Review of "Track Mode" on the MY17+ cars

[nico_rsx]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

I'd love to have you come out and drive WSIR. We've had more than a few people unexpectedly fly off track sideways when brakes were grabbed at 115+ speeds over a bumpy surface...

Were those people driving 2017's? With the stability control disabled (not track mode and not pedal dance)?

Because what i've seen in at least 2 official document (the car manual and the leaked 17' revison document), is that for the model year 2017, with stability control completely off, the e-diff is disabled. Except for the automatic transmission, which for some reason, keep the e-diff. They also acknowledge that prior to 2017, the e-diff is still active even with the stability control disabled.

Of course maybe they didn't tell everything, but I've yet to see any report that would indicate on the manual transmission 2017's that the pedal dance is doing anything different than stability off.

[trippinbillies40]

Originally Posted by nico_rsx

Were those people driving 2017's? With the stability control disabled (not track mode and not pedal dance)?

Because what i've seen in at least 2 official document (the car manual and the leaked 17' revison document), is that for the model year 2017, with stability control completely off, the e-diff is disabled. Except for the automatic transmission, which for some reason, keep the e-diff. They also acknowledge that prior to 2017, the e-diff is still active even with the stability control disabled.

Of course maybe they didn't tell everything, but I've yet to see any report that would indicate on the manual transmission 2017's that the pedal dance is doing anything different than stability off.

Likewise. But, also knowing that Subaru is a tiny car company that doesn't always get documentation correct, I'm interested to know if those on track have a differing experience.

Case in point, our training website referenced cross-drilled calipers on the '18 WRX performance package Awesome for on-the-fly fluid changes. Not so awesome for stopping the car.

[mkodama]

Tested the track mode out at Thunderhill Raceway last weekend and can confirm it is amazingly good. It's borderline cheating, because it covers up throttle modulation mistakes and entry speed mistakes without being noticeable to most people.

[Jyn]

Jealous of the track mode the '17+ get. I would've loved using it to learn Road Atlanta this past weekend. Thanks for the great review of it.

[justinco]

I was at the same track event and @trippinbillies40 and I were going on about how good the track mode was. Pretty surprising for me, actually. I can really only recall one time I noticed it coming on, and that was during a pretty sweet 70mph drift where it kept me going where I needed to go, and not totally off the track :o

[bhmax]

So for those of you with a good bit of experience in both '17 and '13-'16 cars, do the newer cars react any different in normal mode when VSC engages compared to the older ones?

[imnotsureaboutbrz]

Originally Posted by bhmax

So for those of you with a good bit of experience in both '17 and '13-'16 cars, do the newer cars react any different in normal mode when VSC engages compared to the older ones?

My not be the exact answer you're looking for but it looks like a normal mode the 2017's are a little less invasive.

[Icecreamtruk]

I still dont get why people would want to go to a track and not learn proper car control. I know wrong post, dead horse and whatever but still, thinking that you are learing with stability controls is a slippery slope were the more you drive with it on, the more you learn to rely on it and the harder it gets to depart from it. Besides, car control skills transfer because they stay with the driver, habits relying on stability controls have to change from car to car.

[trippinbillies40]

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

I still dont get why people would want to go to a track and not learn proper car control. I know wrong post, dead horse and whatever but still, thinking that you are learing with stability controls is a slippery slope were the more you drive with it on, the more you learn to rely on it and the harder it gets to depart from it. Besides, car control skills transfer because they stay with the driver, habits relying on stability controls have to change from car to car.

That's a pretty simple answer: people don't want to wreck their car. To learn, you have to make mistakes. Hence the reason for this post. I feel the MY17 track mode is a great learning tool for people. It allows you to drive well without being intrusive. If it does kick in, you know you made a big mistake and shouldn't do that again. Very different from the early cars where driving in sport mode would massively hold back a driver. You never really learned whee the limits were in the car.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

I still dont get why people would want to go to a track and not learn proper car control. I know wrong post, dead horse and whatever but still, thinking that you are learing with stability controls is a slippery slope were the more you drive with it on, the more you learn to rely on it and the harder it gets to depart from it. Besides, car control skills transfer because they stay with the driver, habits relying on stability controls have to change from car to car.

I'd bet for most track people it's a 'see it to believe it'

I know some HPDE's are taking the approach that newer cars traction control is non-intrusive enough to allow for learning the limits, when I heard that (well before the '17 model came out) I laughed because the mk1.0 86's TC is certainly not conducive to learning the limits. But the expensive cars that usually show up to casual HPDE's with clueless drivers in brand new C7 Corvettes and M3 and 911 probably do have track modes that allow drivers to approach 102% of the cars capabilities without having to get their car towed home.

[justinco]

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

I still dont get why people would want to go to a track and not learn proper car control. ...

The point these reviews are trying to get across is that you can learn car control, even with track mode on. It is so non-intrusive that the only time it intervenes is when the car was about to be tossed anyways (ie: saving your nice car from a crash). It is a stepping stone for those that are not ready to jump straight to full nannies off. For me, I will probably continue to use track mode on the track, because I like my nice BRZ and have no desire to throw it off track.

[eron]

I rented a 2017 Toyota 86 at the Nurburgring last weekend and was very pleased to find that the "track mode" was much less intrusive than the sport mode on my 2013. I was able to get the car to smoothly oversteer or understeer without it kicking in (at least not that I could tell).

Also I would like to say that my experience with Rent Race Car was excellent. The people were very helpful and the car was in perfect condition with roll bar, good tires and racing brake pads.

To answer the person who asked why someone would not turn everything off and learn car control, I bet they have not been in a new to them car, on new to them tires, on a new to them track, which was half wet and half dry... anyway, the new track mode is good enough that it didn't interfere with my fun at all where I'm sure that the sport mode on my 2013 would have.

[imnotsureaboutbrz]

Originally Posted by eron

I rented a 2017 Toyota 86 at the Nurburgring last weekend...

Sorry... my jealousy stopped me here...

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by trippinbillies40

That's a pretty simple answer: people don't want to wreck their car. To learn, you have to make mistakes. Hence the reason for this post. I feel the MY17 track mode is a great learning tool for people. It allows you to drive well without being intrusive. If it does kick in, you know you made a big mistake and shouldn't do that again. Very different from the early cars where driving in sport mode would massively hold back a driver. You never really learned whee the limits were in the car.

When it does kick in, you never are given the opportunity to learn how to correct it yourself.