Henene4
You're absolutely right.
The parking brake should be used when you intentionally want to "loose control".
I mean, a drift, for example, is actually an intentional and controlled lost of control. You pull the brake at it's full and steer the wheels.
A trained driver, for example, can use a drift to reverse a car much faster by doing a 180° turn or a reverse 180° turn During training with my mom, the example scenario for 180° evasion was the attacker/hijacker in other car suddenly blocking the way right in front of you. The driver has less than 2 seconds to decide between a front or reverse extraction and needs to do two different evasive maneuvers in a few seconds. The easiest, if you have speed and distance enough is do the front evasion, which is simply accelerate and drift 180°. But in many cases you're so closer to the attacker or at so low speed that it's impossible to do, so the 180° reverse evasion is the second alternative. First is deactivate whatever electronic stability system, step deep on the brake, pull the parking brake in a way you can engage the reverse with the car still moving. then control the reverse acceleration on the clutch and parking brake. You will have the car moving forward but the wheels moving on reverse (and hopefully lots of smoke to help distracting the attacker.
Then you reverse at full speed and drift (pull the brake and steer at the same time you accelerate or simply step on the clutch, don't brake at all and steer). The car will spin around it's own radius, making it possible to change direction in the same lane. (this maneuver is considering a very narrow street, the perfect place for an attack)
To complete the extraction, you engage the 2nd before the car stops completely (never the first or the engine will die) or even the third, depending on the car you have.
During the test, the driver must complete the extraction in less than 6 seconds.
it's impressive how everything we learn in training is deeply recorded in our memory. I used to go to the training twice a year, as recommended by LCBlin (the company that armored my car). The last time i trained was more than 2 years ago, when I sold my armored Ford Focus and kept only the Renault Clio, already preparing to move to the US.
During the crash, i had less than one second to evaluate the situation and decide what to do.
When the bmw hit us i was at 65 and the other car at more than 100 mph. instantly i lost control, my car was thrown to the left, i hit the median (front left corner) and started to spin counter clockwise. the same car hit me again front left side, making me spin out of control clockwise. It i just step deep on the brake, as whatever driver would instinctively do, a rollover would start at that moment.
I pulled the brake and steered to the right, using the centrifugal force to put the car back. It worked but not 100% because the front left wheel broke when we were hit. I ended the manouver moving straight but facing the shoulder at a 45° angle, but again out of control because of the missing wheel.
Other split second decision. If i hit the guard rail straight at 45°, it would brake and we would simply fall from the freeway (about 20 meters slant fall).
So i did a throw slalom to change the angle. i hit the guard rail almost parallel to it. When i felt the guard rail, then i finally stepped deep in the brake and pulled the parking brake to make the wheels "dive" in the fluffy soil.
We stopped with the front right wheel already out of the road, at an angle the passenger door could open just enough for Darryl to get out. (that wasn't planned)
Everything lasted less than 10 seconds, but every time i remember the scene it's like a slow motion movie that lasted forever. It's scary, I don't want that even for my worst enemy.
At the same time it's impressive how our brain automatically works so fast to register everything and make the decisions. I remember clearly describing to Darryl what was going to happen. I first screamed "he's going to hit us" when i saw the headlight on the mirror and I even remember aligning my head with the headrest to wait for the impact and stepping deep on the gas to minimize the impact. It took forever in slow motion. "he is going to hit us again", and saying loud my actions. brake, release, steer, slalom, brake. Honey, are you ok? wait. don't release the belt yet (we waited maybe 5 seconds until i had time to evaluate the surroundings in the dark.) Honey, open your door.
Of course I'm going to sue Toyota. When i hit the median, the front and knee airbags should have deployed, eventually the side ones. but half second later a side impact that was enough to break the wheel and change the car direction should definitely have deployed the side airbags.
Well, they all deployed (according to the car's computer), but none of them inflated.
One thing that deployed and worked very well was the safety belt pre-tensioners. They retracted the safety belt enough to keep me tight in position. Without my body "locked" a proper position, tight against the seat, I'd never be able to do the emergency maneuvers.
