Yah it does... or removing a wheel speed sensor. Keep in mind the system is designed around being abs. One very important factor is the proportioning... Im not sure if the Rx7 has drp or not... if it does, then I wouldnt disable it cause your front-rear bias would not be fixed in your piping hardware... and would cause some severe stability issues during cornering.

 

Good Topic!

How many of you have shoved your braking foot thru the firewall to stop?

 

How many of you have had to slow the car down by dragging your foot on the ground while riding shotgun in your friend's Chevette after the brakes went out.....

 

Just curious as to how many miles you have actually driven on snow/ice... Locking the wheels is the absolute worst thing that you can possibly do, it can and will put you into an uncontrollable spin almost immediately. Next time you are on the ice try this in a non-ABS car, slam on the brakes locking the tires. The car will start to slowly rotate. Just as you are facing 5 degrees or so away from your direction of travel push the clutch in and let off the brakes. The car will grab immediately and straighten out giving you nearly 100% of control back.

 

I said SNOW, not ice. I grew up in Michigan and Indiana, so I have about 7 years of experience in driving in the white stuff, 4 years with driving a 1st gen RX-7 in it.

I totally disagree with your statement. If you are going in a straight line in snow, locking up the wheels will stop you faster than invoking the ABS. I guarantee it. Off-roaders know all about this fact with dirt, where ABS is a hindrance.

On ice, anything goes.

All that said, I firmly believe that ABS on a street car is a GOOD thing.

 

The problem is the damned ice hiding under the snow. This thread is reminding me why I'm glad I moved to Florida!

jds

 

From this article on the 99+ RX7: http://www.rx7.net.nz/newrx7.htm
"Improved Braking Performance - The ABS control unit for all four wheels has been upgraded from the conventional 8 to 16 bits and equipped with an EBD (electrically controlled braking distribution) system. This results in shorter stopping distances when the brakes are applied suddenly and enhanced vehicle stability."

 

Removing the fuse works in all cars that don't have a backup system in place to prevent electrical failure. As far as braking goes. In a straight line, where you don't have to worry about turning, the shortest and most efficient way to stop is still to lock the brakes(in dry conditions at least).

Limit braking is the action of modulating the break pedal so that you keep your tires always on the very limit of their grip so they are always on the verge of locking. ABS mimics this by modulating your breaks 30 times a second to keep the tires on the verge of braking free of their grip. There are drivers that can out perform this system but most street drivers can't. I drive day in and day out without ABS(my car doesn't have it) i've locked the wheels on a couple of occasions. Once when a ladder fell off a van in front of me I had cars to either side of me and my only recourse was to just slam on my breaks. Another time was when i was coming up to an intersection and the light turned on me I slammed on the breaks to prevent running it due to a cop sitting in the turn lane across from me. He most certainly would have had me.

Either way though I would not much like a car with ABS. Mostly because if i hit a car in front of me through something i did its my fault i did it. But if i hit the car because the stupid brakes didn't lock when they should have then thats something totally different. On dry pavement i can go from 60-0 in my lancer in about 50 feet by locking the brakes completely and letting the car slide on the rubber. I don't recommend this but it is the fastest way to stop.

ABS is for people who cannot limit brake (IE don't know what it is or haven't been taught to do it) and for the rain where that 30 corrections per second is the best way to make sure you don't end up saying hi to the driver in front of you. A well trained driver on dry will be able to out brake ABS not because he can correct more but because he can balance skidding a little and the amount he needs to continue to control the car. A good driver will till you he limit breaks about 70% of the time particularly on a dry track. the other 30% is spent skidding and thats what makes him faster around a corner because unlike ABS he can say ok this is faster here if i just lock the wheels shortly before the turn.

 

Sorry this statement is not true:

Maximum grip occurs at around 25% slip.

Ref Paul Haney's Book: Tires

 

Holy 6 year old thread revival....LOL...

 

Oh god, where did you come up with this. Why is this happening. Dont disable abs on your rx7 if you drive it on the street...ever. I really dont want to see any more of these cars go to the junk yard any more frequently than they already do. This is just a bad idea. It is a great system unless you are a professional driver with a car that has to be .001 seconds faster around a track to beat your competitor. Or if you are a seasoned driver that is accustomed to driving your race car with no abs, which also indicates that you would be dissatisfied with the stock fd brakes and would likely have a racing brake setup with racing tires and wider wheels.

Come on people. Like was previously stated in this thread. If you can pulse your pedal at 30+ times a second you are lying. The system doesnt really do much for killing pedal feel. And if you are thinking it is activating too early, you either have something wrong with your system or you are really having a hard time getting input from your car because a wheel is actually locking up and you arent noticing it. The system works and if it wasnt against regulations f1 would all have abs NO QUESTION.

 

If you watch Formula 1, you'll know that locking a wheel, even for a split second, is a costly mistake. I think those drivers count as "well trained". In emergency situations on the street, with dry pavement, locking the wheels is not the worst mistake to make, but if you know better it is inferior to threshold braking. In the FD, the ABS system does a nice job of staying out of the way even if you're driving and braking very hard.

On a wet surface the ABS is a winner.

The 25% slip figure is for lateral grip.

Dave

 

ABS for the win, in 99.5% of any and all situations a street car and driver find themselves in.

There has been a lot of puffed-chest assertions from some of how they 'know' they can modulate the brakes better than ABS. I politely call bullshit because of one thing: You simply cannot take your foot off the brake in these situations. Your brain is screaming 'brake...brake....BRake...BRAKE BRAKE!!!!" and all you can and WILL do is keep that foot planted, in a true emergency situation.

 

I've found the FD ABS to be among the best ABS equipped cars I've ever driven in, whether on track or in DD situation. It is not as intrusive (aggressive) as some ABS cars I've driven. It only seems to come on when you really are about to lock them up, otherwise it pretty much stays out of your way.

I've driven some cars that the ABS will kick in at moderate braking levels or when you hit a couple loose gravel pieces and I've never had that happen in the FD.

I keep my ABS on even when on the circuit and during auto-x. I find it has keep me from from cleaning out a cone or two with the back end.