I hope this is not true !!

[jtatum01]

I brought my car to Naples , Fla . for the summer and was out with my son when a women approached and told me of a friend here in Naples that had a problem with his GT that almost cost him his life , In fact she was so concerned she got him on the phone and insisted I speak to him so I said OK . What follows is a brief outline of our conversation . The man on the phone was from Chicago and he said he has a home in Naples for the winter. Last winter he and a friend had taken the GT out for a drive and were leaving the neighborhood and all of a sudden the car went into a high rev ( sounded like the peddle was stuck ) and the car shot across the intersection and crashed head on into a bank . No air bags deployed and the car was still reving at a high rpm when the police arrived .Both driver and passenger were serisously hurt . He followed this with this is a reoccuring problem and had just happen again to a man and his daughter in the Northeast US and they had be hurt as well . He said that they have found the problem in the throttle body and the supercharger , he also said that there are at least 4 documented events all resulting in damage and injury . I asked how it seemed to happen and he said as he released the clutch to pull out the car then launched at full speed and he didn't have his foot on the gas . My first thought would be to press in the clutch and let the motor blow but he was told that he should have turned off the key switch .That seems a little strange to me but thats what he said . I asked if he was a member of this forum and he said he couldn't say anything about the event he is in a major lawsuit with Ford . I only felt that if this event happened as he said that I should pass it on to the members so we can be Pro Active and try and find out the cause so we can all be safe.

Thanks , JT

 

[fjpikul]

It seems that the members of this forum keep on top of this kind of news, and there have been no posts about anything like this. Sound like the old Audi problem? I agree, pull the car out of gear and hit the brakes.

 

[barondw]

Just shut the key off as another option.

Strange no one has reported a similar problem. If true serious and I would think that a recall would be in order.

Dave

 

[GTF-40]

agree with center punch

i would have to agree with center punch on this, i have been a mechanic for almost 40 years, most of that on sports and exotic cars and restoratios of these. i have chased sticky throttles for a long time ( some of you may remember the chevy small block v-8 cars that would break the rubber motor mount on the drivers side under hard accelaration and the motor would raise up left side and hit the hood, sometimes causing the throtle to stick full bore untill the key was shut off ) and usually you could overpower the engine with the brakes assuming you had good brakes and enough vacum in the power booster.

 

[gwbartlett]

I agree with Centerpunch. I don't believe this story and I have not heard of this problem from any source. Could it be a driver that has no concept of how to handle 550HP? That was my first thought.

 

[Neilda]

Seems highly unlikely and, as already mentioned here, so many owners around the world are quite vocal on the (this) Forum and any such error would be widely discussed here.

There was a case here in the UK recently of a man in his 3 series BMW who was doing over 100mph being followed by the Police - he crashed his car and claimed the throttle was stuck. Needless to say, no fault was found with his car and he now faces prosecution.

Were the GT (or any car) suddenly lurch forward, stamping on the clutch and brake (commonly called an 'Emergency Stop' in the driving test) would prevent an accident.

Whilst I have some sympathy for the fellow involved (I hope he wasn't badly injured) I have some doubt it's a fault with the GT.

 

[FB GT40]

Sounds like driver error to me. Inexperienced driver, hard launch, loss of control, may have thought his foot was on the brake - when it was still on the throttle. :frown

This very thing happened to my Audi 5000 Turbo (no laughing, please!) back in the mid-80's. My brother-in-law was at the wheel trying to pull the (unfamiliar) car forward at a gas station. He stepped on the gas - thought it was the brake - and had the Audri reving at 7,000 rpm with the wheels spinning in the grease and grim on the gas station apron. Fortunately the passengoer door was open and the car was not moving - I was half way out of the car but managed to reach over and turn the key off. To this day he swears he was on the brakes. He was'nt - I saw his foot on the accelerator. In his defense, the pedals on that car were off-set quite a bit.

I'm sure if similar incidents had happened - this board would be well aware.

Gordo.

 

[Townshend]

Had something like this happen to me in a rental Jaguar - Turned out the floormat stuck the pedal down. I slammed on the breaks and droped it in N.

No harm - No foul - Shook me up for a sec, but was just the silly mat.

 

[HHGT]

From what I understand, when someone sues someone else or a corporation, the filing becomes a public record that is easily retrieved. My reccomendation is to call the guy back and find out if he sued Frod in his hometown or Ford HQ or Asebly plant etc. Disclosing the location of the suit filing is benign.

