Traction Control vs. Stabilization Control vs. Sport Question

[Demandred7]

I think of it more as graduating towards both a higher level of skill, fun, and less of a safety net.

Traction control off lets you get unstuck from mud or snow. On cuts throttle to prevent wheel spin and any chirping of tires and makes everyone think you are civilized.

VSC Sport on allows a little more slip angle, but, will reign you in when it thinks that you've lost control (which can be counterproductive if you know what you are doing because it cuts in just a little too early). This mode is semi-civilized and allows for some misbehaving.

Off is not actually completely off (for that you need the pedal dance or pull the ABS fuse). Nevertheless, as far as most people need, it is good enough. Once you realize that VSC Sport mode is interfering too much, then you have graduated to the fun level. Toss the car into a corner with full on opposite lock drifting. Word of caution is to not let your ego get bigger than your skill level. Wade into it unless you are in a safe environment. It can be risky thinking that you need to run before you can walk. Not that I am the Stig, but, unless it is absolutely horrible weather, part of starting my car is turning off all of the nannies. This mode is for the uncivilized lunatic, but, if you are, you already don't care.

As others have mentioned, a little bit of wheel spin achieves the best accelerations, but again, part of learning and graduating is not too much wheel spin.

[Grim-Reaper]

Simple yes or no question:
Is there a difference between holding both buttons for 15 seconds and pressing only TRC for few seconds until TRC and VSC go off?

[blue cat]

Super simplified version from track experience;

Everything on: won't let you rotate the car, will cut power immediately when it senses wheel slip, particularly bad trying to exit a turn under power
VSC Sport: car will rotate a small amount, but will still cut power very early, you can go faster but still too intrusive under power
All off: does not cut power at all which means you can rotate the car freely and put down power slides as you see fit. Used responsibly you can put down lots of power out of turns and/or drift (and/or spin)

Originally Posted by Grim-Reaper

Simple yes or no question:
Is there a difference between holding both buttons for 15 seconds and pressing only TRC for few seconds until TRC and VSC go off?

See above for difference in cornering, but for launches i've found trac off button is sufficient, it will let you spin the wheels on launch. However, if you get torque steer and need to correct, the car may cut power because stability control kicks in if the angle gets too big

and you only need to hold it for around 3 seconds to get full off

[raul]

Originally Posted by Luis_GT

This... any other way and you're a loser.

Rather be a loser with a car than an idiot with a crashed one.

[swpbrz]

There was another thread someone had some pretty convincing info that the throttle map was changed in sport mode. I can't really tell the difference

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by raul

Rather be a loser with a car than an idiot with a crashed one.

If you don't know how to drive a RWD, that'll happen regardless.

[raul]

Originally Posted by Luis_GT

If you don't know how to drive a RWD, that'll happen regardless.

It's not about the car or your skill, it's about the idiots around you, and unknown road conditions. I'm probably more experienced than most of the posters around here, and I leave it on for normal driving. What most people don't get is that when you are in a situation where you're consciously fooling around, you're alert and focused on driving, and likely you have both hands on the wheel. When you're cruising down the highway or around town, even if you're not distracted, your level of focus isn't the same as when you're driving with the intent of pushing any kind of limit. When someone swerves in your path or slams on the brakes, chances are your reaction will be to jerk the wheel to avoid a collision. Recovering from a skid in that situation is different from recovering when you know it might happen (aka driving spiritedly). Pride or overconfidence getting in the way of logic is a sign of lack of experience.

So, it's not about your ability to drive, but what kind of situations you'll be faced with on day-to-day driving.

[CBR600RR]

Originally Posted by swpbrz

There was another thread someone had some pretty convincing info that the throttle map was changed in sport mode. I can't really tell the difference

link please?

[MokSpeed]

Originally Posted by raul

It's not about the car or your skill, it's about the idiots around you, and unknown road conditions. I'm probably more experienced than most of the posters around here, and I leave it on for normal driving. What most people don't get is that when you are in a situation where you're consciously fooling around, you're alert and focused on driving, and likely you have both hands on the wheel. When you're cruising down the highway or around town, even if you're not distracted, your level of focus isn't the same as when you're driving with the intent of pushing any kind of limits. When someone swerves in your path or slams on the brakes, chances are your reaction will be to jerk the wheel to avoid a collision. Recovering from a skid in that situation is different from recovering when you know it might happen (aka driving spiritedly).

So, it's not about your ability to drive, but what kind of situations you'll be faced with on day-to-day driving.

This.

Ironically, the idiot that swerves into your path could be the same person with all his assists disabled failing horribly at driving "because racecar".

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by raul

It's not about the car or your skill, it's about the idiots around you, and unknown road conditions. I'm probably more experienced than most of the posters around here, and I leave it on for normal driving. What most people don't get is that when you are in a situation where you're consciously fooling around, you're alert and focused on driving, and likely you have both hands on the wheel. When you're cruising down the highway or around town, even if you're not distracted, your level of focus isn't the same as when you're driving with the intent of pushing any kind of limits. When someone swerves in your path or slams on the brakes, chances are your reaction will be to jerk the wheel to avoid a collision. Recovering from a skid in that situation is different from recovering when you know it might happen (aka driving spiritedly).

So, it's not about your ability to drive, but what kind of situations you'll be faced with on day-to-day driving.

Everybody is different, I've driven 9 years without any sort of traction control and haven't had an accident where I hadn't deliberately put myself in the situation (purposely drifting my open diff 530i) Granted, I have mostly driven RWD cars all my life, ranging from 200hp (FR-S) all the way to 414hp (M3) so I my reactions have adapted to RWD setups.

[raul]

Originally Posted by Luis_GT

Everybody is different, I've driven 9 years without any sort of traction control and haven't had an accident where I hadn't deliberately put myself in the situation (purposely drifting my open diff 530i) Granted, I have mostly driven RWD cars all my life, ranging from 200hp (FR-S) all the way to 414hp (M3) so I my reactions have adapted to RWD setups.

While that is great, it's easy enough to disengage traction control when you purposely want to fool around. It makes no sense to go an extra step to disable a safety feature every time you get in the car unless it gets in the way of your driving, which for daily cruising, I doubt it does.

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by raul

While that is great, it's easy enough to disengage traction control when you purposely want to fool around. It makes no sense to go an extra step to disable a safety feature every time you get in the car unless it gets in the way of your driving, which for daily cruising, I doubt it does.

It's habit, has always been habit, and will remain a habit ever since I had my mustang which had the worst, most intrusive TC ever, and the FR-S doesn't fall short on that department. TC constantly intervenes going up hill to my house when it rains and I can't have that when I'm accelerating from an almost stand still after going over a speed bump.

[raul]

Originally Posted by Luis_GT

It's habit, has always been habit, and will remain a habit ever since I had my mustang which had the worst, most intrusive TC ever, and the FR-S doesn't fall short on that department. TC constantly intervenes going up hill to my house when it rains and I can't have that when I'm accelerating from an almost stand still after going over a speed bump.

Well, I guess that I can relate to. I used to drive on an uphill road with speedbumps getting to my house as well when I was in Trujillo Alto, lol.