Everything I've ever heard about ABS from a safety perspective for the everyday driver is that in a hard braking situation, regardless of the noises heard, or the vibration felt, one should hold the brake pedal firmly until braking is no longer needed. I've never owned an ABS equipped car, but I've purposefully (and safely) tried the ABS on a rented car just to get an idea of what it does and what it feels like (for the sake of an emergency).

My friend, however, owns an '89 Porsche 944 Turbo, which he tracks once in awhile. He says that going into turns fast, the ABS is smooth, quiet, and seemless. I found it interesting that a car of this age would have such a 'high tech' system that it would work this smoothly compared to a much newer car (I think it was a Taurus).

Now OBVIOUSLY, the Porsche (and everything about it) is performance oriented (including the ABS), while the newer Ford had ABS as a safety feature, so I've just compared apples to oranges. But I've just always had the perception that ABS systems were loud and somewhat violent in the way they operate. I found my friend's description of his Porsche's ABS quite intriguing.

So now my question... How does the ABS work on the S2000? Given that it's much newer than my friend's Porsche, and that it is very much a performance car, I would expect a performance orient ABS. When tracking the car, are people using the ABS going into turns? Is it quiet? smooth? I'm interested in a description as I have not had the opportunity to try braking hard in an S2000 on my test drives.

 

In my experience with modern Hondas, the ABS system on these cars is very quiet and smooth, specially compared to some American Makes like the early Cavaliers and Grand Am's that where some of the 1st "economically priced" cars to come with ABS. On the S2k, I believe the ABS works like I described, very quietlly and smoothly as with the Accords and even the Civic EX and Si.

Again, Just my opinion...

Regards...

BA...

 

Check out the ABS on a VW. First time I engaged ABS on my g/f Jetta I thought the brake pedal was going to snap off. The pulsing is very noticeable.

 

i'm not sure that i've ever experience an abs system that engages in a manner that is not noticable. there has always been some sort of warning, whether is the buzzing through the pedal, or lights flashing or tire friction noise (or all of the above).

there is always the chance, and i know this sounds insulting, that your friend's porsche doesn't have abs OR it isn't functioning.

 

Ace10

I've considered that as well, and of course I can't say from experience because I've never ridden in his car, nor have I seen it at the track. It could be that as hard as he is applying the brakes he is maintaining good traction. I for one an always impressed with how well my non-ABS Civic EX can brake (even in the rain) without losing traction.

I know his car has ABS. However, whether it's functioning, it's a good question. Although, he is one for making sure every bit of his car is working flawlessly.

 

Oh yeah...

Does anyone have any experience with the ABS on the '93-'05 RX-7? One comment my friend had was that he liked the 7 a lot except the ABS on that car was extremely harsh. Just curious...

Thanks everyone for the info! I'm interested in trying the ABS on a newer Honda, just for comparison.

 

I've intentionally engaged the ABS on every car I've owned, as part of the learning the car and it's capabilities. In recent years, this includes a '95 GSR, 2002 S2000, and 2003 325i. All of which exhibited a slight pedal vibration, but no noise or drama while bringing the car to a stop.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 00CivicSi
Oh yeah...

Does anyone have any experience with the ABS on the '93-'05 RX-7?

 

the ABS on the S is incredible..I recently went on a driver training day where one of the "tests" was to drive towards a set of cones that were laid out in a sharp right hand bend-brake as hard as you could at the last minute- and turn in to the corner. I couldn't beleive how the car steered into the corner effortlessley

 

I haven't used ABS much (mostly because I don't own a car with ABS ) but it was very smooth and unobtrusive in both the '02 S2000 and '95 Camry XLE that I've driven. Perhaps a slight 'grinding' feel in the Camry, but it was far from alarming.