Turning off factory ABS

Are some cars just not meant to be run without ABS? Normally I don’t have problems in non-abs cars, and often (largely in race cars with factory abs enabled) I can turn it off without issue, but I’m noticing that’s not always the case. I just started running a few races in the Lotus 2-eleven (basic, not GT4 version) and found that it’s very touchy without ABS. Even coming in at high speed at the end of a straight anything more than 30% or so leads to front wheels locking up. Is this normal? Did they really over-engineer the car’s braking ability such that any aggressive braking will lock it up without ABS? Do others run these cars with it off?

 

I almost always turn any ABS off. What you describe is very true. Any brake pedal caress in most of those Lotus cars will lead to a huge wheel block (x2). Then I lower the brake power to minimum, 80%, and if it's slightly better, it's still very very touchy, not to say undriveable with my pedals (Thrustmaster T500RS, not the best ones of course, but still quite nice).
Don't take it as an "official" assessment from me, but I've always thought that early developped cars like Lotus ones are far from being top notch quality development like we hopefully got with, for exemple, Porsche Packs, or Ferrari 70's birthday pack...
On a side note, I remember days when devs were officially (if not definitively) very reluctant to implement a "braking power setting", then finally, and very thankfully, changed their mind. We don't all of us own a 300-400 euros pedal set, like last Fanatec one, and then we needed this. Its helped a lot for most of cars, but some are still almost undrivable without any ABS. -> Try to heel and toe with a brake pedal you can push only for 1cm and before almost any resistance feeling...

 

Yes, many cars with ABS are set up in such a way that they don't work properly without it. (That's the primary reason that you're not allowed to turn it off in real cars.)

 

Really ? I thought that most of those GT cars allowed to turn it off...

 

Well that fits with my findings that GT cars tend to do fine with it off, but production cars are a lot more finicky

 

The latest generations of ABS have become better than human control on most road surfaces. That's called progress ^^

 

The lighter mid engined cars like the lotus cars would struggle more if you turn the factory abs off as there's very little weight over the front wheels to help with traction

 

TC yes, ABS no.

 

On old cars I pull the fuse (E30, Quattro, etc), on modern cars it doesnt work

 

When it comes to ABS I go by the feel, if I am all over the shop then ABS can help, if there is a little lock up here and there I turn it down (up in numbers) or off. The 'Top Gear' mentality of "turn it all off" never worked on me as I would rather stay on the road and race hard that spin around and get frustrated/cause accidents. I have a G27 and the brake pedal is not the best and as such I have to play the game of most returns, I would love to see what ABS cars drive like with a set of professional grade pedals but that is not going to happen any time soon.

P.S. I never use TC or SC, but ABS seems to be necessary in a few cars.

 

Interesting fact. On most Road cars if you disable the ABS (pulling the fuse/sensors). There's a 99% chance you're going to change the brake distribution.

On my old Clio RS for example, my ABS failed due to a cracked ABS ring. The Bosch system on that car went to a default 'failure' setting of 50/50% brake distribution once the sensors failed to pick up a signal from the broken ring. From that point on it was like pulling the handbrake up in heavy braking zones.

 

Braking in Assetto Corsa is somewhat over sensitive without ABS, and lockups occur without any form of realistic tactile feedback that could let me know when I am close to "the edge". That being the case, I prefer to stick with ABS for those cars that have it.

 

On modern cars (and some older cars) I usually remove the tires. I’ve found that having 1:1 feedback directly from the rim to the suspension really lets me feel what the car is doing and how close I really am to the limit. With tires, the road feel is somewhat masked and the loss of grip feels a bit too linear for my driving style.

Sure there are often moments of total, uncontrollable understeer and braking points tend to change dramatically, but I think that it ends up being more rewarding given the extra amount of communication you get from the car. I’ll happily pass on any of these modern doodads that only diminish the driving experience. YMMV

It makes me wonder why Kunos doesn’t have this option for any cars in the game.