Miata Mailing List: July 1993, Message #125
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   From: Al Jenab 
Subject: RE>RE: to ABS or not
   Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 16:22:43 -0400


Mick Galvin writes:

" black ice doesn't just appear at Laguna Seca. Threshold braking when not
under stress is easy to do."

Mick,
Blown engines (oil & antifreeze & metal), other cars spinning and
crashing, animals, even drunk spectators (recent NASCAR event), and all
sorts of stuff much scarier than black ice routinely appear out of nowhere
on a race track.  On a clear day.  Right during the fastest lap of your life.

And drivers still disconnect the ABS and will continue to because no
experienced driver wants to let a computer interfere with their response
in an emergency situation.  Air bags are one thing (they deploy after the
front of the car is already crushed), but ABS actively interferes with your
control inputs to the vehicle while you are reacting.  It in effect assumes
you can't handle it.

By the way, threshold braking on a race track, especially while competing,
is about as far as you can get from not being under stress.  The benefit
from learning these  threshold braking techniques in a school environment
is precisely so one can apply them in stressful situations (like racing and
accident avoidance) without flipping out and slamming the brake pedal.
But even the school situation can be pretty nerve wracking.

ABS is great for peope who want it.  I don't.

-Al