Effective Braking Techniques

The brakes fitted to your car will perhaps be something you take very much for granted. After all, when
you recognise the need to lose speed quickly, you just lift off the gas, put your foot onto the brake pedal
and the car slows down. Nothing to it is there? However, why is it, when you do that, does the car slow
or stop? Whats going on underneath you?
You may not quite have thought of it like this, but when you apply your brakes, even when they are
working at maximum efficiency, they will only be able to slow your car at a rate according to the
amount of grip available from your tyres. Why? Because the tyres are the only part of your car that is in
contact with the ground, and if things were any different, we would all be able to get 100% braking
effect 100% of the time, even when driving on ice!

Tyre grip is caused by friction,

and friction between tyre and road is caused by down force
Brakes use tyre grip to slow and stop the car, and tyres get their ability to grip the road from something
called friction, which in turn, is provided by down force. A road car gets its down force from gravity, as
it is the mass of that vehicle acting downwards onto the road surface that provides tyre grip. Therefore,
if you have a car that weighs 1,000kgs, and let us say that weight is evenly distributed within the
vehicle, you will have 250kgs of down force acting on each of the four wheels, creating equal friction
between each tyre and tarmac.

The problem is you cannot drive a car without there being a constant variation in the amount of
downforce applied to any of the four tyres, which of course will vary according to what the car is doing
any given time. When you apply your brake pedal, and whilst driving forward, there becomes an
increased amount of down force at the front of the car.
The car doesnt lose any of its overall weight, its just there is now a variation in the distribution of the
overall amount of downforce available. Whatever the total amount of down force, it all has to be shared

between the four tyres.

Why bigger and more powerful brakes are fitted to the front of the car
This is why bigger and more powerful brakes are fitted at the front wheels, as compared to those at the
rear. Under braking the front tyres will give you better road adhesion, when compared to those at the
rear, so it makes sense to create the most braking force where there is the most tyre grip. With less
down force at the rear, any substantial braking going on at that end of the vehicle would easily result in
a wheel lockup situation.
Braking systems fitted to cars, and light to medium weight goods vehicles, are operated by hydraulics
via a series of smallbore tubes (brake pipes) filled with fluid connecting the action of the brake pedal
to the brake units fitted to each wheel.
To overcome the problem of increased downforce at the front, and decreased down force at the rear,
under braking, there is a pressure limiting valve built into the system that will detect the difference
between the front and rear loading, and will compensate by adjusting the balance in braking power
accordingly to prevent rear wheel lockup.

How to Get Better Performance From Your Car Brakes

Whilst the effectiveness of the vehicle brakes is limited by the maximum amount of available tyre grip,
better braking performance can be realised by applying the brakes in an intelligent manner.
There will be many who have travelled as a passenger in car and perhaps wished they had remembered
to bring a surgical collar with them. You know the type of driver? The one who just pokes at the brake
pedal, separating your vertebrae every time they slow the car down, or who will leave braking very late
so that your eyeballs jump from their sockets due the terrific rate of deceleration. Very often, what
should be a gentle process, becomes an eyepopping and rather hurried almost emergency stop.

Rough handling of the car causes accelerated wear

and diminishes your control potential
Apart from being very uncomfortable, and there being an enhanced risk of skidding or control loss, it is
quite harmful to treat a car in this way. Think about the stress that type of abuse places upon the
suspension linkages, the brake components and even the engine mountings. Yes, the engine mountings
and the gearbox too, for that matter.
Every time you snap the brakes on in a rough manner your engine and gearbox are trying to jump out
through your radiator grille in just the same way all that stuff you have dumped on your back seat flies
forward onto the floor. Make no mistake, there is a lot of stress going on there.
For the highest level of braking performance, apply them progressively and when the vehicle is

travelling in a straight line. Straight line braking ensures the most satisfactory distribution of
downforce. Whilst is if not possible under these conditions to give each tyre a whole 25% of what is
available, if you can apply the loading over matched pairs of tyres in an equal manner, that is the best
compromise you can wish for.
Under braking, you will need to match loading between the front tyres, which means by default you
will have matched loading between the rear tyres. By applying the brakes with empathy, you will create
maximum vehicle stability under braking and realise the maximum level braking performance for the
conditions.

