Miata Mailing List: July 1993, Message #121
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   From: Al Jenab 
Subject: RE>to ABS or not...
   Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:51:21 -0400


Kenneth J  Buck writes:

"i'm all for educated drivers, but there are still limits to how good
a job the old human foot (and brain) can do in emergency situations
on variable driving surfaces.  ABS may well save your day."

Yup.  But I think the extra car control skills will save my day more
frequently than ABS.  They already have.  Keep in mind that most race
drivers disable their ABS systems (where equipped) because:

a) It damages the brakes under repeated threshold braking situations.
The constant pulsing of the hydraulics will destroy rotors and other stuff.
Know of any Formula 1 cars with ABS?  They have traction control and
active suspensions but no ABS that I've heard of (I might be wrong on this,
though).

b) Limits driver control.  We don't want no steenking computer modulating
our brake pedals.

c) They can brake faster than the ABS system under most conditions.  They don'
t modulate the pedal faster (obviously). The ABS system
kicks in at impending lock-up, not at lock-up.  What defines "impending"
is up to some statistical measure of how brain dead the average driver is
supposed to be.

What I really object to about ABS is (c).  Pretty soon some bureaucrat at
DOT will decide that ABS should be mandatory (like airbags) and define
"impending" lock-up as the average experienced by Grandma slowing down
for a stop sign.  Then there will be a federal law banning disabling of the
system, and you'll need a PhD in mechanical and electrical engineering
just to change brake pads or upgrade your system.

"my gripe is that (unless they've changed the rules lately)
you have to get Pkg. B to get the ABS."

I agree.

"personally, i don't have ABS, haven't missed it, and am not sure
whether i'd buy it next time around regardless of price, but
it shouldn't be treated by Mazda as a "luxury item" that you can
only get if you also buy the cruise control and power windows.
partly my complaint is the requirement that you spend the extra $$,
but mostly it's because i don't want to have to get those EVIL
accessories on my car, just so i can get a safety feature."

Absolutely right.  I'm all for safety, but I'm also all for the "keep it
simple" philosophy the Miata sort of revived there for a while.  It would
be nice of Mazda to allow some choice here.
-Al