Suzuki Samurai was Re: [geeks] SPARC proprietary (waaaay off topic)

[Mike F]

On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 19:16:01 +0000
wa2egp at att.net wrote:

> >  Kind of like CBS did with 
> > the Audi unintended acceleration episode of the early 80's.  When
> > the car wouldn't perform on cue, they internaly altered the
> > transmission by removing detent springs from the valve body to make
> > it jump out of park.
> 
> Was that the incidents where the Audi 5000 used to jump forward and
> their comment was that the people couldn't tell the difference between
> the brake and the accelerator?  One little known fact was the Audi was
> very sensitive to RFI and that was the effect.  There was a QST
> magazine article where some one had to completely sheild the
> "computer" or it would accelerate evey time he would transmit. 
> Hmmm...... Bob

Hmmm... how could that be? As far as I know, there weren't any
"drive by wire" cars in the 80s, so that car's throttle body would
have been actuated mechanically, not electronically. However, the
ignition and the fuel injection would likely have been controlled
by the computer, so could either of those going haywire cause the
cited effects? I have to admit, I always thought it was simply
the yuppies hitting the wrong pedal, but I could be wrong - Mike