Progressive Braking Gives Better Stopping Power

To apply progressive braking, firstly rest your foot on the pedal and gradually increase the pressure
until the desired amount of braking effect is achieved. Once your speed has been reduced sufficiently,
the procedure is then completed in reverse, i.e. you release the pressure on the pedal in the same
progressive manner.
Braking should be poohshaped. That is to say it should be tapered at both ends and fat in the middle.
It is amazing how the thought of this creates a much smoother driving technique! Braking should be
commenced early to give time for smoothness, but that can only be achieved by good quality distance
observation, welldeveloped anticipation skills and effective advanced planning.

Braking whilst cornering will immediately put the car offbalance, as the front tyres of the vehicle will
become more heavily loaded, and because you are steering, the extra loading becomes biased to one
front corner. This is one heck of a load for one suspension unit to cope with, and it creates a great deal
of extra work for one tyre to have to cope with too.

When brakes are applied in a bend,

particularly

with

front

wheel

drive

vehicles, not only do the tyres at the rear of

the car have less down force available, but
what they do have becomes unevenly
distributed. This makes it even more
difficult for the back tyres to grip the road.
Due to the effect of cornering the rear of
the vehicle wants to swing out to vertake
the front. Applying the brakes whilst
cornering can even cause the rear tyre on
the inside of the curve to lose contact with the road altogether, as vividly illustrated in this photograph.
Another product of braking into a bend is that due to momentum, the car will be more intent on
pushing straight ahead, instead of changing direction as you intended. If you dont get the oversteer
situation, as mentioned above, you will certainly experience understeer.

The Actions of The Average Motorist

Having read this series of articles about advanced methods of driving you will no doubt begin to notice
how the general motoring public deal with bends and corners. The usual pattern is to decelerate, brake
and to change down through the gearbox, all whilst steering around a bend, completing all these
actions at the same time. In fact, the huge majority of drivers will only reach the most appropriate
roadspeed for a bend, and have selected the appropriate gear, no earlier than the halfway point of
completing the bend.
The effect is very unkind to the car, as well as being uncomfortable for anyone on board, because as
soon as the foot is lifted from the gas, andor the brakes are applied, the balance of the vehicle changes,
as the emphasis on down force becomes biased towards the vehicle front. With steering being applied
as well, this will create greater potential for things to go wrong, and not only that, but it knocks hell out
of the tyres too.
Drivers who brake into corners will scrub away the outer shoulders of their front tyres and wont get
anywhere near the mileage they could from them. They also accelerate the amount of wear and tear
that occurs within other component parts, such as suspension units, causing increased maintenance
and repair costs.

The Effective Method in Braking For Bends

The most effective way to deal with braking for bends is to firstly bring down the speed of the car until
you are happy it is appropriate to complete the bend you are about to enter, and whilst still travelling

in a straight line. Having settled the car to the speed required, now directly select the most suitable
gear to provide the necessary response relative to the speed at which you are travelling again before
you start to turn into the bend.
By these means, at the time you begin steering into the bend, you will are travelling at the right speed
and with the right gear engaged (we wont go into the topic of positioning here, as that would over
complicate matters for now).
When you actually take the car around a bend, apply just enough throttle to keep the engine pulling,
but without the car accelerating. By these means you will achieve the best situation in terms of vehicle
stability, particularly as the loading of down force will be matched between the two tyres along the
outside of the curve, and between the two tyres on the inside.
When descending a winding hill, apply firm braking when the car is travelling straight, even
exaggerating the amount of speed loss required before the bend is reached, and then apply lighter
brake pressure around the curves as required. Also, try to use only one brake application per task, as
not only does this form one of the key elements of The System of Car Control, a subject to be dealt with
in a later chapter, but it also helps a driver to become more disciplined in searching out actual or
potential danger.
Julian Smith Ride Drive Limited

WARNING This series of driving tips articles has been made available to you to read, and if you
wish, to print or save, and you may do so completely free of charge. However, this permission is given
where the material is for personal use only. Any reproduction, copying or publishing for any form of
personal gain, financial or otherwise, or for any form of distribution, without prior permission, will not
be tolerated and will be considered as a breach of copyright. Please do not abuse the good faith that has
been extended to our site visitors in producing this material. If you are unsure as to whether your
intended use of this, or any other written article that you find published on this website, will be
offensive, please ask for guidance.

