Nissan 370Z Forum - Vehicle Dynamic Control

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Quote:

Originally Posted by G37sHKS (Post 2957837)

Never leave VDC off on the street
Drive safe

In the wet I agree.

But in the dry can also cause unpredictable cut in power when trying to accelerate in certain situations.

That being said, sounds like OP still needs to learn car and himself, so keep it on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchan (Post 2958885)

meh, i was driving my G in the snow with LM60's with VDC turned off all winter unless i was over an icy bridge. VDC can go home.

I used to think that way too... until last January.

http://www.the370z.com/new-nismo-370...llo-nismo.html

sorry to see.

i use to think this way since 10yrs+ ago. learning how to drive rwd does have a learning curve.

VDC screws up my driving. 100% of the time im in my Z, VDC is turned off. its been 5yrs, no accidents in my Z. hell, ive not caused one accident since the very beginning decades ago. :D

So I'm sure a lot of people on this forum will tell you to take my advice:

Leave it on when on the streets.

I'm driving a BMW now for a reason :crying:

yah, sorry to hear about your accident sgtgoldy...

even with vdc off, if one lets off the throttle the car will try to correct itself. its when you think
you can counter-steer and keep pressing the gas or hit the brake when people get in trouble.
or just running pos tires.

let off both gas and brake... the car turns into a cat dropped upsidedown, kinda. :D

but that's just me. you guys should keep the vdc turned on. it's a feature on the car
for a reason. GL with your driving op.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchan (Post 2958940)

:tup: its okay, the turbos make the pain hurt less. But still hurts :( lol. Yea it was wet and I tried to beat a yellow turn signal. Stupid me. Lesson Learned though :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchan (Post 2958922)

sorry to see.

i use to think this way since 10yrs+ ago. learning how to drive rwd does have a learning curve.

Crazy thing was, I was fine for the 14 years that I had that car. I learned to drive in it when I turned 16, I got through plenty of snowy Pennsylvania winters, I even learned to do burnouts and some *ahem*light drifting*ahem*... All was well until I got stuck at work and it started snowing. Lots of people crashed that day; it got really bad really fast without much warning.:eekdance:

Now I have more appreciation for things like ABS and traction control, 2 things I didn't have in that car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SgtGoldy (Post 2958946)

:tup: its okay, the turbos make the pain hurt less. But still hurts :( lol. Yea it was wet and I tried to beat a yellow turn signal. Stupid me. Lesson Learned though :D

:tup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bad Boy (Post 2957802)

This is my first time in a car with over 200 horsepower and a manual transmission.
So I would like for someone to shed light on my novice driving skills...

The other day I was on the highway and it was raining lightly, then stopped.
It was one of those days where I felt like testing the cars power and decided to drive "abnormally".

I was going full throttle and shifting, then switched lanes.. all of a sudden my steering wheel does this jerking motion twice, as if it wanted to turn or go another direction. My VDC light flashed.
I couldnt tell if my rear was sliding or fishtailing, I was distracted by my steering wheel. I noticed I could have almost lost control of the car?
But my question is, does driving with VDC off help the vehicle handle more freely and cause less sliding or fishtailing, or the opposite?

I havent tried pushing my car with the VDC off until I feel more comfortable in my driving ability.

Thanks for any and all input.

first all... a lot of respect to you for respecting the car's power and knowing your limitations. Heck i'm new to the RWD and manual world (i've driven other car's with similiar HP)

i have driven with VSC (lexus equiv) off but had AWD and practiced on side streets to see what the deal was. all i can say is AWD is a lot different than RWD. I was out one night with rain had VDC off and took a left-turn with a negative camber on the turn... I was maybe going 30kmh opened the throttle a bit and rev'd to about 4.5 RPM in 2nd and I lost traction. I've taken this corner many times but this was the first time this has happened. As i've experienced this before (AWD mind you) i knew to ease the gas a bit and counter steer. Had I no experience what was happening I would have spun out and worst case ended up in a pole... Pretty much did a 'wet drift' but needless to say after that moment i always keep VDC on in the rain. In fact even when i'm taking it easy I can feel the rears lose traction in the rain (especially going over the paint stripes through intersections!) and the OEM are not the best rain tires.

As other's have said... learn the car first then slowly push your skills. Always rate your self in the most humble and conservative as possible. Drive safe!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duc_Z09 (Post 2958963)

yah, unexpected weather changes does affect drivabilty considerably cause tires might not stick very well suddenly.

with our cars, vcd is not completely turned off even if one turns it off, so you have the extra margin of error + abs. and much better tire selection too these days. :tup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duc_Z09 (Post 2958882)

It gets squirrely in the wet really quick without the VDC. Steering input is sharp, wheelbase is short, and a little bit of clutch when under power will break the back end loose in a hurry. This isn't necessarily a good combo if you're new to manual, RWD, decent power, or all of the above.

I like to drive without VDC, but only when it's totally dry. And for the winter I just bought a Jeep.:eekdance:

Hey, I have the Z / Jeep combo too! GREAT combo for summer / winter fun. There's fairly modest storage capacities in both vehicles though so you develop some mad Tetris-packing skills pretty quickly :tup:

Cars today are a lot different then when I started driving in the early 70's. :D Took my driving test in my brother's '68 Hemi RoadRunner. :D Cars then didn't have any computer nannies, unlike today. Grew up sliding cars around in the snow. :driving:

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchan (Post 2958885)

meh, i was driving my G in the snow with LM60's with VDC turned off all winter unless i was over an icy bridge. VDC can go home.

I agree, in the winter in deep snow vdc was a hinderance as just when I would start to get some momentum vdc would cut power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty (Post 2957823)

cough....cough... BS!.......cough....cough. I do trackdays with it off. What has caught me offguard is having the car apply a rear brake when the car is sliding a little in mid-turn. :eek:

This has happened to me and I was annoyed. I had to correct the other way quick because I had already counter steered some to get that perfect little slide. I don't care for VDC at all. This car is down on power compared to what I am use to. I am use to a turbo car with much more balls and is a handful to drive.