What's your preferred driving mode?

[Gibbo205]

How is the the traction control, does it allow more or less slip in the different modes. In the S197 2006 car I had I just turned it off as it was useless as was merely just a TC system which was dumb and had no kind of stability control.

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[OppoLock]

How is the the traction control, does it allow more or less slip in the different modes. In the S197 2006 car I had I just turned it off as it was useless as was merely just a TC system which was dumb and had no kind of stability control.

It's actually rather transparent in sport and track modes, although the overall slip angle threshold is still conservative compared to some of the better systems. Very smooth intervention in track.

 

[mizer67]

While I don't usually go to the trouble of turning electronic TC nannies off, I do consider myself fortunate to have learned to drive before they existed.

The amount of people that don't know how to control a simple skid on their own is staggering.

Granted, my parents probably didn't make the best decision in allowing thier teenage sons to buy a RWD "muscle" car, but since I survived without accident or injury I'm a much better driver than I would have been without the experience. Come to think of it, I used to "hoon" with my Dad in an empty parking lot, just trying to induce stuff so I could learn how to control it if it happened in real life.

 

[Boff]

I wish I could share our southern "winter" weather with you guys. Even with all of the curtains disabled, I'm having a hell of a difficult time getting the rear end to break free at all. It's taking some low speed, second gear hammer drops to get the tail to swing wide, and even then, it's like everything happens in slow-mo. This car is so forgiving beyond the limits.

You're absolutely right about how forgiving this car is. I had several "moments" on the summer tires when it was below freezing, before I installed the Blizzaks. but the car was so easy to catch...

 

[Greg15]

I take it I'm Mr. People in question here.

Sorry, I didn't mean to call you or anyone out in particular. I have many friends and relatives that think the same way. Who as a matter of habit turn TC off everytime they get in the car. To me that's just foolishly thinking one is 100% intune with the car at all times and a better driver than the computer.

 

[OppoLock]

Sorry, I didn't mean to call you or anyone out in particular. I have many friends and relatives that think the same way. Who as a matter of habit turn TC off everytime they get in the car. To me that's just foolishly thinking one is 100% intune with the car at all times and a better driver than the computer.

Never taken personally. :cheers:

But I still firmly believe that you have to not know what you're doing or be distracted to get into a mess simply because the computer isn't around. The biggest distinction that has to be made here is that there are times to leave TCS and/or STM on, like sketchy surface conditions, unknown areas, and driving with traffic around. Aside from that, I don't think there's any appreciable difference in risk with or without the nets on.

 

[The Blue Pearl]

Always have sport+ driving mode and sport steering.

 

[Gibbo205]

It's actually rather transparent in sport and track modes, although the overall slip angle threshold is still conservative compared to some of the better systems. Very smooth intervention in track.

Sounds good, in track mode does it allow some slip angle before kicking in or is it very nannying?

I assume in sport or track mode the TC won't kick in on 1st-2nd shift as that would cause tyre chirp/spin?

 

[Norm Peterson]

I can't believe people turn off stability control during normal driving. On my current car, I turn it off only when I am being a hoonigan. After I am done horsing around, I turn it back on. I'm not worried about the times I am breaking the rear end out on purpose, I am worried about when I accidentally lose control. In those cases, I'll take any help I can get to not crash my car.

I honestly can't think of anything in any of my street driving that has ever been as intense or as frantic as a typical autocross. Dodging through a truck tire debris field on the highway at 65 mph is probably as close as street driving might ever get.

For a person with autocross experience, that's not a difficult situation to negotiate at all. The people who are going to screw up maneuvers like that or just a simple emergency lane-change are going to be your drivers who lack autocross experience or something at least similar.

I suspect most people that do this think they are better drivers than they really are, that they are better than the computer, and they don't want an e-nanny watching over them. Even if they are better than the computer (probably not) the computer operates at 100%, 100% of the time. No person can do that. Especially someone zoned out on the compute to work they have driven 1000 times, thinking about 50 other things and not being 100% razor focused on performance driving.

You only have to be good enough to avoid losing control, and as long as you can do that it doesn't much matter if the computer could have done it "better". Over the last 40 years or so, I've had exactly one spin at autocross and one at a road course. None on the street, and I probably drive through any twisty bit consistently harder than most anybody you know.

You're probably right about not wanting any e-nanny supervising me like a parent with a ruler in his/her hand at homework time. It's insulting when you've safely operated vehicles as many years as I have without them than I will ever be able to experience driving with them. Yes, I do stay in tune with the car most of the time - I'm talking conscious awareness virtually 100% of the time that isn't spent in purely straight constant speed highway driving.

About "zoned out drivers" . . . I don't think I've ever gotten behind the wheel without feeling that right at that moment driving was exactly what I wanted to be doing. My commute was a nice way to get my mornings started and invaluable for leaving the cares of work back at the office at the other end of the day. Driven the road 1000 times? Maybe I'll drive an inches-cleaner line through its curves or do something else just a little better on the 1001st.

It hardly matters that AdvanceTrac wasn't even available on my '08, though if it had, and if I'd left it on through both of my relatively recent tire debris dodging episodes, there is a pretty good chance that AdvanceTrac would have stepped in in an effort to slow down the effects of my steering inputs . . . and caused me to hit exactly what I was successfully managing to avoid.


Like OppoLock said, "drive within your limits and don't do anything stupid".


Norm

 

[Twenty15]

Can you guys really tell the difference in driver modes? I can't

 

[fionic]

Can you guys really tell the difference in driver modes? I can't

completely different throttle response and steering feel for each mode.

 

[OppoLock]

Can you guys really tell the difference in driver modes? I can't

Absolutely. I thought they were going to be a gimmick but I've found a lot of use in the different settings.

 

[Millgeo5]

Sport+ and sport steering

 

[OppoLock]

Sounds good, in track mode does it allow some slip angle before kicking in or is it very nannying?

I assume in sport or track mode the TC won't kick in on 1st-2nd shift as that would cause tyre chirp/spin?

I'd have to try them out back to back. I don't tend to do a whole lot of hoonery in sport mode. Last time I tried something in track mode, the rear end had a few degrees of swing and the engine cut back on throttle very smoothly. I was very impressed by how gentle it tapered off.

This car will flatter the hell out of less experienced drivers if they take it to road courses.

 

[Sasuketr]

I can completely tell the difference, hold your foot stable on the gas pedal while cruising on constant speed, then without raising your foot of the pedal, put it on sport + mode and see what happens. I drive in Normal mode most of the time and wet/snow mode in heavy rain, snow and ice. The mode changes to sport + if someone with another fast car pulls next to me then its show time

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