TL;DR: Does having ABS on actually limit the threshold of braking where ABS will trigger/the wheels will lock up?
I’ve been getting into FM2 again lately. I started a new career since I have a new 360 E (what a beautiful machine), after having traded in my original 360 towards an Xbox One.
The original FM1 kind of spoiled me, I started with assists and then ran with it, it was pretty much a breeze through out all the games. I decided since I’m more experienced now and I’m starting over, I would play without assists. FM2’s difficulty presets are pretty good, I started with Professional, where you only get ABS, medium difficulty, and auto shifting as assists. I tried playing with hard AI but they are still a little too fast for my liking, so I’ve been trying to improve my driving in other ways.
I was trying to limit my braking pressure to not trigger ABS while still having ABS on, what I noticed was that even at 30-40% braking triggers ABS, and underneath that threshold it’s just not feasible to slow down in time, unless I start braking way earlier, and then I’m just being slow as hell. I’m estimating that threshold since I’m playing with a controller and I don’t think there’s a way to see how much braking I’m really doing a la the throttle/brake gauges from Gran Turismo.
So I said, f’ it, I’ll just turn off ABS and learn to live without it, and I found that I can go much farther on the brake pedal, I’d say 80-90%, before the wheels start locking up. I’m still getting used to it, since I panic sometimes or forget that I actually have to pay attention now (I would just mash the brake before).
I guess what I wanted to say is, is it the case that with ABS on, you can’t effectively brake up to the car’s true braking limit, as opposed to no ABS? The other frame of reference I have is IRL, but I’ve never gone fast enough to lock up my brakes, except a few times in the winter months.