Toypop said:
Most of the people crashing their Cups last year did it on wet slippery roads as remember? Hit the brakes and couldn't steer although there was one young guy that was over taking or doing something silly going up a hill and around a corner or something and had an almighty crash? That sounded like something ESP could have gathered up.
The facts remain though last winter was full of threads about people writing off Cups but very little in the way of 172 or 182 accidents. Could be due to the lack of ABS and ESP or it could be a certain type of person buys a Cup and drives it in a certain way.
I had a 1.6 Montego as well when I started out! Nearly crashed that into the back of someone as it happens! It was also one of those silly inexperienced driver type situations. I had some c*ck in front do something stupid (you know like doing an emergency stop at a roundabout when nothing is coming) so it sort of wouldn't have been my fault but in the eyes of the law it would and you can only avoid those crashes through experience.
I was only doing thirty and wouldn't have been anymore or less likely whether I'd had the Montego or Cup.
i only think ABS, ESP helps with inexperienced drivers, cadence braking is possible also.
remember esp is primarily designed for when you have two wheels on a grass verge and two on tarmac limiting power to those of the least grip and balancing power out, also yet esp helps with turning around and object whilst heavy braking. but a good driver always looks way in front and doesnt drive at a crazy speed, if you slam on a 60mph in the cup it would still be hard to invoke a wheel lock but even if you did by the time you have lifted off the break pedal grip would most probably been established again.
people shouldnt rely on electronics to drive fast or use them as a safety blanket, i actually drive slower in my cup as i cant rely on electronics like i did in my 172MKII.
also ESP is crap in the snow/ice its pointless in these condidtions constantly trying to break the wheels and break traction.
so i dont agree that ABS is essencial neither is ESP. unfortuantley its law to have on all modern cars even supercars. its a fact ABS increases stopping distances.
a lot of the fun in the cup is about not having electronics and being more of a pure driving machine, when i had my 172MKII i used to turn off the ESP and weirdly it made me feel a lot less safe yet its only a piece of somputer software trying to deal with real life complex situations. in the cup it feels dangerous which i like