Originally Posted by bmgs400

That is very true. Leave it on and be safe, unless you know what you're doing.

Before all this computer stuff stated making cars safer, we use to take cars to large empty parking lots on weekends or at night and practice recovery. I grew up in Ohio so there was plenty of snow and icy conditions. My Dad took me to the bowling alley parking lot when I was 16, we took his 73 Pontiac GrandPrix (402 ci) automatic and rear wheel drive..of course. He had me do fish-tails and hard braking to see what happens if you get into these situations. He taught me how to recover and control the direction the the car by pumping the brakes and steering correctly. Sometimes a slide turns into a 180 degree rotation or worse and you can't do much about it at that point but pray.

Originally Posted by morris

Now adays that will get you a breathlizer test, tresspassing, reckless driving charge, fines and handcuffs.

Whats the world coming too

Originally Posted by SoCalSC4

I leave mine on unless the situation calls to have it turned off.

Here's why: at my old job, the boss had just purchased a new '03 BMW M5 (Carbon black/black/wood). He had been driving a '91 Acura Legend Coupe previously, so this was a big step-up.

The boss-man used to like to play with the car with the traction control off. One morning on the way to the office, he was doing his usual routine with the big Beemer (he had only had the car about three weeks) - traction control off, casually drifting the car around the corners of the industrial complex near our office. It was early and the streets were empty; a slight fog and morning dew were present.

Just down the street from the office, he downshifted into second gear and booted it gently as he entered a 90 degree left turn. The back end slid right. And right. And further right. He had a fair amount of momentum, and kept in it, knowing if he lifted he would encounter a snap-oversteer situation.

The rear of the car kept yawing to the right while the nose went left. BANG; the tires found the curb on the left side of the road. The BMW's nose climbed the curb where it was abruptly stopped by the concrete light post. The airbags never deployed.

Just as tried regain his composure and collect his thoughts he wondered: "I wonder if that light pole is going to fall over." Sure enough, the impact caused the pole to snap, causing it to fall DIRECTLY on the roof of the new BMW. He closed his eyes, anticipating the impact; there was nothing he could do now. With a deafening crash, the roof caved in and every window in the car blew out.

The car had 1200 miles on it and was a complete write-off.

He replaced it with a Lemans Blue/two tone black/blue interior/aluminum trim 2004 M5.


I've had my GS sideways on a few occasions. All but one were done on purpose. One time I had forgotten that I had previously turned the VSC off. 3800 pounds of sedan's **** swinging around on you mid-corner can be quite eye opening!

Originally Posted by morris

maybe because VSC is a function of the engine and or transmission and how it operates?

This is the engine and transmission section.