I drive an Acura 3.2 CL Type S. The S stands for sport and they mean it. First, the front end is set up for max handling and max tire wear - about 20,000 miles. This is the same way they set up the NSX, and were sued unsuccessfully for.

Second, it's the only car I've ever driven (including Porsches) that is truly set up for real heel and toe driving. Good thing it's got a clutch! You can blip the throttle by accident if not careful.

I agree remember the 280z woth a clutch shoved in there the petals were so close you could hit the brake and give it gas at the same time if you wore a big shoe size. I went thru a stop sign once with the front wheels locked and the rear wheels smoking.

Yeah, a warning label on the pedal saying 'pressing this may cause your car to accelerate' should solve all the problems.
But seriously, maybe they were designed using body size norms which are out of date or relate to smaller body/foot sizes in Asia?
My paraplegic Son occasionally get his foot wedged on the accelerator pedal which interferes with his hand controls, it caught him out first time it happened, but now he just heaves his leg out of the way (There is a plate which shield the pedals but it's not 100%)

He bumped the back of a cab down in London the other day, the cabbie was fine about it and didn't bother with his details. Apparently the passenger was ranting about 'that bloke's not even getting out of his car' the cabbie shut him up when he said 'he can't get out he's in a wheelchair' (I'd love to have seen the embarrasment on that guy's face)

Del

Del, I think you are definitely onto something with the bit about body size norms. IIRC, Japanese automakers design for the 90th percentile, and US automakers design for the 98th percentile. Now, the article I read that stated that did not say, but having driven Japanese cars for some time, and having found myself barely wedged into the seat with my knees in contact with the dashboard, I truly believe that the percentile is based on the population of the home country. Therefore the 90th percentile of the Japanese population probably equates to something like the 85th percentile of the US population. This could definitely have an effect on the ergonomics of the controls. For instance the sight line from my head to the cruise control stalk on my '04 Toyota Corolla is such that it is hidden behind the steering wheel and I have to crane my neck to see if it is on or not were I about 3 inches shorter I could probably look right at it (and I'm actually a bit on the short side for an American male). How big is the average Japanese foot compared to the average American foot?

I'm surprised no one in the article or its comments mentioned simply turning off the key. Cars today are designed such that the steering lock only engages when you remove the key from the ignition. Not true in older cars. Check the operation of your own steering lock before you have to use this tactic. Seems that turning off the engine is much better than a blown engine when the tranny is put into neutral with the pedal to the metal.

The "turn off the ignition key" trick got burned into my consciousness one day some 45 years ago when I took a test drive in a car I was interested in buying. I pushed down on the pedal when on a nice stretch of road going about 35 mph and it stuck down. Ended OK with the key switch off after reaching 50 or 55; but it gave me a good scare. Why? this was no ordinary car. It was a 32 Ford 5 window coupe with a 324 cubilc inch Olds V8. I would have bought the car; but we couldn't agree on a price I was willing to pay. Too bad.

Ed Weldon

I once got the throttle cable on a small motorbike stuck at full throttle. I got it out of gear and stopped, but, the engine was still screaming in a small country village. Turning the ignition off didn't stop it, so, I pulled the lead off the spark plug: now, the lead was insulated, but, not completely I juddered and shook like break dancer on hyper speed.
I've since been told I should have turned off the fuel supply.

Did the same thing on a big Oldsmobile V8 years ago. My friend parked it and locked it with the engine running. I told him I could kill the engine while he called a locksmith. I pulled the wire out of the center of the distributor and did a little dance of my own. Now if I had just thought to pull the other end from the coil I would have been standing there holding a dead wire instead of one jolting me with a couple kv ever milisecond... Live and learn. (By the way it was my friend that parked it and not me...)

But since you can't legislate common sense I suppose congress will come up with some other obnoxious waste of money to "solve" the problem.