fatbillybob

I'm new to vette tracking. for those familiar with Streets of willow (a tight short course) when I'm in comp mode I get the "active handling" come up on the DIC all the time. I feel plenty in control. Who is in control me or the car? What is the active handling light telling me? Am I sliding the car too much?

Bimota Guy

It is too intrusive when on R tires since it is desigend for street rubber. Turn it off.

Frankly, when I first started tracking my Vette I would leave it in "comp mode" (traction off/active handling on) for the first session so I could find out where I might be pushing it too hard.

joemoia

with a track alignment & R tires you are generating yaw rates/lateral g's beyond the system's capabilities. AH will hinder your laptimes and eat up your brakes

xsiveone

I don't like it anyway for that very reason. You don't know who is in control. You don't know where your limits are. What's the point in taking your car to the track if you don't know how to drive your car?

I think that the AH is great for the street. Sometimes you're not at peak concentration and you may hit a unforeseen road hazard where the AH may help you regain control of your car. On the track though, I don't see the point.

Rob Burgoon

Turn off everything but ABS.

Jason

And, if you rely on it, when you really need it, it'll complete its Warm Up just about the time you spin to a stop in a cloud of dust. Or a tire wall.

davidfarmer

If you want to have fun, leave it on. If you want to learn to DRIVE, turn it off. In a C6, the Comp mode is much better than C5 version, but it still "kicks in" a lot.

When working with students in C6's, they often don't realize the AH/TC is kicking in, but I watch the dash and, as they progress, I remind them that they are getting help!

Rob Burgoon

Billybob just did the SCCA superschool. If he is going racing... off off off!

sperkins

I'm a pretty recent AH/TC graduate. I left it on before because I wasn't sure 100% that I didn't need it, but I should have listened to everyone and just turned it off a long time ago as I now feel much more in control of the car.

fatbillybob

Well thanks guys...you taught me something else I did not know about the C5Z. I thought the best I could do to turn the babysitter's off was to hold the button down 5 seconds until the comp mode showed on the DIC. So how do you also turn the AH off?

Bimota Guy

One quick press of that same button turns both off; quick press again and both are back on. Once both are off, press "reset" to clear the display of the message. This does not reset AH/TC. You will notice the icon (upper rt quadrant of the speedo) that looks like the rear of the car with 2 squiggly lines behind it is illuminated. The reminds you the system is turned off.

BTW, there is no way to turn off AH and keep TC on.

xsiveone

They have it bassackwards. A quick press should get you into Comp Mode and the 5 second should turn everything off. Ideally, I would've loved a separate button for TC and AH, so I can control what I want. In a perfect world, I'd love to be able to defeat ABS as well.

I was going to pick up a LapTrax, but never got around to it before they discontinued it.

http://www.vetteweb.com/tech/0303vet...rol/index.html

I'm not complaining though. At least we can turn off TC and AH if we want to. With some makes of cars (Merc, Lexus), you can't turn off everything.

ScaryFast

As you know, turning off stability control and traction control is fine. However, the brake pressure modulator in a production car is designed for ABS control. Therefore, if you disabled the ABS system without adjusting the related hardware (pedal, booster, pressure modulator), you would have poor brake control, a gain that is way too high, and terrible brake feel. Most likely you would experience frequent lockup as the booster provides a high degree of force multiplication so that a little old lady can stop the car as safely as you can in an emergency situation.

While quite good these days, street car brakes are not designed for racing, they're designed to provide a good balance in any situation. What would be ideal would be the ability to switch to a different ABS tune for homogeneous high friction surfaces as opposed to one that has to work on ice as well as dry pavement. We can dream, can't we?

Falcon

Hmmm...I've had 3 C5's and all 3 required the A/H button to be pressed very quickly and that turned off all the A/H & T/C.

In all 3 cars, pressing the AH button for 5 seconds set the AH into "Competitive" mode.

RC45

The OP is simply saying what I said the day I bought the car 8 years ago - What moron chose to use the 5s press for the "safe mode" and the quick press to turn it all off.

It is logical that you would more likely want to quickly (or even accidently) engage Comp Mode with a quick press, and then purposefully hold the buttong for 5s to disable it completely.

Jason

I read it the same way. I thought maybe it was a C6 and GM had changed it or something.

71corv

What "Falcon" said. If in doubt read your owners manual. It's put in the car for a reason.


Gene

Bimota Guy

bgx12

Turn it off except for daily driving. It will wear out your brake pads quickly.

Falcon

Oh, I understand now. Sorry, I thought xsiveone was saying that was how it works, but he was saying that is how it should work, and I agree with him.