Abs

[DC_Tox]

Are you really faster with ABS on?

I made a test on the test track #5 with a "normal" car, the C 32 AMG. With ABS I did a 2:00:66, without ABS it was 1:58.63.

My impression is that, with ABS off, I can enter the turns a tad faster, still braking and at the same time pressing the gas a little bit, let the rear slide out slightly and finally exit the turn with a light counter-steer action while giving gas progressively. Much like GPL and GTR style.

With ABS, on the contrary, I don't seem able to put the rear out when I need it, therefore I'm slower.

Maybe ABS is more useful on "unknown" tracks, where you can make more mistakes and ABS is preventing them?

[FeZ]

I have no idea if ABS really slows you down. I have played mostly with ABS on, now I am quite used to it. ABS also fits those modern Mercs imo.
That enabling ABS/ASR makes it also available on the oldies/racecars is rather lame and should be fixed with a patch, but I mentioned that already on the day the DEMO came out.

[FeZ]

I just started to play with ABS off and it really seems much faster. The braking distance seems to half.
With ABS on the indicator arrow sometimes seems a bit optimistic, meaning that when you slam the brake the second the arrow turns red you hardly manage some corners.
With ABS off the arrow is rather pessimistic, and on my first runs I nearly slowed down to a standstill way before the curve starts. Requires a bit of practice but I would suspect that if you know the track / brake points ABS off will be much faster.

[DC_Tox]

That's exactly my opinion on ABS ;)

Actually, I've made several other tests, and I'm on average 2 seconds faster on all tracks without ABS (where the track length is for about 2-3 minutes of race).

The point seems to be that, as in real cars, ABS will slow you down in a "clean" way regardless of the way you brake-steer (up to a certain limit, of course &( ).

This is preventing you to crash when you're totally wrong in the turn entrance, but is IMHO also preventing you to "slide into the turn" as you would do in any racing game (in GPL it was called "tail braking"), to enter-turn-exit without ever letting the gas pedal off, therefore having a higher revving engine and a faster exit.

It's just a matter of driving style, maybe ;)