2007 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Owners Manual

Your Driving, the Road, and Your Vehicle.... 274
Defensive Driving...................................... 274
Drunken Driving........................................ 275
Control of a Vehicle.................................. 278
Braking...................................................... 278
Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS).................. 279
Braking in Emergencies............................. 281
Traction Control System (TCS).................. 281
Active Handling System............................. 283
Limited-Slip Rear Axle............................... 285
Selective Ride Control............................... 286
Steering.................................................... 286
Off-Road Recovery.................................... 289
Passing..................................................... 289
Loss of Control.......................................... 291
Racing or Other Competitive Driving.......... 292Driving at Night......................................... 293
Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads............ 295
City Driving............................................... 297
Freeway Driving........................................ 298
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.................. 300
Highway Hypnosis..................................... 301
Hill and Mountain Roads........................... 302
Winter Driving........................................... 304
If Your Vehicle is Stuck in Sand,
Mud, Ice, or Snow................................. 308
Rocking Your Vehicle to Get It Out........... 309
Loading Your Vehicle................................ 309
Towing........................................................ 315
Towing Your Vehicle................................. 315
Recreational Vehicle Towing...................... 315
Towing a Trailer........................................ 315
Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
273

Your Driving, the Road, and
Your Vehicle
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in
your vehicle: Buckle up. SeeSafety Belts: They
Are for Everyone on page 16.
{CAUTION:
Defensive driving really means “Be ready
for anything.” On city streets, rural roads,
or expressways, it means “Always expect
the unexpected.” Assume that pedestrians
or other drivers are going to be careless
CAUTION: (Continued)
CAUTION: (Continued)
and make mistakes. Anticipate what
they might do and be ready. Rear-end
collisions are about the most preventable
of accidents. Yet they are common. Allow
enough following distance. Defensive
driving requires that a driver concentrate
on the driving task. Anything that
distracts from the driving task makes
proper defensive driving more difficult
and can even cause a collision, with
resulting injury. Ask a passenger to help
do these things, or pull off the road in
a safe place to do them. These simple
defensive driving techniques could
save your life.
274

Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and
driving is a national tragedy. It is the number
one contributor to the highway death toll, claiming
thousands of victims every year.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to
drive a vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Attentiveness
Police records show that almost half of all motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most
cases, these deaths are the result of someone who
was drinking and driving. In recent years, more
than 16,000 annual motor vehicle-related deaths
have been associated with the use of alcohol, with
more than 300,000 people injured.Many adults — by some estimates, nearly half
the adult population — choose never to drink
alcohol, so they never drive after drinking.
For persons under 21, it is against the law in
every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good
medical, psychological, and developmental
reasons for these laws.
The obvious way to eliminate the leading highway
safety problem is for people never to drink
alcohol and then drive. But what if people do?
How much is “too much” if someone plans
to drive? It is a lot less than many might think.
Although it depends on each person and situation,
here is some general information on the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of
someone who is drinking depends upon
four things:
The amount of alcohol consumed
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before
and during drinking
The length of time it has taken the drinker
to consume the alcohol
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According to the American Medical Association, a
180 lb (82 kg) person who drinks three 12 ounce
(355 ml) bottles of beer in an hour will end up with
a BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would
reach the same BAC by drinking three 4 ounce
(120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinks if
each had 1-1/2 ounces (45 ml) of liquors like
whiskey, gin, or vodka.
It is the amount of alcohol that counts. For
example, if the same person drank three double
martinis (3 ounces or 90 ml of liquor each)within an hour, the person’s BAC would be close
to 0.12 percent. A person who consumes food
just before or during drinking will have a somewhat
lower BAC level.
There is a gender difference, too. Women
generally have a lower relative percentage of body
water than men. Since alcohol is carried in body
water, this means that a woman generally will
reach a higher BAC level than a man of her same
body weight will when each has the same
number of drinks.
The law in most U.S. states, and throughout
Canada, sets the legal limit at 0.08 percent.
In some other countries, the limit is even lower.
For example, it is 0.05 percent in both France
and Germany. The BAC limit for all commercial
drivers in the United States is 0.04 percent.
The BAC will be over 0.10 percent after three to
six drinks (in one hour). Of course, as we have
seen, it depends on how much alcohol is in the
drinks, and how quickly the person drinks them.
276

