car myths in pop culture: kicking it into "overdrive"

"Vee Ate Injun" (VeeAteInjun) 03/04/2014 at 12:32 • Filed to: None

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In movies and pop culture, kicking something into "overdrive" implies increased speed and performance, when in reality it's the exact opposite. Generally speaking, overdrive selects the highest gear in the transmission to bring down the RPMs (thereby restricting engine performance) to achieve better fuel economy.

So they're basically saying, " let's be practical and get better mpg! "

#sorryStephenKing

Z_Stig > Vee Ate Injun 03/04/2014 at 12:35

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How many overdrives does a Fast n Furious gearbox have then?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Vee Ate Injun 03/04/2014 at 12:36

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Alternately, with an obscenely low-geared rear end and a low-torquey V8, kicking into overdrive allows dropping the engine down from near redline to a better HP range to squeeze *that extra bit* of speed. The drop in revs is the part Hollywood tradition got backwards, not that it was a way to get ahead on the margins.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Z_Stig 03/04/2014 at 12:37

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ALL OF THEM ARE OVERDRIVE

spanfucker retire bitch > Vee Ate Injun 03/04/2014 at 12:46

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Heh, we have a similar "thing" in the computing industry as well. Or, at least we did at one time.

Guess what pushing that Turbo button does? NOPE! Not even close.

The turbo button usually accomplishes this by either adjusting the CPU clock speed directly, or by turning off the processor's cache, forcing it to rely on the significantly slower main memory for memory accesses. The button was generally present on older systems, and was designed to allow the user to play older games that depended on processor speed for their timing.

crowmolly > Vee Ate Injun 03/04/2014 at 12:48

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It implies increased output from an engine that's greater than you would get from a direct 1:1 connection with the drive wheels

Jayhawk Jake > Vee Ate Injun 03/04/2014 at 14:04

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I just want to say Maximum Overdrive has a very special place in my heart.

As a huge AC/DC fan, the soundtrack is fantastic

Vee Ate Injun > Jayhawk Jake 03/05/2014 at 11:09

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but the question is, who made who?