You are kidding, right? I think we all know that.... And, what is a "Standard transmission"? I'm assuming you mean Automatic transmission? Because, "P" is not a brake, it is a pin inside of the transmission.
Out of curiosity, why don't manual transmissions have a parking gear? It seems like it would make it more safe to park on a hill with a manual!
No, Manual shift (stick, standard, whatev) need a handbrake to stay parked, because they are parked in netruel, and will roll if wheels aren't locked. Automatic vehicles have them too, but arn't used as often, due to the fact that once the car is in park the tires cannot move.
~Bryan~
PS... I was just keeping things simple for the O/P so he/she would understand what an E-Brake is
I put gear on and my handbrake when parking, just a habit, neutral is used only in trucks when parking, or so I was taught in driving school.
I used handbrake when parking also with auto gears, was much better than putting only to P that then got stuck at hill and you had to use force to get it out and be scared that something will brake down, so putting P and putting handbrake on was much better option with that car.
It is better to use handbrake always as it will soon start to jam if not used enough, of course when parking for long time (several days) it is better not to use it or car is hard to get moving.
You can park manual car also with putting it just to gear, but won't recommend that on hill :P
In actuality, what I did was yell "Oh SH!T" quite a few times, frantically pumping the brake pedal, never even thinking of the parking, emergency, hand, electronic, cable, whatever you want to call it brake with my simple little 16 year old mind with a 1 week old drivers license. I reached the bottom of the hill, somewhat slowed down from my 60 mph by gearing the column shifted automatic transmission (only somewhat, not much compression braking with a 1979 automatic tranny), closed my eyes, and gave the steering wheel a huge crank. When I openned my eyes (remember, I said it was rush hour), there wasn't a car in sight! WHEW!!!!
I ended up making it back home and had to jump into the bathtub with an electric toaster so I could get the heart and respiratory system working again.
Nice beemer spookthehamster, I'd be tempted if it wasn't the other end of the country from me......you should be able to sell it no problems at all good luck!
Emergency brake is such a daft name for something that isn't primarily for emergencies. It's like calling a steering column a chest-spear because that sometimes happens.
But the world now actually thinks the e SHOULD stand for emergency, to the point where pretend encyclopedias that should never ever be trusted () report it as emergency.
Put it this way - before some cars had electro-mechanical handbrakes, the term e-brake didn't exist! Maybe, coincidentally, the emergencies it was needed for only started happening after that...
Blame the Americans, they started calling it to e-brake in first place and I think theirs where designed to actually function such way long time ago. Don't know if even average American thinks that in case of emergency pull e-brake handle and your car comes to gentle stop, hmm, that reminds me, isn't that actually one of features of electronic brake of Merc?
We call it hand brake here, or fun handle/trick handle in FWD shopping carts.
Could be that they actually have differently set up handbrakes still, at least air bags are fitted to their habits of not wearing seatbelt, so why not e-brake stuff too?
Also in LFS it is called handbrake in English language version and we all know what is in LFS is truth.
Handbrake in Wikipedia In our American influenced world however term e-brake means handbrake in practice no matter how you dislike from it, same way as hacker means evil guy even correct term would be cracker but no in general public it is hacker that is evil guy. What you can do, world is not perfect
When you get GATSOs removed from near London area, after that I can believe there is some possibility to affect these things, however I believe that power of sheep is too great
They will double amount of damn things here and they put them to highways here, middle of nowhere, not even houses can be seen in many miles, but there they put these to 'improve road safety' and general opinion is that this is good, however haven't found single person that really thinks it is good when done like this.
Maybe I must start pulling my e-brake everytime I see one, that would be exit from car and use baseball bat brake
Actually, I have to disagree. I've heard it called e-brake long before the electromechanical ones you're talking about existed. IIRC, Viper Racing, which was made in 1998 (great little sim, by the way, I'd highly recommend it) called it an e-brake. I've heard it called e-brake long before that too, that's just the first "documented" reference I can find. I'm pretty sure only the newest generation S class Mercedes and Audi A8 and A6 have it.
For the record, I call it a handbrake if it's lever operated, and if it's foot operated, I call it a parking brake. I think emergency brake sounds stupid.
<edit>The Infiniti M45 has an electronic parking brake too</edit>
"In cars, the hand brake (also known as the emergency brake, e-brake, park brake, slide stick or parking brake) is a supplementary system that can be used if the vehicle's primary brake system (usually hydraulic brakes) has a failure."
I wanna know how many cars have Electronic brakes.
I have yet to ever drive one. Most are a direct cable to the rear brakes. I'm not saying there aren't any, but it seems strange (and wastefull).
