The doors form a protective shield around the occupant.

In a Miata, side impacts are impossible. The Miata Doors sense the incoming vehcile and trigger a high explosive blast directing energy towards the oncoming car, thus destroying it and stopping it in its path. Collision averted.

When Jack Bauer assaulted President Logan's motorcade in the final season of 24, he used a Miata door as a shield.

Back on topic for a second, yes, the VDC has made me a worse driver. It always tells me to run red lights, or that hitting some pedestrian is worth "10 points". Sometimes it grabs the steering wheel while I'm driving.

The worst, though, was when it had me smoke some dope. At first I thought it was just pot, but then VDC said to me, "Didn't know you liked to get wet, dog." I asked him what that meant, and he said, "Butt-naked. Ill. Sherms. Dust. PCP. Primos. P-Dog. That's what you had. That's what you were smoking, you couldn't taste it?" VDC very strongly resembles Denzel Washington.

:bowrofl:

KP Technologies for all your turn it off, I wanna drive like an idiot and it doesn't let me SUPER DORIFTO needs.

:iagree:
I think

You must be in a pee wee league if you're only getting 10pts a kid...

http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Fu...000-points.jpg

nice :tup:

I always have it on on the street and always have it off on the track. way too intrusive for track use for me.

Looking past what you should or should not do on public roads. The question was does VDC make you a worse driver. Does it make you worse at obeying the law, possibly. Does VDC make you a worse driver on the track, most likely. Intrusive = Slower for most drivers. Lap times, quarter miles etc will be slower with VDC. If you are not yet confident in your driving abilities in the Z, then the opposite could be true.

tires spinning or skidding make you slower so something that can keep you from doing that can be of help too. Its all pretty subjective.

Perhaps some of the problem with an intrusive driver aid is that it amplifies minor mistakes. If you accelerate a little early or take a corner a bit too fast what might have occurred without VDC would have been a bit of a slow down as your wheels slipped, but when the VDC kicked in, that minor slowdown was amplified into a major slow down as it cuts power drastically. I guess with a safety focused driver aid this is the trade-off -- it protects you from major mistakes at the cost of severely impacting performance with minor mistakes.

so this thread was burning in my mind yesterday, and prompted me to do a bit of experimentation. (no, i didn't get wet, dog..)

i've had my car for about 3 weeks, and until yesterday hadn't turned off vdc at all. so yesterday, i stopped by a large empty parking lot, turned off vdc and... well, you guys know where this is going.

i got sideways a decent amount, and i learned a lot about the car. i can say it was a humbling experience to find out just how easy it is to initiate a slide with throttle input. typing it makes it sound rational, but actually doing it... pretty intense and visceral, man. i wouldn't want that to happen accidentally on city streets or freeway entrances.

i don't think i'd say vdc makes for a worse driver, but my experience leads me to believe that vdc makes for an ill-informed driver. having vdc on until now has hidden/masked many characteristics of the car (and probably also saved my *** without my even knowing it). i will need to spend time with it off in order to learn how to best drive the new z, but i think i'm going to save the trial and error for safe conditions. i just don't have enough rwd experience yet (my old volvo wagon doesn't count, i think).

with that said, i'm lookin' fwd to getting sideways again! oO

that goes for any car youve never driven before. IMO its not difference than having a better suspension, or similar techo advances

What he said.
I haven't tracked my Z, but I can tell you that on a spirited run in the mountains, the VDC is just enough to actually help you go a little faster if you're a smooth driver to begin with.
If you treat the throttle like an on/off switch, then yes, the VDC will feel abrupt and intrusive as it quickly reduces power and does whatever else it's doing.

thats why you should take every new car to at least one autocross, really feel what its like at the limit, in a low risk environment.