ABS - or is it Pure BS

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com>
Date: Mon Apr 5 18:53:09 1999

On 5 Apr 99 at 21:39, Ward D. Griffiths III wrote:

> On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Buck Savage wrote:
>
> > > 2) even if the ABS system fails it still works just like non-ABS
> > > brakes. unless >the vacuum (power assisted) system fails or the brake
> > > line is cut, or (very unlikely) the piston sticks open, the brakes
> > > will work just fine.
>
> > ABS - American Bull Shi...
>
> > I have noted one difficulty with ABS, and that is its failure to
> > operate on snow and ice. Since I live in Southern California, I do
> > not get that much snow but, in any quick application of my Mustang's
> > breaks, on snow covered roads, they always seem to lock up. Well, the
> > pumping action occurs but, at each application of the pump, I notice
> > wheel lock-up. There is no stopping.
>
> Yah. Try a proper skid pad with ABS. You'll wind up 270 degrees from
> where you were being trained to go. If you're lucky. Did my skid pad
> training at Sears Point in the 70s. I don't want a machine second
> guessing my judgement when I'm about to die. (If I fuck up, OK, I fuck
> up. I don't want to guess right and die anyway! Born and raised in
> Los Angeles, I had my initial driver training during a nasty winter in
> New Hampshire -- I know how to handle a skid, and ABS systems don't
> have a clue where the steering wheel is pointing -- a programming task
> for the current generation, at least those who didn't learn physics
> from Star Wars and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
> --
> Ward Griffiths
> "the timid die just like the daring; and if you don't take the plunge then
> you'll just take the fall" Michael Longcor
>

 Having had decades of extensive driving during the long cold winters in
western Canada, Qebec and Ontario , I would consider myself a quite skilled
slippery road driver. The worst thing you can do when you go into a skid is
lock your brakes. The best is to turn into the skid and use your accellerator
and steering to bring it back under control. I would rather have any brake
action under my control and hope I can steer out of it without using them.There
are courses up here which teach this technique. ABS seems just damnright
dangerous to me, except perhaps for the complete novice who would lock his
brakes out of fear and inexperience. I have also had experiences of
power-steering failure one of which resulted in a serious accident for myself.

ciao larry
lwalker_at_interlog.com

Collectors info http://members.xoom.com/T3C
Received on Mon Apr 05 1999 - 18:53:09 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:31:40 BST