What drivers used to know - do not accelerate when being overtaken
Well, it's not just old driving wisdom that you shouldn't accelerate when you're being overtaken. It's even written in the law. In the past, however, an acceleration maneuver, whether intentional or unintentional, had much more serious consequences than it does today. If, for example, a Beetle tried to overtake an Opel Rekord, the Opel driver could make the maneuver impossible with just a slight push on the gas, because the 32 or so horsepower of the Beetle was of course not enough to accelerate any faster. This was dangerous and often led to serious accidents when trying to overtake.
Nowadays, this problem hardly arises any more, as most cars are significantly more powerful than the 300 SL pictured above. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in under eight seconds is normal, whereas in the past it could take 20 or even 30 seconds to reach 100 km/h. And electric cars have even more torque available at short notice.
