Seeing as I own a Chevy Pickup, a Ford Exploder, and a Vanagon, I am
uniquely able to be both amused and offended by your ignorant post,
bless your heart.

But no rants from here. I'll let your words speak for themselves.

A word of advice though Scott. That hole you see in the ground ain't your butt.

tim in san jose

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans
<scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> fundamentally speaking.........and by inherently superior design.....
> a vanagon is going to do WAY better than any Ford Explorer or chevy pick-up
> truck.
>
> remember the Ford Explorer flap a few years ago......about how many people
> were getting killed in them..........
> the become known as the Ford Exploder ......they are pure American crap car
> design, of the worst sort.
> Road holding ....inherent ability to track correctly, respond well to driver
> inputs..
> those traits are woefully lacking in American stuff.........particularly
> trucks.
>
> Proper ABS brakes are quite useful. My 88 740 Volvo turbo sedan has a Bosch
> system.
> You can have one front wheel on ice, and the other 3 tires on dry pavement,
> nail the brakes, and the right front won't lock, even though it's on ice.
>
> 'the problem'..........the thing that causes many crashes is, when the
> fronts are locked........there is no steering.
> People would have to know to let off the brakes to get steering back.  Many
> people slam into trees, with front tires locked, and steering at full left
> lock.......if only they knew to let off the brakes to get steering back.
> and even with modern ABS.........if all the wheels are locked in a panic
> stop on a slippery surface................the ABS brake system will think
> the car is stopped..........
> since all for wheels are not turning........and people loose control that
> way too.
>  TRULY.....the drivers and the cars .......to 'sum total' of the fleet on
> the roads........have gotten worse, not better, despite technology.  ABS
> brakes are a good thing though, for sure.
> Also........it should be noted, that a stock Syncro  Vanagon has a very
> strong ABS affect as the front and rear are mechanically linked
> together.......
> and the whole drive train tends to keep the front wheels
> turning.............unlike in 2WD rear wheel drive, where you can easily
> lock up the fronts from heavy breaking on slippery surfaces, thus loosing
> steering control, and once a tire is skidding it has less stopping ability
> anyway.  Best braking force occurs just short of lock-up.
>  I think anti-lock braking was first used in aircraft.
> And your common driver is far less skilled than the common driver of the
> 60's say.  Then people KNEW that had to drive carefully with 2WD and skinny
> tires, and mostly they sure did !   And they didn't go barreling down a rain
> slackened freeway at 80 mph in SUV's either then.  duh !
> Scott
> www.turbovans.com
>