cushion with a safety release that straps to the underside of the loud pedal, the inflation is done by a little remote pump, in normal use the pedal will only press so far down (adjustable) but in emergency a hard push can over-ride it. It is sold as an economy aid, but would be perfect for your need, about 25 quid IIRC

Mrcheerful

Light right foot

Depends on the car. Has it got switchable traction control? AIUI many later cars have. On my 1997 BMW it can be switched off if I want to hang the tail out. Switching it on prevents the rear from breaking away just by use of the accelerator. Mike.

Remove a spark plug?

Does she know your writing this? You obviously consider her a poor driver if you think she can't drive a fast car slowly.

my wife went straight from a metro diesel to a Lexus GS300 and apart from the odd bit of wheel spin when pulling out and turning right at our T junction, has had no problems at all, she doesn't tend to use very high speeds, but she does use the accelleration hard .

Mrcheerful

No traction control on a car of that price?

Yes, she's sat beside me now ;-)

She's a fine driver, she's just unused to cars that respond quickly when you press hard.. and has never done the 'playing in snowy car parks' thing that blokes do to recognise the signs of a skid or intuitively handle it.

For a lot of people the instinctive panic reaction when something unusual happens going into a corner is to jam both feet to the floor, and steer more. This is so totally wrong in a RWD car it all goes rapidly downhill

- that's one reason FWD was widely introduced - at least in FWD doing that just makes you understeer in a straight line and slow down, not swap ends and accelerate.

She *will* do just fine, eventually. It's more of a probationary thing.. especially with all the wet leaves and greasy roads at this time of year.

This one?

Looks interesting, but a bit pricey. £50 not £25.

Fit an easily removed restriction in the inlet duct. Feed a sock to the air filter, or if it's a flat panel filter put a piece of card over part of it. But as it results in a reduction in torque at WOT thoughout the rev range it won't allow.

which is totally contradictory. 150bhp at 3000rpm is no different to

150bhp at 6000rpm. The first needs twice the torque while the 2nd needs 2x the reduction ratio, result at wheels is exaclty the same.

Skid pan at Coombe? Unless she's a compete air head, my money's on her whipping your ass. When it comes to taking instruction, listening and doing what they are told women are just so much better than us men.

Except that power curves aren't flat - the power at 1000rpm and at

4000rpm (the sort of ranges I'm thinking about) is way different. Doing 30mph at 1000rpm (5th?) then flooring it is one thing, 30mph at 4000rpm (2nd?) and flooring it is quite another. As for 'needing' lots of pedal without going fast, I suppose I was thinking about being in too high a gear going up a steep hill - not ideal, I know, but it happens to everybody sometimes.

I think you're probably right, having done some fairly extreme off road driving with male and female drivers at the wheel.

However, whereas men have trouble slowing down, women have trouble steering. And responding to an unexpected skid is all about steering...

She parks much better than I do. Both wheels exactly an inch from the kerb after a tight parallel park without dinging either. Wish I could do it too...

That was the one. Cheaper than the tiniest scratch or one speeding ticket or even a tank of fuel.

True, but it doesn't have that much to offer over taping a half-ful balloon to the pedal - a hard push will pop it then away you go!

Go on a skid pan course then

Haven't things moved on with traction control, stability control and ABS, etc? And that dangerously oversteering RWD cars were often down to poor weight distribution and even poorer rear suspension design?

PCPaul gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

So she doesn't _have_ to "press hard", then?

What _are_ you on about? The driven end makes no difference whatsoever to braking behaviour, especially when the car's in neutral or the clutch is depressed.

"PCPaul" wrote in message news:kTZTk.88504$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.virginmedia.com...

I very much doubt if she, or any woman driver, is likely to crash simply from using too much throttle. They don't in general feel our need to push the car to its limits. What I do find with them is they often have no idea where the limits of grip lie or how close they are to them in poor conditions. That indeed tends to be a function of never exploring the limits and just driving at the same speed all the time regardless of conditions. My cousin, mid 40s, put her and car with both kids in it upside down in a ditch last winter on a road she knows very well by going too fast in the wet. Luckily no one was hurt. Her comment was "I have no idea why I crashed. I didn't think I was driving very fast. Just the same speed I always do."

Those of brought up on motorbikes know very well every nuance of the road conditions that car drivers are often completely insulated from. I remember one moron at a place I worked at many years ago who as soon as I joined everyone else said whatever you do don't accept a lift from him. I thought it a bit odd but filed it away for future reference. One winter day I drove in down the M40 in abysmal conditions with the roads icy or close to it in most places and it was quite hairy at times. This guy never showed up. We found out what had happened the next day. Going down a dip on a straight piece of road (exactly where the cold air tends to collect) he said he noticed the back end of the Jaguar in front starting to twitch about. That's odd he thought so he put the brakes on!!!! Effing moron. He said he was surprised to find he didn't actually slow down. Being on sheet ice at the time this is hardly surprising - so he braked harder!!! Having now lost control completely he shot across the road and collided with the front trailer legs of an artic coming the other way. This ripped the front of the car to bits and whether it's true or not I don't know but he said the police found the camshaft some way further down the road from the rest of the bits. I find that hard to believe although maybe a cam cover or something. Amazingly he was unhurt but if he'd just stayed off the brakes and let the car coast across the icy patch until he was up the dip on the other side the accident would never have happened.

I can't say I've ever met anyone whose reaction is to jam 'both' feet to the floor. The brake pedal certainly but only after moving the right foot over.

Strangely not that year (late 96), one year later (next facelift) and it does have, I believe. Lovely car all round in general though.

Mrcheerful