One foot over the brake

[barton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

You know, I always attributed my driving like this to the many years I
spent on motorcycles. You don't want to put your foot down if you don't
have to.(one of the things you start to do after 20 or 30,000 miles on
bikes) With my 89 bronco I learned (cause I could see over the top of
most drivers) that most people hit their brake lights waaaaaaayyyyy
befor they have to and if you leave enough distance between you and the
car in front of you (less than you'd probably think) you usually don't
have to hit your brakes at the FIRST sign of red in front of you. If you
learn to read the traffic around you, after a while you get pretty good
at anticipating whats going to happen. 
All in all I believe this makes for MUCH smoother traffic flow as the
chain reaction that occurs every time someones brakelights go on for
more than just a second goes back about 10 cars or more. Anyways, I'am
rambling

Chris Barton
1995 540i 6 speed, 18" Hamanns,BL/SS'd,ES Exhaust,BMWCCA, Etc.



> I have recently become more and more aware of my car slowing down 
> substantially when I take my foot of the accelerator.  For those of you 

Andrew,
How long have you had the car?  Is it possible you've just become more
sensitive to something that's been happening all the while?

One feature of these cars is that fuel delivery is cut completely when
you
take your foot off the accelerator, thus what you get is pure engine
braking.  Now, it shouldn't pull the car to a quick stop or anything,
but
in freeway traffic it means that you don't have to put your foot on the
brake when you see the guy in front's brake lights come on (assuming
you're leaving the correct distance between you and they ... not always
possible in Massachusetts, but still a good idea) - just
remove foot from gas and place above brake pedal (just in case those
brake
lights suddenly get a lot BRIGHTER, of course) to decelerate nicely.

BTW, anyone have a better explanation of this feature?  Seems like I've
explained it to my fiancee about a million times and she still cringes
when she sees me not slamming on the brakes when the traffic in front is
lit up with brake lights.

cheers,
- - --thad

Thaddeus Wakefield Batt

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