Vehicle Dynamic Control
 

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.

Leave it on. The rear will get loose much more with it off. Go to an auto X to really push it with it off.

I was thinking if I relived that moment with my jerky steering wheel and such, with VDC off, that I wouldnt have experienced the jerking wheel?
But maybe I would have slid onto another lane and do a 360? IDK. It wasnt that bad, but it was weird.

With it off, it is very likely you would have spun. If you're going to experiment with it off, don't do it on the road. If you can't/won't AutoX it, at the least go to an empty parking lot without obstacles.

...and wait for a day with no moisture on the pavement. You will lose control with VDC off.

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:

There's a big difference between someone who does track days and someone with their first 300+hp rwd manual sports car. ;)

the first mistake is doing full throttle in the wet on a car you're not familiar with.
keep the VDC on and drive the car more to get acquainted.

if you're going to be doing a lot of wet driving, get appropriate tires for it.
sounds like you're hydroplaning due to abrupt throttle/steering inputs.

I've never felt the jerking before, but I do know what it's like when the rear steps out. You can definitely feel the car turning from behind you. There is also a good chance that the throttle will cut if you don't catch it soon enough. For me, it's much more distracting than anything going on with the wheel.

I leave VDC on pretty much all the time. Florida is always wet and these cars love to spin their tires when the road is damp. VDC has saved my *** a few times. IMO, only turn it off if you are racing on a dry track.

Never leave VDC off on the street
Drive safe

Welllll, LOL I was thinking on what tick64 said, and not taken in on what the OP's skill level is. Sorry. ;)

Welcome Bad Boy.....Thank goodness that you found all the sincere and helpful
fellow 370Z forum members here to help you. Please make sure that you
come back to post on the 370Z forum so that we all know you came away
with some learned and very important advice today....GL

:hello:

TCS &/or VDC systems stays "On"; the only times to turn it off, I would say, is to purposely loose traction & do a quick spin burnout during test & tune or drift. I lost at-least .1 & 1-2 mph with it "Off" during my passes, my tires just didn't hook. My best times have been with TCS "On" & it includes in speed as well. You would probably need unholy skill or drag tires, in order to turn traction off & do better than with TCS "On". TCS/VDC is consistent for sport driving & is needed. You can turn it off, but you are going to need tires, or a major drop in tire pressure to compensate. The best track times with Z's are "On" & the Z will be consistently faster, which translates to staying in the race & finishing the race. Don't crash out.

I read somewhere that a magazine tester turned it off & scored .2 faster, but he probably rolled it out; I don't even mess with it off as passes require launching, not rolling. Maybe someone else might have more insight. Drive safe.

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:

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.

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.

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.

: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

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.

:tup:

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!

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:

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:

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.

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.

Why would you want to test vdc off on a platform that you are not acquainted to and in the wet on the road?
Find an empty parking lot fella.

Nah, he should do like all the other fools do, VDC off on a wet road in front of a bunch of his friends... Instant YouTube hit... :inoutroflpuke:

Um ... wow ... and nice nismo and hey :hello:

My combo is the Z and a Dodge Dakota AWD, with a cap. I have tons of storage. I do like to drive off road now and again.

Where is the VDC switch and how do you turn it on and off?

Its to the left of the steering wheel on the dash. Button has 'VDC' on it. Press it and you'll see a VDC Off" light come on in your RPM gauge. Look in your manual.

Manual?

:confused:

:rofl2:

man muel?

IBTL :roflpuke2:

VDC/TCS seem to be interchangeable terms.