>>>>>
>>>>>If you're on a winding mountain road, with vertiginous drop-offs, and some villain has severed your brake pipes, don't bother trying to pump the useless brake pedal and steer around the vicious bends; just reach for the key and turn the damn engine off. Engine braking will then slow you down and eventually stop you, esp. if in a manual trans. car.
>>>>
>>>>Too bad most cars have a mechanism to lock the steering wheel when you turn off the engine.
>>>>
>>>
>>>I had that once when the engine stalled just as I went round a very sharp bend on a very steep hill. Instantly no power steering and no brakes. very exciting.I think if my wife had been driving she would have gone over the edge as it required a lot of strength to turn the wheel and get any braking.
>>
>>How did the engine stall - miss the clutch or summat?
>
>No it was an automatic Volvo 240 I think. It had a fault of some sort that was causing occasional stalling.when it was cold.

A small price to pay for such well known hardiness in crash tests ;-)