quattro digest, Vol 1 #2899 - ABS Engineer thread

[Larry C Leung]

>
>On Fri, 8 Feb 2002, Dave Glubrecht wrote:
>>
>> Not my understanding,
>>  ABS provides better braking under almost all conditions AND allows
>for the
>> driver to steer while panic braking.  ABS pumps the brakes faster
>than
>> humanly possible which keeps the tires at the max possible braking
>ability.
>
>True, except for highly skilled drivers.
>
Under "expected" conditions. Most racing drivers (and drivers accustomed
to "competitive" driving such as Autocross) can threshold brake very well
AS LONG AS THEY ARE EXPECTED TO BRAKE, i.e. driving into a known corner,
entering pits, etc. The issue that we face on the streets is that we
don't always know when we will need to brake, so ABS helps highly skilled
drivers in unexpected situations just as much as the uninitiated. That
said, a higly skilled driver tends to "look ahead" more often, so is less
likely to end up in unexpected situations, however it is still possible
(deer, kids chasing a ball, totally errant driver) to run into an
unexpected situation in spite of the best anticipation.

Many, many people believe racing/performance drivers have extordinary
reaction times, and this is distinctly not true. They know how to
anticipate and feel how a car is going to react and act according to the
senses that the car feeds back to them better than the average driver. As
an example, though I would expect that P. L. Newman probably has reaction
times better than the average 70+ year old driver, I seriously doubt that
he has the reaction times of a 20 year old, physiologically not at all
likely. But through his experience and skills, he's MUCH more than likely
to drive the pants off of any average 20 year old driver on the race
track. It's not reaction times that makes him a better driver, it's
experience and anticipation. Now, a 20 year race driver? That's a
different story.

LL - NY (wishing that I could even begin to match PLN's race driving,
much less many, many others...for now, off the track, I'm glad I have
ABS...just in case)