Not so spontaneous, intended acceleration

[sbergman27]

OK. So all my previous cars have had carburetors... with multiple barrels which operate in a tiered fashion as you depress the pedal farther. On my old cars with Rochester Quadrajets, I've always been slightly annoyed that it seems you have to push the pedal way down before you get a reasonable percentage of total engine power.

With the Yaris, I have the opposite complaint. A tiny depression of the accelerator results in a large fraction of the engine's capacity being called to bear. And the automatic transmission also acts as though I've indicated that I want to really fly.

Now, with the drive by wire throttle that we have, the engineers could have specified any curve that they wanted. I wonder why they went with this? And what is "this"? Is the throttle rotation, in degrees, linear with respect to the depression of the pedal? Is the cross-sectional area exposed by the throttle plate linear with pedal depression? Or is the curve completely different? And if so, why was that curve chosen?

Or am I the only one who would prefer a more "laid back" calibration?

-Steve