ABS in a spin?

[Cathar]

The theory goes that when you are spinning beyond recovery, you should apply the brakes hard enough to lock all four wheels. Since a locked wheel will not deploy any directional forces, you would keep traveling in the same general direction as before the spin, ideally staying on the track and not heading towards the tire wall, and will eventually smoke to a halt.

So what happens when your car has ABS? I've read that using the ABS early in a slide can stabilize the car, but that happens when you are already spinning? Won't the ABS release the brakes when the car is at a certain angle to the previous direction of travel, and it'll shoot off the road into the scenery?

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of this situation?

[Cathar]

Ok, I did some research:
I went on track with the 928 yesterday, on a drift day - the track was watered and kept wet for the whole session. I spun several times (at relatively low speeds however), and had no problems predicting where I was going to end up. I never had ABS kicking in when was braking going sideways.

I still don't know what would really happen if I lost the rear end it at high speeds (50+ mph) - there wasn't enough space on the track to try that. I did several 3rd gear drifts in the longer turns, but only rather cautiously.

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Edited by Cathar on Saturday 1st July 12:11

[Cathar]

Figured out how to post an image:

[Cathar]

Yes, once I was beyond the point where I could power out of the drift and applied the brakes the wheels stayed locked. This is still not conclusive for me, though - I usually span a bit over 180° maximum, and would only apply brakes when I was at least at 45° to the direction of travel.

What I forgot to try was to just stamp on the brakes during a normal, recoverable drift to see what happens. I've read that ABS would pull the car straight again, but like I said, I didn't try this time.

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Edited by Cathar on Saturday 1st July 12:41