As for uses...Mine gets used quite a bit, but extensively as a parking brake because its a Pickup and its not a lever, but a high/out of the way pedal, and you have to bend down to release it (though I have stopped a car, a 90 pontiac bonneville, with that kind of setup, its just tricky). Mine gets used now because I often have a trailer hooked up, and one of the places I frequent, I have to park on a hill. Most people don't realize that the only thing the "park" gear in your car does (automatic) is set a small pin between the teeth of a gear...it doesnt take a whole lot to actually shear a park pin in most transmissions. Parking on a 20 degree grade with 5000lbs trying to pull it backwards is pretty stressful...thats where the parking/e-brake comes in handy.
I do believe that all Audis after 05 had them (at least the A6 and A8.)
Anyway - I remember Viper Racing. That was my first-ever racing game, and I'm glad - cause it was the first real simulator too, lol.
I've heard the term e-brake used for I don't know how long. That's what it IS though. When you take a test with a driving instructor - they test the "EMERGENCY BRAKE" before you set off so that if something goes terribly wrong (like, say, in an EMERGENCY) the instructor can stop the car.
It IS an emergency brake. Hell, stateside, many drivers don't even bother to use it when parking at all, which means the only time they'd ever use it, would be in an emergency.
That's because over their you all drive automatics, and being complete fools think that leaving it in 'Park' is sufficient.
If you have 'an emergency' then the most you will want from the handbrake is VERY VERY light pressure. Split circuit brakes will almost NEVER totally fail, but if they did the last thing you'd want is the back wheels locking up because you grabbed the handbrake. In such a situation you'd be best of using engine braking, and then rubbing the car along whatever barrier edges the road to slow the car down in a reasonably controlled manner.
If you've got that slow already then yes - a bad idea. But if you're on a mountain pass at 50mph with a hairpin looming, then using the convenient Armco is rather better than plunging through it! Polish out some scratches vs meet St Peter?
Well, Audi doesn't seem to think so. Applying the e-brake in the car will result in a full-force panic stop. I'd love to give it a try, but for some odd reason, my dad won't let me lol.
And I'm not sure where you're coming from, because I'd much rather use the e-brake to slow my car down, than scrape it along the concrete barrier on the side of the road...? You don't have to YANK it and lock the wheels... just - as you said, gentle application - maybe along with engine braking. But I don't see why you would want to ignore it altogether...
You'd rather spin over the edge of a cliff backwards because your rear wheels locked at 50mph than damage a few panels?
Maybe your Audi has some modern gimmick that limits handbrake engagement at speed - most cars don't, and they are certainly not intended for emergencies.
Do you drive Stang, or are you speaking from lack of experience?
With regards to the Audi (my DAD'S car, not mine lol) you are correct. It applies MAXIMUM braking force without locking the wheels. When driving, that button is basically the equivalent to the eject button on a fighter jet - a last resort that you should never use unless all else fails.
And I do drive - I have for three years. I've never had my brakes fail completely on me, but I have used the e-brake to help me stop when I had to shut down the engine on the highway. You have to realize there is a whole slew of scenarios where engine braking won't be possible... namely - if the engine stalls or is shut off for some reason. My car had overheated. And yes, I would have simply applied the normal brakes - but I was trying to slow the car for an exit off the highway while going downhill which I was about 500 feet from when I noticed the engine temperature. So I pulled up the handbrake AND gripped the steering wheel and pulled myself onto the brake pedal (no power assist) and then had to LUG the wheel to get the car to turn. Kind of exhilarating, but at the same time - a bit scary.
And then there's also those times when you need to use the handbrake to be stealthy at night so that people don't see your car when the brake lights come on - but that's another topic
1. Audi's system is very clever, and perhaps could be called an e-brake. But let's not pretend that the e-brake reference is being applied in the context of this thread to older 'drift cars', not modern Audis.
2. The brakes on a modern (last 30 years) are fail safe in 99.9% of cases. If you lose engine vaccum then you're brakes will still work without assistance. Yes you have to press harder, but it's not that bad! I wouldn't make a habit of replacing servo assistance with the handbrake - one day it'll catch you out!!! And the few seconds you saved with the engine off wouldn't have made any difference to the engine temps or damage anyway - if you noticed by looking at the gauge then you've got a bit of safety margin, and if you noticed because steam obscured your vision then a bit more warping doesn't make much difference. Do be careful - cars can be very dangerous, and just making rash decisions like you did might not always work out for you.
3. I agree completely about this one. I've avoided points on my licence a few times with the stealthy (but very light) application of the handbrake to scrub of 5mph.
Also, the people replying to this thread (the people that understand handbrakes and driving to a certain extent) are more likely to be able to control a car with the rear wheels locked anyway. Joe Public aren't so interested in what happens under the paint, and don't have any interest in learning what to do when something goes slightly wrong - I would NEVER tell ANYONE to use the handbrake other than for parking or holding a car on an incline. It is not for general emergency use.
) report it as emergency.
