Pumping vs Threshold braking

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Combustion

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I use the pumping braking technique when I need to stop in an emergency, and I have become used to not losing my head or panicking if I suddenly see the traffic light go from green to red (its happened, I don't know what the hell happened to the yellow in between).

I have taken my car (a Renault Megane Scenic), and tried threshold braking and pumping, and I feel that pumping stops me in less distance, but everyone swears that threshold is better.

Technically threshold is the best, but pumping surely means you are avoiding brake fade by letting the discs dissipate heat? For the Renault (piece of **** Frenchy car btw) the brakes want to fade after no time at all.

How about your cars?
 
Umm, I guess I do both, I just hit the brake hard, if the brakes lock up I take my foot off then go back at it. Although I've only had the brakes lockup once unintentionally... 3000lb Accord with crappy 185 width tires, going downhill in heavy rain is hard to stop! :) The MR2 stops pretty good.

I've only had brake fade happen once, on an Accord on a twisty downhill road after maybe 10 or 15 semi hard braking sections (I've never done any really serious braking, like track day sort of stuff). I'd be a little scared to drive a car that cant manage a single complete stop before it's brakes start to fade.
 
threshold braking WILL stop you faster, if you do it right. but that can sometimes be tricky, its not always easy to find the perfect breaking point, and its even harder in an emergancy! I have only had one car with out ABS...its probably the best safty feature of all time....just step on it!
 
I never pump the brake, I always threshold brake. I just never think of pumping.
 
ABS does own, but if you master threshold or pumping, you should be able to stop faster, or so goes the theory. The thing is, when I need to stop fast, I think of stopping, not pumping my brakes, so ABS is best.
 
But, pumping with ABS doesn't make sense – ABS does extremely rapid micro-pumping, so it doesn't make sense to me to "macro-pump" the micro-pumping. Unless, did you mean pumping the brakes in non-ABS cars?

I haven't had a need to make an emergency stop (I had to slow down from 75 mph once to avoid hitting a rabbit, but I didn't come to a full stop), but if I ever do, I'll bet you anything that I'd just hit the brakes as hard as possible (which, since both of our cars are ABS-equipped, is perfectly fine)… I would never have the reflexes to do threshold braking, because I panic too easily.

I'm a bit concerned about the truck though. It's got a really light rear end, so I have to wonder how it'll do under hard braking, especially since all the weight gets transferred to the front of a vehicle during braking. And today it hydroplaned when I hit a puddle on the freeway, which unnerved me a bit. See why I hate driving trucks?
 
Sage
But, pumping with ABS doesn't make sense – ABS does extremely rapid micro-pumping, so it doesn't make sense to me to "macro-pump" the micro-pumping. Unless, did you mean pumping the brakes in non-ABS cars?
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Duh?

I'm a bit concerned about the truck though. It's got a really light rear end, so I have to wonder how it'll do under hard braking, especially since all the weight gets transferred to the front of a vehicle during braking. And today it hydroplaned when I hit a puddle on the freeway, which unnerved me a bit. See why I hate driving trucks?
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I don't know why anything but significant nosedive would occur, same with all pickups.
 

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