Yahoo Autos How ABS Helps and Hurts You in Deep Snow Driving
For most drivers, anti-lock brakes are miraculous. In a panic stop situation, they keep the front wheels from locking up, allowing you to steer and stop at the same time. In a car with ABS, you don't have to worry about balancing your braking and steering inputs-and when you're faced with a split-second situation in slippery conditions, that safety net can be a life-saver.
But there's always room for improvement. Anyone who's spent a lot of time driving in deep snow has horror stories of skidding right through an intersection under full ABS stutter. Folks used to driving non-ABS cars understand how to use fully-locked brakes to stop quickly in deep snow-in a straight line, at least.
So how can you improve your skills to maximize the benefit of ABS and learn something about you car's dynamics? Team O'Neil Rally School founder Tim O'Neil is here to show you how, under certain snowy circumstances, a well-calibrated human foot can out-brake even the most modern ABS system.
O'Neil demonstrates two braking scenarios here, both in deep snow: A straight-line panic stop, and braking through a tight turn. In both examples, O'Neil's first attempt uses full ABS-he simply mashes the brake pedal and lets the car do the thinking-while the second attempt demonstrates threshold braking, modulating the brake pedal so that ABS is never triggered.
Which do you think is more effective? Here, check it out for yourself:
The lesson here is familiar to anyone who's attended a track day or a racing school: Careful brake modulation beats full-ABS panic stopping in both a straight line and on a curve. And O'Neil brings up an excellent point: You should absolutely take the time to get familiar with how your car reacts in deep snow. Find a snowy parking lot and probe the limits of threshold braking, ABS, stability control, the works.
Anti-lock brakes are a modern engineering miracle. They make dicey situations survivable for the average driver, whose reaction is most likely mash-the-brakes-and-swerve. But if you're willing to learn a technique that's slightly more advanced, you'll be able to out-perform even the best ABS system. The good news is, if you screw it up, ABS will still be there to save your bacon.
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