Saturday, March 31, 2007

Braking and ABLS

Even with the vehicle's Electronic Stability Control system turned off, the Active Brake Limited Slip (ABLS) system always stays on. The scenario where ABLS interferes the most for me is when cornering:
Approach corner.
Brake.
Downshift; steady on brake.
Gently start to ease off the brake <---- trail braking
Turn through corner.
Ease on gas.
Straighten + open up.
It looks like the culprit is trail-braking. ABLS kicks in at that exact point where the car enters the turn, and the foot is still lightly touching the brake. The yaw sensor detects Gs and tries to dynamically control braking pressure on all the wheels to prevent oversteer.

I am speculating that ABLS tries to anticipate oversteer by measuring G forces, rather than measuring wheel slips. This would mean that the system is calibrated to factory parts with a conservative configuration. There are a few problems with this:
  1. The conservative configuration does not allow the driver to maximise the cornering potential of the vehicle's hardware. Additionally, because the system's G sensor is calibrated to factory parts, it will more significantly restrict the potential of some aftermarket handling mods. E.g., the car has sway bars to prevent body roll, stiff suspension to keep all feet planted around corners, and large+wide rear tires. The car can definitely corner faster than ABLS thinks it can.
  2. Causes understeer and interferes with trail-braking.

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