ABS on the track, this is new to me.

My new HPDE car has ABS.  The only other car I've ever driven on a track with ABS was my 89 M3, and it never kicked in unless I was on dirt and intentionally testing it.  It would allow for tail happy trail braking, and quite a bit of slip without ever invading.

How will an 08 Mustang act, will I be better of without it.  My experience with ABS in the snow is that I hate it, so my hopes are not high for using it on a track.  Will it allow for a tire to slip a little before encroaching on my fun.

Does anyone else have experience with an E30 M3 that can verify what I felt.

I know at lest one person on here that can answer the Mustang part.

If there is any trail braking over a little rise, you may very well hate it.  Rwd may be less scary, but I sure knew it when I forgot to pull the fuse in my Neon.

Give it a shot.  Just don't push the edge of the braking zone for a few laps.

No personal experience  but I know every time we talk about S197s here somebody chimes in with how good the ABS is.

Give it a try and see what you find.  It's hard to know if a specific car's ABS will allow enough slip or if it'll be too intrusive for your tires and preferences until you try.  Tires that reach max grip at a significant amount of slip (like many snow tires under braking) tend to be less ABS-friendly than those with peak grip at a lower amount of slip.  

I leave it on in the G35 and don't hate it. The car will get a little twitchy when it eases braking on one wheel, but not so much that it isn't controllable. I have no doubt that it has saved me $1000 in flat spotted tires at this point. 

That said, the ABS in the Infiniti is awesome and almost unnoticeable other than the yaw induced when one wheel is braking less than the rest. I've driven some vehicles that the ABS was  downright dangerous on a wet road. 

akylekoz said:

will I be better of without it

Depends on the system, the only way is to try it out. 

Quick answer: It depends on the ABS system

I know that when I track any of the new GM cars, I just mash the brake pedal like a potato and it works amazingly. Threshold brakes better than a person ever could. 

Then I get back into my Miata and I realize real quick I can't do that 

I prefer it on my E36 M3ty Probe track car. I can pretty much stand on the pedal and let the car do the hard work. The car doesn’t do anything weird as you roll of the pedal entering a corner. It’s also handy if you totally overshoot a corner because you can still steer the car while hard on the brakes.

The only time it’s an issue for me is if you’re carrying the inside rear wheel when you go for the brakes. Shouldn’t be an issue for your application though. 

Yeah, the ABS on my 07 Rx-8 is great, I've never wanted to disable it on track/autocross.   The ABS on my early 986 Boxster was horrible and I hated it when I was autocrossing.

The only way to know is to test.

Daylan C said:

No personal experience  but I know every time we talk about S197s here somebody chimes in with how good the ABS is.

LOL, it's either DILYSI Dave (who loves the E36 M3 out of his S197) or me (who was the ABS/TCS application engineer on the S197).

Did i ever mention how good the ABS is on the S197?  ;-)

I heard that there was an issue with the very first S197 road race cars on full slicks (not DOT) where the ABS didn't believe 1.2g was sustainable, but that was optimized in the next software release (running change in MY05 iirc), so i'm betting you'll really like it.

I've driven a 3 valve Mustang GT on the track and didn't think the ABS was particularly obtrusive. I was able to threshold brake and trail brake just fine with it. 

First event is at Gingerman which is flat and should give me an idea of how it will react.  My concerns are for Grattan with the off camber/down hill, bus stop, Jump with unloaded suspension, stuff.  I'll definitely ease into it on that track.

Thanks for all the input.

My advice (which I think I stole from Randy Pobst) on all driver aids is to leave them active unless you can feel them doing something you don't want them to do.  I don't have many laps in S197s but my recollection is that while the ABS is great the stability/traction control needs to be shut down fully using some kind of extra long button press/tummy rub sequence or it'll overheat the brakes and pull engine power aggressively. 

In reply to APEowner :

Googling S197 traction control disable.

S197s have TCS and ECS apparently the TCS is not a big deal to leave on or turn off.  The ECS (electronic Stability Control) however in invasive and will turn its self back on at the wrong time.   Can also burn up the brakes as it tries to straighten the car.

I'm sure all of this will be fine for the first or even second outing but I want to be prepared.

On my Nissan it's a matter of cutting the output wire from the yaw sensor and adding a switch.

I drove an SN95 at Barber that I was told didn't have ABS. It did. I was scared when I hit the brakes on the concrete through the corkscrew and the pedal started pulsing. After I realized it was the supposedly non-functioning ABS I loved it. I wasn't hitting it in every braking zone (not my car, nit driving 100% every lap) but when I needed to whoa in a hurry it worked well. 

goingnowherefast said:

Quick answer: It depends on the ABS system

 

I know that when I track any of the new GM cars, I just mash the brake pedal like a potato and it works amazingly. Threshold brakes better than a person ever could. 

 

Then I get back into my Miata and I realize real quick I can't do that 

I feel the same about my Pontiac GTO, ABS works great in the dry. In the wet it will go into "ice mode" or whatever, and thats bad...