Make Your Comment

Part1 Effective Braking Techniques

Part2 How a Car Braking System Works
Part3 Vehicle Stopping Performance
Part4 Effective Braking Techniques

You Are Here Home Advanced Driving Tips Menu Part1 Effective Braking

This page was last updated Thursday, 27-Jan-2011

Effective Braking Techniques

ABS The Limitations & The Advantages

What do you know about ABS? How do you use ABS properly? Have you ever experienced ABS when
its been working? What do the letters ABS actually stand for?
Okay, lets start with that name, ABS. It stands for Antilock Braking System, and what that means is
that no matter how hard a driver may stamp on the brake pedal, the road wheels are never supposed
lock into a skid, which for most driving conditions is true.

So How Does It Help, Not Locking The Wheels?

Well, for a start, you need to understand that each of your vehicle tyres has one allocation of grip, and
let us say that overall it is 100%. What you also need to understand is that whatever the demand you
place upon that tyre you are going to use up some of that gripallocation. Whatever is left will be the
total amount available to use for other tasks.
Consider this. For cornering purposes, if you are using 80% of the gripallocation to get your vehicle
around a bend, you will only have 20% left for braking or any other task for that matter.
Taking the above into account, and when driving a car not equipped with ABS, if you brake so hard, or

so harshly, as to lock your wheels into a skid,

you have none of your grip allocation left with
which to change direction, because the
skidding tyre has used it all up. Simply you
have nowt left for steering. And thats what
ABS is all about.

ABS Vs Raw Skill

ABS was introduced, primarily, to cover up for a lack of driver skills, and this was (and still is)
necessary as almost every driver, when faced with an emergency that required both urgent loss of
speed and change in direction, would crash into whatever it was they were trying to avoid. This is
because the instinctive reaction for nearly all will always be to try and press the foot through the floor
whilst vainly heaving on the steering wheel with all their might to avoid impact. All to no avail.

With ABS there is no locking of wheels

and therefore some directional control is still available.
So, the primary benefit of ABS, for normal road surfaces, is to increase the ability of the driver to
maintain control of the vehicle, rather than go into a skid. Despite this, loss of control still remains
likely on loose surfaces, like gravel, or slippery surfaces like snow or ice. On a very slippery surface,
such as sheet ice, poor wet road surface, it is possible to lock multiple wheels at once, and this can
defeat ABS, which relies on detecting individual wheels locking.

Threshold Braking
This is a term that some readers may well be aware of, and describes the technique where a driver
finely calibrates the amount of brake pedal pressure to apply, so as to maintain a degree of braking
effect at the wheels that is but a hairs breadth inside the point of wheel lockup. Thhis is finding the
threshold between a rotating wheel under braking and a locked wheel under braking.
It is well reported that Lewis Hamilton, current Formula One world champion, has a particular skill for
knowing where the braking threshold of his car will be at any time and in any conditions, and this has
been one of the elements leading to his success. He is well in tune with his car and is able to work with
it well.

However, the availability of the ABS of a vehicle should not deter drivers from learning to master
threshold braking, as driver will tune to machine more accurately this way. As already noted above, the
maximum braking effect is achieved when the tyres are at the limit of friction. ABS works by releasing
the brakes as the tyres break traction, so a skilled driver, who is in tune with their car, should be able to
exceed the braking performance of an ABS system under most circumstances.

ABS The Pedal Will Pulse & Vibrate

When activated, the ABS causes the brake pedal to pulse or vibrate, which is very noticeable, and this is
the partial release and reapplication of braking effect at the wheels many times per second. As most
drivers rarely or never brake hard enough to cause the system to activate, and a significant number
rarely bother to read the manual of the vehicle they drive, the effects may not be discovered until a real
emergency is encountered.
It is usually during an emergency when a driver will encounter the pulsing of the pedal for the first
time. Many will react by reducing pedal pressure and thus lengthening braking distances, contributing
to a higher level of road collisions than the stopping capabilities of ABS would otherwise promise. In
short, many drivers first time experience of the rumbling pedal is quite alarming.
The recommended technique for nonexpert drivers, when in a typical fullbraking emergency and
using an Antilock Braking System, is to apply maximum brake pedal pressure and maintain it, whilst
steering to avoid collision as necessary. This is the one for all solution to most situations, but to do this
effectively training will be required.
Dont wait for a real emergency before you experience the sensation through the pedal, but try it out in
controlled circumstances first, and then come the time you have to use it, the sensation wont come as
such a shock. Perhaps in an empty car park, on a quiet country lane, on some private land, but only do
it at very low speed, and when there is no one else around to be caused alarm.