But the ability to drive is affected well below a
BAC of 0.10 percent. Research shows that
the driving skills of many people are impaired
at a BAC approaching 0.05 percent, and that
the effects are worse at night. All drivers
are impaired at BAC levels above 0.05 percent.
Statistics show that the chance of being in a
collision increases sharply for drivers who have a
BAC of 0.05 percent or above. A driver with a
BAC level of 0.06 percent has doubled his or her
chance of having a collision. At a BAC level of
0.10 percent, the chance of this driver having
a collision is 12 times greater; at a level of
0.15 percent, the chance is 25 times greater!
The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the
alcohol in one drink. No amount of coffee or
number of cold showers will speed that up.
“I will be careful” is not the right answer. What if
there is an emergency, a need to take sudden
action, as when a child darts into the street?
A person with even a moderate BAC might not be
able to react quickly enough to avoid the collision.There is something else about drinking and driving
that many people do not know. Medical research
shows that alcohol in a person’s system can make
crash injuries worse, especially injuries to the
brain, spinal cord, or heart. This means that
when anyone who has been drinking — driver
or passenger — is in a crash, that person’s chance
of being killed or permanently disabled is higher
than if the person had not been drinking.
{CAUTION:
Drinking and then driving is very
dangerous. Your reexes, perceptions,
attentiveness, and judgment can be
affected by even a small amount of
alcohol. You can have a serious — or even
fatal — collision if you drive after drinking.
Please do not drink and drive or ride
with a driver who has been drinking.
Ride home in a cab; or if you are with a
group, designate a driver who will not drink.
277

Control of a Vehicle
The following three systems help to control your
vehicle while driving — brakes, steering, and
accelerator. At times, as when driving on snow
or ice, it is easy to ask more of those control
systems than the tires and road can provide.
Meaning, you can lose control of your vehicle.
SeeTraction Control System (TCS) on page 281
andActive Handling System on page 283.
Adding non-dealer/non-retailer accessories
can affect your vehicle’s performance. See
Accessories and Modications on page 319.
Braking
SeeBrake System Warning Light on page 196.
Braking action involves perception time and
reaction time. First, you have to decide to push
on the brake pedal. That is perception time.
Then you have to bring up your foot and do it.
That is reaction time.Average reaction time is about three-fourths of a
second. But that is only an average. It might
be less with one driver and as long as two or
three seconds or more with another. Age, physical
condition, alertness, coordination, and eyesight
all play a part. So do alcohol, drugs, and
frustration. But even in three-fourths of a second,
a vehicle moving at 60 mph (100 km/h) travels
66 feet (20 m). That could be a lot of distance in an
emergency, so keeping enough space between
your vehicle and others is important.
And, of course, actual stopping distances vary
greatly with the surface of the road, whether it is
pavement or gravel; the condition of the road,
whether it is wet, dry, or icy; tire tread; the
condition of the brakes; the weight of the vehicle;
and the amount of brake force applied.
Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive
in spurts — heavy acceleration followed by heavy
braking — rather than keeping pace with traffic.
This is a mistake. The brakes might not have time
to cool between hard stops. The brakes will wear
out much faster if you do a lot of heavy braking.
278

If you keep pace with the traffic and allow realistic
following distances, you will eliminate a lot of
unnecessary braking. That means better braking
and longer brake life.
If your vehicle’s engine ever stops while you are
driving, brake normally but do not pump the
brakes. If you do, the pedal could get harder to
push down. If the engine stops, you will still have
some power brake assist. But you will use it
when you brake. Once the power assist is used
up, it can take longer to stop and the brake pedal
will be harder to push.
Under certain weather or operating conditions,
occasional brake squeak, squeal, or other
noise might be heard with your vehicle’s
performance braking system. This brake system
is designed for superior fade resistance and
consistent operation using high performance
brake pads. Brake noise is normal and does
not affect system performance.
Adding non-dealer/non-retailer accessories
can affect your vehicle’s performance. See
Accessories and Modications on page 319.Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS)
Your vehicle has the Anti-Lock Brake
System (ABS), an advanced electronic braking
system that will help prevent a braking skid.
When you start the engine and begin to drive
away, ABS will check itself. You might hear
a momentary motor or clicking noise while this
test is going on, and you might even notice that
the brake pedal moves a little. This is normal.
If there is a problem
with ABS, this warning
light will stay on.
SeeAnti-Lock Brake
System Warning
Light on page 197.
279

Let us say the road is wet and you are driving
safely. Suddenly, an animal jumps out in front of
you. You slam on the brakes and continue braking.
Here is what happens with ABS:
A computer senses that wheels are slowing down.
If one of the wheels is about to stop rolling, the
computer will separately work the brakes at
each wheel.ABS can change the brake pressure faster than
any driver could. The computer is programmed
to make the most of available tire and road
conditions. This can help you steer around the
obstacle while braking hard.
As you brake, the computer keeps receiving
updates on wheel speed and controls braking
pressure accordingly.
280