> By downshifting, what happens is the wheels aren't stopped, but the
> torque applied through the drivetrain slows them down as the engine revs
> come down.

The brakes do the same.  And in both cases, as soon as the negative torque
(either from engine or brakes) is higher than the friction between the tyre
and road, the wheels lock.  As I said in my other post, maybe it's easier to
control small amounts of negative torque with the gears, but still you're
only applying it to 1 or 2 wheels, not 4, so you're never going to be able
to slow down as quickly.

> In that case, pumping the breaks was an effective
> way to slow the car down.  Similar effect to a car with ABS (which I
> really miss in my current car, my last one had ABS but the new one
> doesn't), but the pulsing isn't rapid.

They make cars without ABS?

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