This thread is hilarious! It did get me to turn off vdc the other day to see what would happen. Mildly hit the gas and woot, rear end popped out nicely. This of course was accompanied by various comments by my fine wife about how immature i am and such...and she's right.

 

Lol, I have to agree with you.

 

lol

 

Same button turned off, different wife, same type tongue lashing when it was all said and done. The x will get squirrely too, if pushed hard enough. No more stupid tests for me. Leave it on, it's a good thing.

 

It was a little tongue-in-cheek, but it isn't invalid. Think about it, we've all been driving cars for years without this technology, most of whom didn't have 300hp under the hood, so the need for extra driving training wasn't needed as much. Some of us did have fast cars, and many of us did get more training, so we could handle it. Now everyone has these cars, so instead of the training they put in VDC.

It just blows my mind that the level of training given to drivers is so minuscule with zero requirements for additional training to keep driving. There are so many other activities that require extra training to be good, but nothing for driving? That's just dumb.

I am not talking about driving aggressively either. Basic fundamentals of driving are barely taught to begin with, and there is never any course to refresh people. If you put your average driver in a really bad situation more often than not they will mess up and wreck the car. Had they been through some extra training they would fare better.

How many of you have actually gotten to put your car in an "uncontrolled" spin in a class? Driver's Ed doesn't do it. There are classes that will teach you how to deal with all that crap, and in my opinion, those classes should be required for all drivers, and if you don't pass, you don't drive.

Oh but now there is VDC, so the classes supposedly aren't needed anymore, because with VDC and uncontrolled spin is next to impossible on surfaces other than ice.

How many of you are gonna be pissed when disable-free VDC is mandated by our power-hungry government?

 

I've had it off to screw around but I've also seen it flash a few times when doing some spirited driving. Thought I was doing great too.

I doubt many people will go faster with it off, even on a track. Might not be as fun... but you likely won't be any slower.

 

I took an advanced driver's course (required when I had a company car) and it was pretty hilarious to see how poorly people did.
Basics, like you mention, but no clue about stuff like:
- The car pivots on the rear wheel when you turn... that's why you see so many rear doors with that nice pole dent in them.
- Judging where the bumpers are... so many flattened cones.
These were in FORD Taurus' so you can imagine how crappy the emergency turn practice was.


>>How many of you are gonna be pissed when disable-free VDC is mandated by our power-hungry government?
AMEN Brother! Soon we'll all be pedalling some crappy Ed Bagley Junior car.

 

The VDC in my 05 was so intruisive from the slightest bit of wheel slip, that it was second nature to turn it off everytime I got in the car. Really... every time. Now granted, I have a lot of history with racing and technical driving... but still, it was highly annoying, which caused me to never leave it on. It was calibrated to be too sensitive, imo.

To that end... it's somewhat counter-productive...

 

I feel that VDC is much to intrusive. The only time I had traction control on in the M3 was when it was cold, as the Conti's can't hold heat for ****. I just feel safer in control of the car myself. Sometimes when your squirrely you need that little bit of quick throttle coupled with counter steer to get back on course.

 

I completely removed the TSC from my M3 so its not even an issue on the car anymore.

Regarding my first test drive with the g35, I felt the VDC was EXTREMELY inhibiting. It shut the power down so harshly that it litterally took about 2-3 seconds for the car to start moving again. This is enough time for a car that might have been following me too closely to hit me. Whats not safe about it is the brake lights dont come on to signal that youre slowing down(or have stopped moving rapidly) to the car behind. Id rather make my right foot the traction control thank you.

 

Agreed. I think if you're losing traction and the wheels stop moving it's going to be impossible to get any traction back, and might actually worsen the slide. The M3 just communicates so well and is so easy to control, not snap oversteer but you can easily break the rear end loose if need be. Can't wait for the e92 M!