greetings LFS racer, This question got me recently, well, let me tell you, when I race on simulators I always turn off every driving help, always, even in gt5 when I get the chance, just put the ABS to 0, not 1 as a lot of badass guys.

this question is because I was driving, in real life, taking a downhill that put the brakes to the limit (I use engine braking to avoid the fading brakes) but the last time I took the downhill, something new happened to me:

one of the two front tyres locked while braking, I was very obvious, just one tyre locked, so, Im not sure what is the proper thing to do or not to do in this situation...

I personally tried to stop the locking tyre and depress slighty the braking pedal, it worked but im interested to know if that really cut the braking distance or just make it longer?

I can really tell because to tell this I would need to go back and do it again but locking the tyre and keep it locked while the others 3 tyres still braking without locking...


I have never experienced this in a racing simulator, I dont really get why one tyre just locked, maybe that tyre has less grip than others? not sure


what do you say?
braking and one front tyre locks, keep braking until locking the other front tyre or unlock the locked tyre depressing the brake pedal?

Sorry for my english

Im not sure if this is the same case, but it seems just overspeeding for me, unlocking that tyre would make any difference? btw the driver coudl manage to minimize the damage, I was expecting a worst crash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm7DhP3QvIA

Not sure I understand correctly.
Were you driving or racing when that happend?
I think if you lock the wheels during normal driving you were going to fast for the road conditions.

Just one wheel locking up can have many reasons:
-different underground/road surface
-tire wear/temperature
-brake disc wear/temperature
-weight transfer of car (like during cornering)


In LFS it can also happen that only one tire locks up.
Extreme example would if you corner so hard that one wheel is in the air: If you apply light braking now, the wheel in air will stop spinning, the wheel on ground will not.
Similiar could happen just from the weight transfer during cornering, without wheel leaving the surface.
slightly related picture:

I can't think of a situation (on road driving) where a wheel would unload enough to lockup, which you would notice - and if you did it's a really *really* bad way to be driving on road.

But in this situation you want to be at the limit of grip - not over it.

On the road or track, if you have to brake hard, and one tyre has even a few percent less grip (due to friction, normal load, brake torque variations etc), then you'll lock up one wheel first.