Another approach is to ask him for his attorney name and contact info and call him to see if he can represent someone else with similar issues.

Doing either will weed out the B.S.

Cheers!

 

[K-P Garage]

we will get to the bottom of his Wednesday

I am in Florida and I would be amazed if this happened here and did not make the news. Piccola, who is a member of this forum will find out if this is fact or fiction first thing Wednesday morning. She has proven quite talented at finding the truth on numerous occasions. From MVA reports to news coverage to lawsuits filed either in state or federal Court, there has to be a trail of information on this if it is true.
I agree it is very serious, but in a car with a straight drive gearbox, you have the big options of the clutch and brake which the other cars with automatic boxes do not. Granted it takes a mighty decision under pressure to bury the clutch knowing that it will take out a $40,000 engine. Hope to have some further information later. :frown

 

[nota4re]

99.9999999999999% probability that it was mistaken identity. Accelerator pedal for brake pedal.

The GT is one of increasing fewer modern cars that doesn't employ throttle by wire. The throttle plate opening is substantially similar to the way cars have been designed and used for the last 100 years.

In additition, the brakes will ALWAYS outperform the engine.

The idiots suing Audi and driving them from the US market for several years maintained that in addition to the engine mysteriously revving, the hydraulic brake system failed simultaneously. Utterly absurd.

The point is that we humans can easily convince ourselves that we were right and there was something wrong mechanically. I'm sure that the gentleman you spoke with was convinced something was wrong with his car. (I wonder if he mentioned if it was him or his "friend" that was driving at the time.)

Likely a nice enough man, but completely wrong about what he experienced.

 

[jtatum01]

I agree

Thanks for all of the feedback . I felt it was most likely driver error but I also felt this would be the place to check it out . Once again I find this forum a great place to trade Info.

Thanks , JT :wink

 

[Bart Carter]

...The brakes on every car are ALWAYS more powerful than the engine, so if you want to stop don't worry about the key or clutch, use the brakes!...

This is 100% accurate. There is no way for a GT to run away if you step on the brake.

 

[abolfaz]

Urban myth, perhaps started by someone who couldn't afford the GT and was trying to drive the price of the car down in order to steal one... (remember there were lots of great deals on Audi's in the late 80's and early 90's.) :lol

 

[DBS]

This is nothing to do with this 'supposed' incident, but just of interest regarding a crashed GT:

http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/ford-gt-hits-wrecked-exotics-154445.php

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/exotics/2fordgt_20060122_001.shtml

 

[dbk]

If I had a dollar for every "The car just went nuts out of control WOT! There was nothing I could do to control it!" story I've heard to hide a bruised ego...I'd have a lot of dollars.

 

[Jason Watt]

...and the car was still reving at a high rpm when the police arrived .

I would say that it takes police aprox 5-10 minutes to show up to an acident like that - so I say: "Way to go Ford on, building a tough motor"... :lol

This could NEVER happend in real life...

 

[dbk]

P.S

DBS, If you want to know why you're now banned, it's because you provide no value to the site and only pop up for anything negative.

 

[gtjoey]

WELL now that we wasted all this time tying up my buddy on the 4th of july shutting down wanna be almost gtowners , i have great news.WE ARE ALL GETTING THE FERRARI BLACK STICKERS FOR FREE AT THE RALLY!!!! :willy ALSO ANOTHER MEMBER HAS STEPPED UP TO MAKE TSHIRTS FOR FREE FOR THE EVENT!!!!!!!! 2 POSITIVE NOTES, BUT SINCE DBK HAS TO POLICE THIS THREAD HE CANT RETURN MY CALLS GIVING HIM EVEN BETTER NEWS THAT THE RACE CAR GUYS FROM NEW ZEALAND ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!! :banana Well im just trying to spread good cheer :biggrin DBK CALL ME TONITE IM HOME!THANKS TO ALL INCLUDING ANOTHER OLD AUDI SALESMAN :biggrin HEY DBK TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THE 40LB BASS YOU AND DENBY CAUGHT IN LAKE MICHIGAN :lol GTJOEY 1314 AND LOVING IT

 

[KJRGT]

DBK, thanks for putting the hammer down on DBS.....what a flame job.