Shorter Braking Distances

As already stated, driving on hightraction surfaces, such as bitumen or concrete, whether wet or dry,
a non ABSequipped car, depending upon who is the driver, will be able to attain braking distances
better (i.e. shorter) than those that would be easily
possible with the benefit of ABS.
An alert and skilled driver without ABS should be
able, through the use of techniques like threshold
braking, to match or improve on the performance
of a typical driver with an ABSequipped vehicle. However, for a majority of drivers, in most
conditions and in typical states of alertness, ABS should at least reduce their chances of a pile up, or
reduce the severity of impact if nothing else. At least thats the theory.

Target Fixation
Target fixation is where a driver, fearing he or she will hit something, actually ends up locked on to it,
and as a consequence, WILL hit it! Its an old brain function. I remember Julian of Ride Drive, during
a discussion on this topic, told me how he, when in his previous role as a traffic patrol police officer,
had actually seen this happen for real on the public roads and how he had investigated collisions
leading up to which a driver had chased the victim across the road to the point of impact.
Firstly, be aware of Target Fixation, as the only way you will overcome this is through training. I
experienced this myself with a group of others during a training exercise. Initially there was a 100%
failure rate, and I had excellent skid control experience already!
Secondly, ABS should have significantly reduced the chances of a skid and subsequent loss of control
and yet all of us crashed into what we were trying to avoid. However, to master the extra steering input
required to turn the vehicle under ABS, again there was 100% failure rate within the group.

ABS Can Increase Braking Distances

However, on gravel and in deep snow, ABS tends to increase braking distances, not reduce them, but
why? On these surfaces, locked wheels dig into the gravel or snow, building up a wedge of material
ahead of the tyre, which helps to slow the vehicle more quickly. ABS prevents this from occurring.
Some ABS calibrations reduce this problem by slowing the cycling time, thus letting the wheels
repeatedly briefly lock and unlock, which is better, but not ideal.
Some manufacturers have therefore implemented something called Brake Assist systems that
determine if the driver is attempting a panic stop and will maintain braking force in this situation.
Nevertheless, ABS can significantly improve safety and control for drivers in onroad situations if they
know not to release the brakes when they feel the pulsing pedal.
Vehicles equipped with braking systems without ABS have been shown to out brake vehicles equipped
with ABS, and the British car magazines Evo and Autocar both conduct periodic tests of vehicles
comparing their ability to accelerate from a standing start to 100mph, and then brake to a stop. This is
the socalled 01000 test. They repeatedly find that the cars without ABS will outperform
comparable cars equipped with ABS.
The biggest advantage that ABS has over a nonantilocking system is the modern ABS systems will
compensate for each of the four tyres being on four different surfaces. In this scenario the system will
monitor and apply different degrees of braking pressure to each wheel according to the level of tyre
adhesion available. This is something a human controlled nonantilock system cant achieve, as with
the nonABS vehicle, the maximum overall braking effect will always be limited by the one tyre out of
four that is experiencing the lowest level of grip.

So there you have it. ABS is great for many situations, but not the answer to all. And, to get the best
from it you need some training. Otherwise it just remains a Marketing Point in a glossy sales brochure.

WARNING This series of driving tips articles has been made available to you to read, and if you
wish, to print or save, and you may do so completely free of charge. However, this permission is given
where the material is for personal use only. Any reproduction, copying or publishing for any form of
personal gain, financial or otherwise, or for any form of distribution, without prior permission, will not
be tolerated and will be considered as a breach of copyright. Please do not abuse the good faith that has
been extended to our site visitors in producing this material. If you are unsure as to whether your
intended use of this, or any other written article that you find published on this website, will be
offensive, please ask for guidance.
Make Your Comment

Part1 Effective Braking Techniques

Part2 How a Car Braking System Works
Part3 Vehicle Stopping Performance
Part4 Effective Braking Techniques

You Are Here Home Advanced Driving Tips Menu Effective Braking Part4 ABS Pros &
Cons

This page was last updated Thursday, 27-Jan-2011

Vehicle Brakes PartFour