ABS is a death trap.



Shorter breaking distance? COUNT ME IN!!

 

Statements like this are the ones that truly get under my skin... a blanket generalization that adds nothing to the discussion going on.

Can you cite sources for this?!? Shorter straight line braking? Braking in a panic stop when steering control is required? Wet conditions? Dry conditions?

Interestinly when a professional driver was putting a Dodge Viper through its paces for Road and Track they had this to say about the ABS:

"Overall, he clearly appreciates the brake package, especially the presence of ABS in both the SRT-10 and the Competition Coupe. "It allows you to drive the car into the corner out of control and bring it back in," Archer says with his quick smile. "On the straight, I got close to 150 mph before I hit those bumps. With the ABS, I could go deep into the turn and still save it. Without it, they'd be picking me out of the woods."

It would seem to me that in that case ABS is working for you and not against you.

While I am not a huge fan of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety the do have a decent write up on some of the benefits (and some situations where not having it makes for shorter stopping distances) of ABS.

For more information the NHTSA has a 1994 study that shows cases in which ABS helps and does not help. The short of it was that it seemed to reduce the instances of multi-car collisions, but increased the instances of "run-off" type accidents (single car ending up off the road).

In general the agreement on ABS, from all I have read on it, is that it can indeed extend your stopping distance on dry straight line stops (though not by much) and that it really helps when trying to maintain control in a sudden stop on wet roads. There are cases as well where the plowing effect of a stopped wheel actually helped in snow and gravel.

The other thing that I have picked up is that many of the disadvantages with ABS is people not knowing what to do in the case of the emergency stop. They just panic and stomp on the brakes and do not try and steer the car. Or if they do steer, they put it into a worse direction causing more damage.

I personally do not have ABS on my car, I could not get the P5 with a standard transmission and ABS (they did not have one and I could not wait for a special order). Had I had the option to wait for a car with ABS, I would have done so. I have not read sufficient information to sway me from my belief that in most of the situations that I will encounter ABS would be in my benefit.

-JJB

 

Not to mention that most drivers don't know how to stop in the first damn place so ABS keeps them from locking up their tires and killing themselves. It takes a very good driver to beat the brain box in most conditions.

1994 is kind of old for a study. Most of the systems, especially on the high end, have improved greatly since then.

 

I agree, but it is one study that showed a point other than the one I was standing behind. I have a bunch more ABS related sites bookmarked at home, but this was one I had a link to on my HDD at work.

 

Sure on a Viper it's better, but Vipers handle like bricks with comical wheels not intended for brick wheel applications.