Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 10:06:35 -0500
Reply-To: David Griffin <dgriffin1@HOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Griffin <dgriffin1@HOME.COM>
Subject: Re: ABS on a Vanagon ... wha'???
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Soapbox mode: ON
One word more, lest I be tarred for being anti-progress.
My strong visceral response to the idea of ABS on a Vanagon comes from my
feeling that, in a world of user-unfriendly, overengineered vehicles, VW's
and their popular culture represent a last bastion of owner-accessible
horseless carriages.
Soon, we will have no choices for transportation but cars that present a
hopeless tangle of computerized subsystems and intricate mechanisms that
offer only an incremental improvement over the 99% functionality that a
simple, easily repaired design could offer. A lot of smart engineers in the
late, lamented 20th century worked with the assumption that you evolve from
a proven design before foisting a whole new technology on, say, a braking
system.
If the majority of new vehicles were serviceable by their owners, I'd feel
less boxed in by encroaching technology, but alas, 'taint so.
ABS is most likely the mildest offender of the bunch, so it's a bad choice
for an example, but it still gets into that area that creeps me out: 100
components used where 10 served well before, undiagnosable electronic
controls introduced into a perfectly decent mechanical system, etc.
I'm glad that people can buy cars that have as many bells and whistles as
they want on them. I'm glad that engineers and marketing people have job
opportunities. Just leave me one simple, well engineered, in-production
vehicle that I can get parts for. And I'll crank up my own dern windows by
hand, thanks.
Will there be a similar culture to this list for VW's next generation of
vehicles?
Soapbox mode: OFF.
David Griffin
85 Westy
_______________Original messages below____________________
<Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 21:41:22 -0600
From: John Rodgers <inua@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: ABS on a Vanagon ... wha'???
I know we tend to think simple is better most times, but the ABS or other
anti
lock systems have been on military jets, airliners, and corporate jets for
quite
a long time now. Those puppies do work. Saved many a pilots butt, his
passengers
butts, and the cargo's butts.
Nothing wrong with them being on other vehicles including Vanagons......but
of
course they aren't.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
David Marshall wrote:
> You are thinking of too fair a weather my friend! I could have really
used
> ABS in my Vanagon last night! The roads were covered in ice as the time
> went to 0C... hitting the brakes to stop the wheels just locked up when
this
> happens you can't steer so you have to start pumping the brake pedal.
This
> way you can remain in control, but ABS does a lot better of a job! My
Audi
> 5000 quattro has ABS and I think it is kinda neat!
>
> David Marshall
>
> Fast Forward Autobahn Sport Tuning
> 4356 Quesnel Hixon Road
> Quesnel BC Canada V2J 6Z3
> mailto:info@fastforward.ca http://www.fastforward.ca
> Phone: (250) 992 7775 FAX: (250) 992 1160
>
> • Vanagon Accessories and Engine Conversions
> • Transporter, Unimog and Iltis Sales
> • European Lighting for most Audi and Volkswagen models
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of David Griffin
> Sent: November 17, 2000 7:40 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: ABS on a Vanagon ... wha'???
>
> <I have seen this in the ETKA CD along with all of the other cool things
> that
> we never got:>
>
> I can only thank the VW gods that such a Mongolian Cluster...party as ABS
> never found it's way onto MY Vanagon. A computer to run one's brakes? Bah!
>
> I confess my prejudices, but doesn't it seem rather opposed to the VW
spirit
> of simplicity to clutter it up with this kind of overengineered junk?
>
> David Griffin
> 85 Westy (has many names, depending)>
_______________End original messages_______________________
