Ice: Making every day joe a pro drifter since the Ford model T.

Zeto

Actually our traction control does nothing for yaw control. Unlike Honda's VSA which can control any brake on the vehicle to prevent a spin or a slide, our VDC just cuts throttle, if IIRC.

ChrisSlicks

No, it controls yaw as well. It can sense both understeer and oversteer. However if there is no traction to be had on any wheel there isn't much it can do, but it does try!

Zeto

I read in the manual that it only cuts throttle, where did you see it controls yaw as well?

ChrisSlicks

Empirical testing. It cuts power in the case of oversteer but I've also found that in some cases it will pulse the brakes. I believe it will only pulse the brakes when your foot is on the brake pedal. You can be going all kinds of sideways, hit the brakes and the car will straighten itself out, even with VDC turned off. So while not quite the yaw control of other systems, it does take the current yaw into consideration when braking and can pulse each wheel individually.

Zeto

I think you might be referring to the the "nervous" ABS system that some people talk about, but I do see what you mean.

ChrisSlicks

The drifters don't like it because the ABS system always wants to try and straighten you out (i.e. reduce your yaw angle).

The nervousness comes from the system's eagerness towards rear bias in straight line braking. If you go too quickly from full acceleration to full brake before the weight has transferred back to the front axle it will get a little sketchy for a moment as it can't apply enough front brake to make itself happy. I think this mainly stems from the feature they call "Brake Assist", which is were you hit the brakes suddenly but not enough to trigger ABS, and it decides that you really intended to brake at full ABS threshold and so increases the brake pressure to maximum until you back off the pedal.

shadow2k

Yes, it just cuts power. I think it is a crappy system, and gives people a false sense of security. In my opinion, it is more dangerous than nothing at all.

It will stop minor slides before they start. It will make major slides worse by robbing you of the ability to control it.

I turn it off.