ABS and Audi's "Antilock Off" Switch

[Grant Lenahan]

absolutely. That was always the primary benefit and objective.

And yes, i teach folks to use it and trust it on a wet-down parking lot with PCA.

Its better than you. Or at least me, on case you are named Hurley.

Its probabyl better than him too.

Grant
On Jan 31, 2013, at 11:11 PM, Paul wrote:

> Anti-lock is also touted as a way to maintain some steering control of the car. The rapid pulsing gives the front wheels enough roll time to get some modest ability to move laterally while decelerating. 
> 
> I believe that's what the high dollar driving schools now teach on wet pads. 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Jan 31, 2013, at 10:13 PM, "mboucher70 hotmail.com" <mboucher70 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> In December, during a highway drive from Toronto to Montreal, weather turned quite bad.  At some point we were brought to stop-and-go traffic, perhaps between 0 and 20 km/h.  At one point when we needed to stop, it turned out that we were on black ice hidden by blowing snow.  The ABS kicked in, and it seemed as though we’d sail straight into the car in front of us!  I kept solid pressure on the pedal, and we JUST managed to stop, probably within a few inches of the car in front.  If we hadn't stopped, it wouldn't have been much more than a harsh bump.  Nonetheless, it’s a bad feeling!
>> 
>> I'd had similar (though not nearly as bad) experiences in the past, but still never disengaged the ABS because all of the studies I'd read had made the case that ABS could save your life if you locked up the tires at high speed.
>> 
>> After this near miss, I’d had it with the ABS.  I immediately put the car in park, pressed the "Antilock Off" switch, and continued the drive.  It felt so much more in control, at low speeds, even if I was locking them up at times.
>> 
>> Question I've been pondering is what's to be concluded from this about the "Antilock Off" feature that used to be available:
>> 
>> 1.) It was useful in situations such as that above, but since the overall benefits of ABS outweighed the downsides, it just became a standard safety feature and “Antilock Off" switches disappeared.
>> 
>> 2.) ABS has significantly improved from designs used around the 1990 vintage, to make the need to disable them obsolete.
>> 
>> 3.) The “Antilock Off” switch was a useful feature and would be nice to have in current-day production cars.
>> 
>> Other thoughts?
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