On ABS, TC and SCCA

Anyone care to add to this confusing debate that I have been having with my co-workers? Some ppl I talk to say that if you know how to drive, these are nice "piece of mind" safety features and not really necessary. Some say that under slippery conditions that ABS will actually increase a car's stopping distance. Saturn's TC works based upon ABS and will cut down on fuel or even shut off fuel if upshifting the engine isn't enough. My SC2 doesn't have ABS/TC, I am old school and know how & when to pump my brakes to slow down. Some say ABS is for panic only situations, and that in the race circuits ABS is against the rules and many actually will disable ABS/TC to enhance thier handling. What do you think?

Reply to
marx404
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If you read Grassroots Motorsports, they were able to get better lap times when they disabled the "nanny controls." They do allow people to control their vehicles in emergencies, but what happens when you get into a car that doesn't have them???

I'm a firm believer in teaching people to drive, and know how to control their vehicles in emergencies. Driver's training in the US, and license requirements, are a joke.

Some say that

It doesn't increase the stopping distance. It allows for threshold braking without the driver having to know how to do it.

ABS is not allowed in some racing classes, such as F1, but within the SCCA, if you are racing a production car that came with ABS, you can continue to run it.

And I know of some racers who do disable it, because they are better able to threshold brake than the ABS system.

Reply to
Kevin

I've seen this debate before and here is my opinion. In only a few months, I'll have owned my '94 SC2 with ABS for 14 years.

The main advantage to ABS is being able to maintain control of the direction of the car when full braking force is applied. This is most noticeable on wet, gravel, snow, etc. I've seen this always as being the point it is sold on, and NOT claims that it necessarily will get you stopped any faster.

On dry pavement, popular opinion feels that an expert at threshold braking can --marginally-- outperform ABS. This may be slightly advantageous during autocross or road racing provided the driver is actually good at it. But for the average Joe on the road... Too bad that not even an expert has time for any mental processing in most accidents or emergency situations - actions come from instinct which is usually to jam on the brakes and crap your pants (but not necessarily in that order).

My ABS has saved my butt several times. The instinct of jamming the pedal thru the floor in an emergency situation makes the safety belts knock the wind out of you without a hint of tire squeal or lockup. That's pretty good in my book.

Now, if you're talking SCCA or some form of on-track competition comes into play... I believe Kevin covered that best in his post on this topic.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

Reply to
Lane

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