Braking at ~70mph

[JULI0]

Let's say you are driving ~70 mph and suddenly a cat gets in the way and since your girlfriend is with you you don't want to run it over so you hit the brake very hard. Can any damage (to the car, not the cat!) occur in such driving operations?

[Asad]

1) If you were to kill a cat, or any other animal on purpose, I would kill you.

2) It can possibly do damage to brake rotors, if the pads are wayyyy beyond replacing. Tires will screech, and if you lock up your wheels you may skid.

Depends on the car though.

[Salvondax]

Ummm Asad... kill the cat. At 70 mph you can't see the cat soon enough for the brakes to do anything for you.

It is ALWAYS smarter to hit the animal then to try and brake and swerve.

[NotAMonte86]

Yeah, are you kidding?! I'd much rather take out an animal rather than swerve around it and end up wrapping my car around a tree or colliding with other cars. However, if I was ever faced with that kinda situation, there's no time for decision-making, my instinct would take control and I would swerve all over the place.

[BLAH BLA]

if i'm cruising at 70 and a cat jumps in front of me, i down shift and floor it........

[ShadyDave]

What, no! 70 mph?

Just too fast...your brakes can't stop you fast enough!

Let's drop the speed limit to 55. MUCH safer...whew. I feel safer already.

[atomicbomberman]

dude a cat jumped out at me at a corner when I was taking at 45, i made the mistake and try to avoid the cat, oversteered and hit the curb...

Just hit the damn cat.

[Ninja]

well not sure about the rest of you... but im with asad... i dont know how it is where you guys live... but im my little corner of SF, if a cat jumps out in front of your car then most likely you are doing 70mph in a 25mph zone... you are in the wrong why should the cat suffer. swerve and crash your damn car, you deserve it. =)

-Ninja

[Salvondax]

Ninja. No. Besides who said anything about it being 70 mph in a 25?

Besides, swerving can result in several things

A) Damage to you car. IE hitting crubs, wrapping around a tree etc..
B) Injuring yourself and passangers along with damaging your car
C) Swerving into the oncoming lane and hitting another car, potential killing you and the other drivers
D) Swerving onto a side walk and hitting pedestrians.
E) Going up an embankment and potential rolling your vechicle.

Killing the cat has 1 result

A) Dead cat, messed grill.

[ShadyDave]

Hmm...don't recall EVER seeing a cat on the freeway, the only place you'd be doing 70 mph.

[Ninja]

I believe shadydave understood my point. I will admit that cats are everywhere, and that pet owners need to take more responsiblity in thier pets... if they cant handle a litter then they need to get thier pets fixed.... But pets go hand in hand with residential areas... can you find cats outside of residential areas? yes... but you can also find people crossing the street outside of residential areas. MORE THEN LIKELY... if a cat jumps out in front of your car, its almost guaranteed that you are in a residential area... speed limit of residential areas in SF? 25mph. as Dave said, at 70mph you should be on a freeway... infact, in CA the only place 70mph is legal is on the interstate, not even freeways.

so lets just change this scenario around a little and replace the cat with a person... now what do you do? all of a sudden you are in the wrong and you better slam on those brakes and hope you stop in time or you better swerve and smash your car.... ok ok so you say but that is different, fine. lets replace the cat with something a little more solid... like an armadillo, now what are you gonna do? either way your car is toast... BUT by swerving to avoid it you have a better chance of saving your car.

yes my senarios are a little far fetched, but the thread is a little off as well. -Ninja

[BLAH BLA]

punch it......

[Asad]

I didn't say swereve, I said if you did something you could aviod, like aiming for it.

[Project_Lude]

here in ks ive seen like 4 cats on the highway before, and thats out here in stilwell, where the speed limit is 70. Kill the sumbitch.

[ShadyDave]

As Ninja stated, the thread is way, way off topic.

We were talking about panic stops and the damage they could do to a car.

Yes, it can cause damage. You'll burn through a lot of pad material, you can warp rotors, it can increase tire wear.

In one instance, I remember a friend who slammed on her brakes and the friction material seperated from the backing plate of one of her pads. Obviously, that's due to a manufacturing defect and not a direct cause of a panic stop, but she had to replace the caliper, rotor, and pad.

Nothing else is coming to mind as possible damage from a panic stop...as most people have alluded to, more damage can come from losing control of the vehicle, whatever the cause, than the actual stop itself.

[Scott]

Originally posted by Ninja

so lets just change this scenario around a little and replace the cat with a person... now what do you do? all of a sudden you are in the wrong and you better slam on those brakes and hope you stop in time or you better swerve and smash your car.... ok ok so you say but that is different, fine. lets replace the cat with something a little more solid... like an armadillo, now what are you gonna do? either way your car is toast... BUT by swerving to avoid it you have a better chance of saving your car.


Even with what you brought up, there are still other variables, such as where you are. many roads here in Florida are flanked on both sides by ditches. A swerve means a very damaged (and often soggy) vehicle.

I'd slam on my brakes and hope for the best.

