What, exactly, do the premium performance settings do?

[lawprofs]

Ford's explanation of the settings:

http://owner.ford.com/how-tos/video...=Mustang&year=2016&brightcoveId=3781760432001

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[Norm Peterson]

I think snow/wet is for people that never should have bought a sports car that like the way it looks. So they don't slam into someone sliding out of control making a left turn at a light.

Snow/wet is the necessary balance to having modes that are too sensitive for inclement weather. Yes, there really are times when too much throttle response is simply TOO MUCH.

If you ever decide to take in an HPDE track day and it rains, or if you take your Mustang out in a couple of inches of wet snow and you don't use snow/wet, the above point about slowed-down throttle response being a good thing might get hammered home more solidly than any text I could ever come up with. Different people have different levels of throttle control skill.


Norm

 

[Orgalorg]

Steeda's clutch spring will solve your problem.

Hardly.
Learn how to modulate yourself, in particular the relationships between your brain and your right and left legs.

 

[Rickycardo]

Snow/wet is the necessary balance to having modes that are too sensitive for inclement weather. Yes, there really are times when too much throttle response is simply TOO MUCH.

If you ever decide to take in an HPDE track day and it rains, or if you take your Mustang out in a couple of inches of wet snow and you don't use snow/wet, the above point about slowed-down throttle response being a good thing might get hammered home more solidly than any text I could ever come up with. Different people have different levels of throttle control skill.


Norm

Helpful? yes. Necessary? no. Driving is a skill, not just an action. It requires knowledge, experience and muscle memory. The electronics in today's cars help the driver but they are no substitute for the above skill sets. That is why we all survived driving 400+ horsepower cars on bias-ply tires with zero nannies.
I've owned my car over a year and I have never had it in wet/snow mode and can't remember the last time it was driven in normal mode.
I almost always agree with you @Norm Peterson but this time I just see things a little different. :cheers:

 

[QRK]

No, it does not. Track mode only further reduces the amount of wheel spin before it kicks in. To completely defeat traction control you must hold the TC toggle for 5-6 seconds until the TC light lights up.
I discovered this last summer at the drag strip. My first trip into the burnout box I had only put the car in Track mode. It refused to do a burnout. After holding the toggle until the TC light lit I was able to shred the rears.

Interesting. As far as I can recall, anytime I've ever put the car in Track mode the TC Off light has come on by default. However, it's been a while since I've done that so I'll check the next time I'm in my car. Also, I've never attempted to break traction while in Track mode so now I have a good excuse to do so!

 

[Strokerswild]

Driving is a skill, not just an action. It requires knowledge, experience and muscle memory. The electronics in today's cars help the driver but they are no substitute for the above skill sets. That is why we all survived driving 400+ horsepower cars on bias-ply tires with zero nannies.

And that right there is why I loooooooove my old cars.

 

[luke]

I find wet/snow the most useful and surprising feature of the the car, keeps it stable and planted during heavy rains when hydroplaning is possible.
We get a lot of rain here in Texas and I use the feature whenever there is enough water on the road to kick up a spray; of course you don't have to use it, but you don't have to use your seat belt either.

I rarely use Sport+ and almost never use Track mode, keeps the rpms unnecessarily high; but then a premium GT is way too heavy to be considered a sports car and since I wont be taking this car to a track, having the performance package would be as pointless as owning a lifted 4X4 truck that never goes offroad.

 

[sauerkraut]

Interesting. As far as I can recall, anytime I've ever put the car in Track mode the TC Off light has come on by default. However, it's been a while since I've done that so I'll check the next time I'm in my car. Also, I've never attempted to break traction while in Track mode so now I have a good excuse to do so!

It will "turn off" TC, but not AdvancTrac (the overall TC/stability system). If you hold the TC button for 5 secs the screen will say AdvancTrac disabled.

 

[Rickycardo]

.

 

[Kenbike]

If the car has a flash tune what happens to the switch function? Will it simple have the effect from the new overall tune or will they return to stock tune and only race will allow the higher performance?

 

[GT Pony]

From the Owner's Manual. The blue text is a note I added.

 

[MagGT]

for track mode, what does "Engine takes on a more powerful tone" really mean?

maybe i heard it on mine? maybe its a placebo effect? can anyone else attest?

 

[Norm Peterson]

I almost always agree with you @Norm Peterson but this time I just see things a little different. :cheers:

Maybe less differently than it first appears. I used to autocross a car whose 100% mechanical throttle control was simply too aggressive for consistent corner exit behavior (keeping in mind that it's all 2nd gear stuff). In today's terms, it would have been an aggressive tune, probably "track" or better in terms of initial response. I ended up slowing it down by changing the way the cable rotated the throttle shaft, kind of like dropping back to a less aggressive tune or mode.

Most of today's younger drivers - younger than my kids so 30-something and younger - generally haven't had the experience that you and I did, and it concerns me that their pedal modulation skills are going to be more "stomp" than "squeeze". My '08 has the FRPP tune, and I still find it easy and predictable to drive at rainy track days, up to and including periods at WOT. I'd like to think that having another hundred HP wouldn't make any difference other than maybe not being able to use all of WOT.


Norm

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