I think you could pull the fuse, and/or disconnect the ABS module. I dont think it would help though, unless you need it to slide the car around, but even that probablly wouldnt need to be done in an autox course.

Kind of related thing about the ABS. My winter car is a 1998 blazer, and the only thing wrong with it is the ABS doesnt work. I looked under the hood when we got it, and it was simply disconnected. No check engine light or anything, but i do get one when its plugged in because of the faulty ABS module.

 

St. Mary,

A skilled driver can theoretically brake shorter than ABS can, somewhere around 5-10% shorter depending on the driver's skill and the way the ABS is set up.

There's a relationship between the pressure the car is applying to the brakes, and the pressure you are applying to the pedals. Beyond a certain point, the pressure applied to the brakes is (sort of) constant, because ABS is activated. The exact slope of the graph, etc, all vary depending on the setup, what surface you're driving on, etc, but it looks sort of like this:

ABS activates when it detects the tires not spinning, but because of the way that ABS works (cycling the brakes on and off), it can't maximize the total traction of the tires. So, if you can brake hard enough to take advantage of that last 10% that ABS can't use, you can get shorter stops without ABS.

Note that this is generally true on dry pavement. On wet pavement, since the tires slip much easier, that little spike in the graph where you can outbrake ABS is much, much smaller and ABS will probably be more effective, even for skilled drivers. On snow and gravel, no ABS generally stops you better because a wedge of snow/gravel builds up in front of the locked tire and helps stop you.

All that said, though, your stopping shorter than ABS directly relies on your ability to modulate the brakes to take it up to the edge of the tires locking up, but no further. What kind of tires are you running? If you lock up your brakes, there's a good chance you'll flatspot your tires, especially if it's soft r-compounds. Are you willing to risk destroying a set of tires to gain a couple of feet in a braking zone? Are you good enough at working the brakes to avoid locking them up consistently, even while you're busy looking ahead at the next corner, yet still be braking harder than ABS would allow you to?

I think that overall, the benefits of ABS outweigh the negatives. I've done a lot of corner working, and it's pretty easy to tell who has ABS disabled or didn't have it in the first place, because they are always locking up at least one tire, smoke everywhere, usually with the tires turned but the car continuing straight because the tire can't roll.

 

Ok, that pretty much answers my question. I guess I didn't realize that ABS was only soaking up about 10% of my braking distance.

Sounds like time for bigger/better front tires

 

Plus ABS prevents the individual wheels from locking up. Without ABS you could have one, two
or three wheels right at the point of losing traction while the remaining wheels are not applying
as much stopping force as they are able to do.

 

:iagree:

 

I've never had the ABS engage in an AutoX. I tend to not brake hard enough to have the ABS take over. Of course that could be the reason I tend to enter a turn to fast and understeer a good many turns.