Did anyone ever see or hear of an experimental ABS system that GM put on some 86' Trans-Am's?

I saw it once in an 86' Trans-Am someone I knew had. He said it didn't seem to be too good, and the pedal was always spongy...

 

never heard of it......but if you can find mroe info that would be cool. You know its kind of funny,.....abs hasnt done much to improve automobile accident death rates since it has been used. The biggest difference in that area and number of accidents on the road is attributed to electronic traction control sytems

 

People think that ABS, airbags, and the air-filled rubber springs that Ford uses are new (recent). Well, G.M. installed some airbags in or around 1970. Every once in a blue moon you hear of an antique car owner being surprised by one.
ABS and the air-filled rubber springs were offered on Lincolns in the 50's. Lower-tech, but they did work.
This is why I love old car shows.

Seth

 

There were some aftermarket ABS devices available back then -- none that you'd want, though.

I strongly doubt GM would have allowed a car to be sold with anything "experimental" in the brake system, even in 1986. And come to think of it, that was the year they were defending against a Federal lawsuit over the x-body brake system, IIRC.

 

The ABS and fancy rubber springs were factory options from Ford, and not J.C. Whitney-type kits. They disappeared for decades, because options such as those are supported by new-car purchases. Even the airbag, which does save lives, had a 15-20 year hiatus between rare factory option, and common option.

Seth

 

Hi:

I shouldn't have used the term "experimental." What I meant is the system fell into the catagory used all too often by companies where they know that things haven't been fully tested, but it's too expensive to do the field testing the right way. So what do they do? They develop the item in question to a stage that they *think* is *good enough*, and then they release it in limited quantities to let the public test them without their knowledge that they're being used to test something thats not perfected!

I look at GM's flirtation with touch screen control systems in the Riviera and other limited models as another example. In that case, the system proved to be too hard to maintain and troubleshoot for BOTH consumers and GM. It was eventually discontinued...

Lee B.

 

I did a little reading, actually 1986 was the first year GM offered the Bosch II ABS system, although the official documentation I've seen indicates that it was only offered on the Corvette. Cadillac picked it up as an option starting in 1987.

Since the components were in the GM supply chain at that time, maybe it's not entirely impossible that a test mule got loose, or a really motivated dealership or owner swapped on the parts.

Anyway, it'd be interesting to know more about that car. (i.e. pics, VIN, title history, and if the guy driving it was the original owner or not.)

 

Sadly, none of that information is available. The guy that owned that car, a red 1986 Trans-Am, was a freelance car alarm installer that installed the first Code Alarm car alarm I even brought into my first Firebird, a 1987 Formula...