Kort og godt om ABS;
Anti-lock braking systems were first developed for aircraft in 1929 by the French automobile and aircraft pioneer Gabriel Voisin, as threshold braking an airplane is nearly impossible. An early system was Dunlop's Maxaret system, introduced in the 1950s and still in use on some aircraft models.
A fully mechanical system saw limited automobile use in the 1960s in the Ferguson P99 racing car, the Jensen FF and the experimental all wheel drive Ford Zodiac, but saw no further use; the system proved expensive and, in automobile use, somewhat unreliable. However, a limited form of anti-lock braking, utilizing a valve which could adjust front to rear brake force distribution when a wheel locked, was fitted to the 1964 Austin 1800.
ABS brakes on a BMW motorcycle
ABS brakes on a BMW motorcycle
Chrysler and Bendix introduced a crude, limited production ABS system on the 1971 Imperial. Called "Sure Brake", it was available for several years and had a satisfactory performance and reliability record. Ford also introduced anti lock brakes on the Lincoln Continental Mark III and the Ford LTD station wagon, called "Sure Trak". The German firms Bosch and Mercedes-Benz had been co-developing anti-lock braking technology since the 1930s and introduced the first completely electronic 4-wheel multi-channel ABS system in trucks and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in 1978. ABS Systems based on this more modern Mercedes design were later introduced on other cars and motorcycles, including Ford who was first to make ABS standard equipment across the range in 1985 on the Scorpio.