Thumb throttle (cool idea)
 

A buddy of mine has an 02 ZO6 and he wanted to figure out a way to make it run better in the twisties. So he took a brake cable off a bicycle and mounted the handle on his shifter. Then he ran the cable through the firewall and mounted it to the throttle body, I believe. It's instant throttle without having to put your foot on the gas, that way when youre coming out of the corner you already have the rpm up. He took me for a ride and it was ingenious. Anyone else experiment with something like this?

RE: Thumb throttle (cool idea)
 

Never heard of it, and I don't see how it would really help it the driver has learned to heel and toe, etc. I have all the power I need available any time, in any twisties.

The only thing remotely like it I know of is a common installation: the NOS button on the shifter, so you can hit it just after you shift. On our Camaro it kicks in about an extra 250 HP at the rear wheels.

I'm curious how he made this work on the 'vette though, since the car is drive-by wire: thetre would be a minor problem is just finding a way to hook a mechanical cable to the throttle, since there is no place to actually attach a cable to. But that could be overcome (we did for testing, see below). But the car has a feedback loop into the ECM which matches voltage from the throttle pedal (what the driver is actually telling the engine computer, not the thorttle, he or she wants to do) to voltage measured at the throttle body (that the ECM sends after "consulting" with what the throttle pedal sends it: this is sort of a confirmation to the computer that the throttle is doing what it thinks it should and all is fine. Normally if it sees any mismatch, it shuts down into low power mode and throws gobs of codes, chimes the warning chimes, etc. Having a cable adjusting the throttle, without the throttle pedal also moving in sync, would typically drive the engine computer crazy . . .

This cable your friend installed would create that imbalance, I'd think the same way we did when we jury-rigged something to hold the throttle open in tests: the ECM in my car went crazy with codes -- I have never seen an ECM so pissed off!!!. The only way I can think to guarrantee it would never happen would be to hook the cable to the throttle pedal itself -- are you sure he did not do that?

RE: Thumb throttle (cool idea)
 

That could be very possible. Im not much of a mechanic and I did not ask any detailed questions but however he did it it was pretty damn cool