After owning a C Class, at times I had cursed MB, perhaps thinking to myself,
'those retarded jerks yada yada.

But know I know the truth.....
seems long ago, it wasn't a secret....
he he...

(See photo, from Carmel Tour De' Elegance Thurs, yesterday)

 

Lol..is that a steering wheel?

 

Yeh....feeling retarded? Just set it and forget it!

 

i'm glad we all know, know.

 

And knowing is half the battle.

 

Even modern vehicles have retarders on them, especially large cars such as a bus or truck.

The word retard means to be inefficient or slow down. Retarders on busses and extremely large vehicles work to slow down the vehicle without downshifting nor using the brakes.

For instance, some vehicles hold in the exhaust gasses thus creating pressure in the exhaust system which in turn reduces the efficiency of the combustion inside the engine since the exhaust has no place to go. This reduces the efficiency within the engine and therefore prevents it from speeding up, a useful feature if you're on a hill and trying to slow down.

Another retarder on large cars involve the torque converter, the torque converter's impeller and propeller change the fin's angles so that way they don't rotate as efficiently. This in turn also slows down the vehicle.

Keep in mind, older cars didn't have brakes as advanced as ours back then. It used to be 70% engine compression (such as downshifting or retarding) and 30% brakes. Today, it's 90% brakes and 10% engine compression.

 

(Chuckle)
Ok, who let the engineer in the room?


Of course we know what timing advance and retardation is...
It's just a little funny to see on a Mercedes who's current value is squarely in low to mid 7 digit territory.