Porsche Stability Management

Originally Posted by funster

Sammy, you are mistaken, the abs senses a skid and begins its pulsing and won't stop pulsing until it senses that all skidding has stopped. Once this happens your stopping power depends on when the wheel with the least traction stops sliding. Try this test if you ever have a car in the snow(and you are confident that you can do it safely). Drive with one side of the car on a plowed surface with good traction and the other side of the car on a slippery part and apply the brakes to activate the abs. You'll see it takes significantly longer to stop than if the wheels on dry pavement could utilize all their traction. (some abs systems are better at this test than others) The same principles are true on a race track when cornering. if you hit a small bump on a wheel on the inside of your turning circle and set off the abs you can decrease the ablity of your car to brake and fairly skilled drivers can do this better than the abs which is why they don't put abs on race cars.

Hey Funster, in your example (one side on snow one side on pavement) at least the car will track reasonably straight...right? At least this has been my experience. And an advantage of a car with ABS.

[funster]

No Question, wirh the abs the car will track straight and will tend to pull without abs to the side with traction. Abs is great on slippery surfaces to preserve the directional control of the automobile, of that there is no question and as a safety feature, it's tops. Porsche brakes are fantastic and it's seldom that the abs activates as I try to stay just below that point. Abs has come a long way from its early days and I'm sure that it's only a matter of time before it will surpass the abilities of even the finest of drivers.

My daily driver is an SUV (Explorer XLT Sport 4x4) and the ABS is kicking on every day! ABS is great on wet leaves too. Those buggers are slick.