Today we woke up to an iced luge run for a road. The sander couldn’t get in and I needed to take a friend to the air port. Two things about going down a glare ice hill. First DONOT rely on engine braking. The abs is designed to keep your wheels turning enough to steer and you only have steerage when the wheels are rolling on ice, not when they are locked when you have engine braking greater then the free wheeling Traction limit. Secondly, you can’t generalize about ice ! Ice traction varies with temperature of the road and the atmospheric conditions. This morning where we live we had the slipperiest conditions as we had sub zero nights for several days making the dirt road vary cold with a 32 degree rain. The rain froze on contact but the watery mixture on the ice kept the ice at near freezing which is where ice is slipperiest.
Any one who ice states or plays hockey knows cold ice has more traction and is slower then near freezing ice. When wheels lock, like an ice skate, the sliding friction tends to raise the temp of the ice making it more watery and giving it less traction then the ice under a tire that rolls. Engine braking in some cold ice conditions may work when ice has it’s best traction. That’s why you get varied opinions. But, when encountering ice in general, free wheel and use the brakes as instead to limit the wheel lock. With abs, you get more help.
I came to these conclusions along with all the other ice racers who raced SAAB two strokes which cornered so well on ice, not because it was front drive, but it had a free wheel devise. When you released the accelerator it allowed all the wheels to free wheel. On ice it gaves us the best steerage. Racing on ice gives you a learning curve second to none. If you don’t have steerage while going down an icy hill, you can spin like a top and loose total control. Not only that but you can slide faster then braking with abs with the wheels turning as the locked wheel creates a wetter ice.