Miata Mailing List: July 1993, Message #122
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   From: fischman@nynexst.com (Gary Fischman)
Subject: RE: to ABS or not
   Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:53:06 -0400


>
>
> In regards to learning to "threshold brake", I seriously doubt that one
> could learn to do this in an emergency (as well as a good ABS system)
> given that emergencies don't come up that often and then they come in
> all sorts of ways, race drivers sure because this is something they
> do on a regular basis and emergencies are a little more defined - black
> ice doesn't just appear at Laguna Seca. Threshold braking when not
> under stress is easy to do.
>
> I read sometime back that even experienced drivers could not outperform
> a cars ABS but some motorcyles ABS systems could be beaten by an
> experienced rider (excluding gravel etc).
>
> One good reason I got the ABS system was that my insurance premium was
> lowered a bit!
>
> Cheers, Mick.
>
>
I disagree.  I learned threshold braking *because* of safety concerns.  When
I began to realize that driving most non-ABS equipped cars in wet weather
can be a daunting problem if lock up occurs - not the least of which is a
Miata with factory Bridgestones - I became more sensitive to potential lock
up and started to sort of naturally do threshold braking..  Then,
when I went to a performance driving school last summer, the instructor,
during the threshold braking exercise, actually asked me twice if I was
*sure* my car didn't have ABS.

Gary J. Fischman
NYNEX Science & Technology
fischman@nynexst.com