Suspension and braking

I wouldn't mind it in the average road car TBH. I'd like to see how much difference there is between me doing my best to brake hard without locking the wheels and cadence braking when they do, compared to someone standing on the brake pedal in an ABS car.

Well yea :) I wasn't suggesting it was a worthwhile mod, simply that for what it is, in technical and physical terms, i thought that was a fairly good price :)

With a perfectly skilled driver, most cars with ABS will take longer to stop because the system tilts towards retaining steering control over braking effort.

And then we'd need to try the same event at, say, 70 on the motorway and you have to swerve out of the way of a suddenly stopped vehicle. ;)

Rubbish :)

Being a current owner of a car with ABS, I can tell you that I'll never go back to one without - it's an EXCELLENT invention !

Only a CRAP driver brakes so hard that ABS comes on.

So faced with a car skidding towards you, or a car infront coming to a sudden halt through hitting something, you *know* you'd have the prescence of mind to pump the brakes and not just slam your foot down then?

I'd much rather have ABS there as a backup, one of the best car safety devices invented.

while agreeing with nom (mark it in your diaries people :) ) about abs being possibly the ONE most important invention fitted to cars nowadays (it's a toss up between abs and wearing a seatbelt, I'd be on the seatbelt side of the argument, but you know what I mean) and understanding what Simon's on about, sometimes you just NEED to slam the anchors on and there just isn't the time to cadence brake

I think conor needs to remember that abs is only there as a back up to stop the wheels from locking up, no matter what the conditions or circumstances are simply implying that people with abs drive like goons is not right I know that I drive along roads that I would normally pootle along possibly up to 10 or 15 mph faster simply due to having abs on the vehicle I'm driving country lanes normally have loads of loose crap along side them and when you see something coming the other way it's always safer to be driving slower in a vehicle that locks up than to do the same sorts of speeds simply because you slam the pedal on and the wheels locks up and you have to actually think about what you are going to do, where you are going to steer, how you are going to avoid the other vehicle coming along the same road who also hasn't got abs and is also skidding towards you uncontrollably with abs you just stamp on the pedal and the electrics do all the thinking for you leaving you to steer your self away from any life threatening impacts with squirrels, sparrows, tractors and the like ;)

this doesn't mean that I'm complacent, it just offers me that little bit more reassurance that I can stop in a hurry if it's needed and seeing as it's a car that I'm driving that has abs and a van that I drive without abs you can also understand that I can do a run in perhaps 2 hours shorter than I would in the van, simply because I can drive that little bit faster :)

Bollocks, everyone has differing abilities and reacts in different ways to different situations.

Personally I'm more concerned about the driving of people who cast such judgements as the one you made. It insinuates self obsession.

Oh, hang on - you drive a lorry. We already know you think you're the best driver in the world :)

That may be so, but it's not relevant to the discussion.

I hope I never have to rely on ABS to steer around something, but it's there if I need it - or Charlie for that matter.

oi! i drive a loory and stuff like that occasionaly and i'm one of the most corteous people i know but then again, piss a lorry driver off and he can just say "sorry mate, didn't see you there" while he runs over the front of your car with his back wheels :)

HAHAHAHAHAHA !

That's the biggest load of rubbish you've ever posted.

I can't even be bothered to think of a reply - read everyone else's.

After driving a vehicle where slamming on could result in you being killed by the load you're carrying, you find other ways.

1) Car skidding towards me. I know whats going on around me so would have an escape route. Rule of thumb is to aim for the position you first notice the car as it won't be there by the time you reach that point. 2) Wouldn't be driving that close.

Except in snow/ice. ABS is only there to cater for the inabiities of a driver.

Err I never said that people with ABS drive like goons. I said people who need to brake so hard the ABS comes on are goons as they've not allowed themselves sufficient braking distance for the conditions or have panicked*.

*being the most common reason ABS comes on.

Yeah, they panic and stamp on the brakes OR drive too close and stamp on the brakes.

Really? If so, explain in 1.5 million miles of driving why the only time I have ever had ABS come on in a vehicle was in snow? I've been driving vehicles where both the unit AND trailer have been fitted with ABS. Surely if you were right and I was wrong then the ABS would've kicked in more often than that. Fact is it hasn't therefore something must be wrong with the driver (snow etc excused) if they need to brake so hard that the ABS kicks in.

circumstances

and i can accept that this is the way you may have meant i to sound but the way in which it was originaly written, made the implication, at least to me, that you were saying that you should never have to use abs on normal roads and those causing it to cme into effect were driving like poeple who didn't have a care in the world :)

when i've been driving a large vehicle (and i've been driving them since '94 so it's been a while) i have yet to have cause to have braked hard enough to have the abs kicking in i've seen it happen loads of times, and for some reason, it also happens when a load is not being carried simply because the rears are so light i see petrol tankers doing it all the time coming up to rounadbouts and the like just ebcause you don't have it happen to you, dones't mean it doesn't happen you could say the same thing about a puncture the way you are going on about it

Actually, it works just fine in snow and ice - it keeps you pointing in the direction you're travelling in, so if you hit something you'll hit it head on (thus benefit from front impact protection).

I have no problem with the ABS catering for my inability, but for that matter, I've yet to meet somebody who can depress and release the brake pedal fifty times a second.

I've driven 35,000 miles in the Ka and only activated the ABS when trying to. But what's your point? It's there for the time when we're driving in the wet on the M62 and some loon pulls out from the slip road into lane three in front of it.