[Ninja]

hmmm very good point scott.

but back to topic, if you dont have abs you also can cause flat spots on your tires with panic stops if the brakes happen to lock up. -Ninja

[Asad]

Exactly, normally when you're crusing at 80mph, you're on an open freeway able to see a lot. I have never seen an Animal on a highway except deer, and those are fucking dangerous.
But if you are doing 70mph off the highway, slow down, you don't know who/what could be around the next bend.

[JULI0]

Hehe, sorry about the cat story, i'm not very articulate in english so I had to put up a story for you to understand I was talking about a "panic stop".

Some people provided good answers to my concern while some other gave .... interesting aspects!! :P

[TypeIII]

Every scenario is different... How much room do you have ahead of you when you see the cat? Is it even possible to bring the car to a halt before you run over or hit the obstacle? Is there another vehicle following you closely? Are there cars around you? Swerving may or may not be an option, it totally depends on traffic and road conditions. I have seen all kinds of shit laying around on 101, and countless freeways I've travelled on across the continent. I guess after being behind the wheel for almost ten years (and autocrossing experience) really helps when it comes to accident avoidance.

But to answer your question... No, braking from 70mph shouldn't do any damage to your brake system at all. If you braked too hard and your car is not equipped with ABS, then you will lock up your brakes. Good chance you'll lose control of the vehicle and who knows what you might hit? And of course, you can easily flat spot your tires.

[TypeIII]

It's really important that you learn to brake properly, and sense what your brakes are doing. Knowing when your brakes lock up will probably save you a lot of money, perhaps even your life... Here's a little something I posted up on another board a few months back:

Subject: T-Day Near Miss
Coming home on 101 this morning I was on the far right lane doing about 70mph when a gold Camry cut in from the left doing no more than 40mph. I tried to brake as hard as I could without locking but it locked near the end and the back end came loose. I can still clearly remember what the wall on the right and the car on my left looked like. Tried to regain control as I fishtailed for a few seconds. By the time I straightened the car I saw a huge trail of white smoke in my rear view mirror.

Thank God for years of experience in driving like a maniac, I was able to save this one. :D

Moral of the story: go autocrossing, and learn your limits under a controlled environment. It really REALLY helps.

[vroomvroom]

Originally posted by BLAH BLA
if i'm cruising at 70 and a cat jumps in front of me, i down shift and floor it........

lol, isnt it the cats fault anyway, you dont see people walking out onto the highway and freezing without some sort of a death wish

[Asad]

Originally posted by vroomvroom
lol, isnt it the cats fault anyway, you dont see people walking out onto the highway and freezing without some sort of a death wish

I don't think it was trying to get run over, its trying to get to the other side of the road, just like a Jay-walker. Are you gonna downshift and punch it if you see a jay walker?

[BLAH BLA]

jay walker does not taste as good w/sweet and sour sauce.......mmmmmmmmm good!

[Scott]

Originally posted by TypeIII
Moral of the story: go autocrossing, and learn your limits under a controlled environment. It really REALLY helps.

Some of the best advice for people new to cars. :thumbup

[Hondacrx2002]

Consider this:

An average high performance sports car (like a Porsche 911 Carrera) has a braking distance of about 110-118ft at 60mph...now at 70mph, i am guess that would be closer to 140ish feet...so unless you are driving a Porsche and a cat runs in the road over 200ft in front of you (giving 60ft of reaction time, probably too little), you will hit it.

Just drive faster AFTER you hit it to:

A) Clean the mess off your car, and

B) Make sure farmer Ben doesn't chase you down the road with his pitchfork for killing his poor *****.

[Civic_Sleeper]

I have run over a cat on the freeway...

by the time I saw the cat there was no way to stop or get out of the way...so I continued at the current rate and aimed for the car...I was hoping A)to kill it quickly or B) time it so the cat was under my car not my wheels...the result B...in which I watched the cat roll, get up and continue its original course without injury.

In my neighborhood I have run over a cat that jumped from a ditch just as my bumped pasted him. I slammed my brakes...but too late *thump*. Got out to see it it was ok...it wasn't...wailing with that painful hurt animal cry...it's back was broken (very visible)...I did the honable thing, got some gloves from my car went back to the cat and snapped its neck.

Both were heart wrenching to go through.

Moral of the story...there are situations you can get out of, minimize pain to another life, or increase chances of survival. While I agree with Ninja and ASAD about taking tha fall for your own actions, that's not the way the mind works in split second reactions. If you don't have the skill to control the car out of the situation, either slow down or accept the loss of life.

Most of the time all you need to do is slow the car down enough so the animal can pass. Dropping the speed from 70 to 40 should allow enough time that the animal will escape the tread of your tire...again...its all based on timing...how far away it is...and the position on the road the animal is in relation to your car...basicly it goes back to what I said earlier...if you can't control the car at that speed then slow down.

C_S

[Mickee]

are you guys forgetting that cats have 9 lives????

[DragonV]

Originally posted by Mickee
are you guys forgetting that cats have 9 lives????

LMAO...Cat's should come w/ big counters on them that say I have X lives left....so when you see one while your dong 70 mph and you see his counter say 5 then you say what the hell....down shift and hit the gas. But if it says "oh god don't kill me it's my last life"....Well then you can break or be a cold ass and hit it.