PhiDeltBee

iTrader: (1)

I got the chance to drive my friends brand new P31 C63 AMG this past weekend and he told me he always drives with the traction control off. Now, I've done this a few times with the F, but typically just out of the hole bursts. In the past, when other people have ridden in the car with me, I'd always get compliments on how good of a driver I was in the curves. Maybe I was letting them boost my ego a bit to much!

Today, I turned off traction control and thought I'd hammer it out of my business parking lot and oh boy. I about lost the thing! I thought the car was going to do a complete 360 even after letting off the gas. Finally, got control of the car and was a bit red in the face with embarrassment (and I was by myself). I guess I'm only a "good" driver with the nannies turned on! I've never tracked before, but I'd be a bit hesitant to turn traction off now. Any of you other guys drive much with the traction control off? I'm thinking I'll just keep sticking with sport mode for now, but I'd love to have a time and place to REALLY practice with this car in it's raw form.

JDMV8

iTrader: (6)

Hehehe, with all of the increasing electronic support systems in cars today, car drives you!
Without traction I cannot floor my car below 45mph (stock tires) or it can easily 360. Driving in turns I've gotten the hang of oversteer (sikky rear sway bar influence) with trac off.
Traction off is all for the fun factor, and if you're going for 1/4 mile launches

cremaster

iTrader: (1)

haha funny story. did you get any smoke in the rear?? i've messed around a little w/ the trac off but i usually keep it on, in sport mode. i used the beat the crap out of my previous g35 w/ trac off but haven't gotten the chance/***** to do the same w/ the F. lol

ISFPOWER

iTrader: (20)

i can only take off traction control on hot days. the re-11s are useless right now in these months. it can get scary. car doesn't even hook in 3rd gear at 60 if i stomp it.

RizOne

I think it is safer on the road to keep the nannies on. You can learn a lot about being smooth by keeping everything on at first and see how much intervention you are getting. If the stability systems keep spoiling the fun, you are either not smooth enough or they really are cutting in too much. The stability control in MB AMG cars is too intrusive to the point of being annoying so I can understand turning it off. I believe you can turn off one part of the stability control on the ISF and then also completely off. I would practice going half way then completely off. It is better to do all this stuff on the track though. I usually practice on familiad turns in a low powered car first then go to something more powerful. My training car is a 91 miata. The M3, 1m, M5 have M dynamic mode where you can go halfway. The Porsche GT3 RS stability system is excellent in that it has a high threshold so I always leave it on. If it comes on then I am not smooth enough plus I am a little scared in that car. Be patient, try some car control clinics or autocrossing also.

iH8RICERZ

iTrader: (3)

There's a really big sweeping turn that's about 4 lanes wide by my in-laws place surrounded by industrials and a field... one day, I was feeling a little confident and thought if I turn the traction control off, I could drift the turn at around 35-40 mph.... once that back end started sliding, it was all over from there. Revs jumped up from the tires spinning and I lost all control and was heading straight into the curb... luckily, the car stopped after spinning almost 180 degrees :/ Ever since then, I haven't tried do take that turn with the TC off

ISF4life

iTrader: (30)

We had the same exactly set up of cars leading to the F , and i know exactly what u meant

PhiDeltBee

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I forgot to mention it was 45 degrees out. I feel like a champion when the TC is on. Usually, when pulling out and turning with some gas, the car will slide just a bit and catch itself and straighten out. But I feel just a bit of jerkiness with this instead of a smooth slide back straight. Guess I was curious to see if no TC would smooth out the transition. BIG TIME OVERKILL! Also, think that the GT-R made things seem soo much easier with the AWD. RWD is definitely a different game especially with no TC. Needless to say, I probably needed this little experience to remind me that these cars can be dangerous and to have the utmost respect for the power even with the nannies on. Hate to get too comfortable!

ISFPOWER

iTrader: (20)

Gtr is an amazing machine. It's effortless to drive fast in straight line, around corners , or wreckless on the streets.

What I like that rwd can be corrected when losing control. With fwd or or awd, it's scary. I hope to take a driving class to better my skills . I

zapa

I have spun a few times. Especially when I was on stock tire sizes. There is a turn I take to avoid a stop light that i always drift around. It has a bunch of leaves on the ground so its so easy to get the back end out. Thats with traction control on. With it off things get scary.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I drive with it off at the track. There's no advantage to turning it off on the streets. It's so much better than the useless system Toyota had on the Supras it isn't funny.

Also, if you go to the track and you have little experience, you can leave it on, but be aware you'll be able to apply way more throttle than is prudent and you can cook your front brakes even with full race pads. I have no doubt it would be possible to exploit the VSC in sport mode at the track, but you need to be very aware of the limits before doing this so you don't over work the system and cause a brake failure. AMHIK.

AussieISF

On the roads, it's better to leave it on. If you want to do some spirited driving, sport mode is pretty good because it lets you oversteer a bit before cutting in, so you can have a bit of fun without getting in trouble. This is in the dry, in the wet I'd recommend leaving it all on for safety. On a wet day, the ISF has so much power that the VSC is almost continually reducing power to prevent slippage.

If you do happen to be on a track or a wide, lonely road, and you want to have some fun, turn VSC off completely. I've found the best way to drift the ISF is:

1. Brake late and brake hard.
2. Turn.
3. When you're ready to exit the turn, quickly get hard on the gas. This has to be swift and fast enough for the back to come out, if not, you'll just get a lot of understeer.
4. Once you feel the back starting to step out, immediately start to countersteer and keep the wheels pointed where you want the car to go. Timing is key!
5. DO NOT LET OFF THE POWER. I can't emphasize this enough, if you suddenly back off the throttle when your car has started to oversteer, the snapping motion will cause you to spin out in the opposite direction. Instead, keep the throttle on and use the throttle to control your drift angle. Too much oversteer? Back off slightly. Car starting to straighten out? Put more power on.
6. When you are ready to straighten out, peel off the throttle gradually and keep your steering pointed in the direction you want to go.

It takes practice, but awesome fun when you get the hang of it. The key is timing. The ISF is well balanced and is actually a fantastic drift car.

Once you get the hang of this, trust me you'll want to start driving sideways everywhere, which is fun and looks impressive but puts a lot of wear on your tyres.

PhiDeltBee

iTrader: (1)

That's exactly what I did. Let off the gas and the car DID snap back the complete other direction. Really got my heart pounding. I guess in the heat of the moment when you lose a bit of control, the first instinct is to let off the gas. I never hit the brake, but just tried to let the car straighten itself out. Eventually it did, but I felt like a dumb kid and I'm 35.

MisterSkiz

iTrader: (2)

I have always driven all my powerful rwd with all nannies off. with winter here ive been driving just in just sport mode...car does a good job with yaw conteol of straightening you out..its made me laugh many times because its like the car drives itself.

MisterSkiz

iTrader: (2)

its normal reaction to want to let off...another good thing to remember along with the above rules is keep looking where you want to go....