Hi guys, I turned my active handling off and held the button down to get the Competitive Driving mode. Then I put the pedal to the floor and burned alot of rubber and did some swaying at the rear. It's my '04 with A4 and 3:15 rear. What is the purpose of this mode except to burn rubber. Would you use this for drag racing; I wouldn't think so. Just curious! Thanks Doug
w

 

Competition mode is basically NO tractioncontrol, with activehandling still running, so it's a great thing to run during drag racing, and can even be used if your auto-x'ing.

Chris

 

Good for the twisties.

 

It helps a bit if you're trying to get off the line fast. The traction control won't kick in and stop you... It allows for a little wheel slip

 

I would think spinning wheels would get you off the line later then traction control keeping your wheels from spinning.

 

TC off requires the driver to control wheelspin. The advantage is that TC cuts engine power in order to do that deed. Time yourself with a G-meter and see how you do. In my case, I can hit 0-60 in about 4 seconds if I do everything well. That's at least half a second faster that using TC.

Now, if the launch is poorly managed, I can lose time, but so far, I have gotton fairly proficient.

 

once i forgot to take the tc off and with 500hp at the rear it hopped and made stange sounds trying to control the spin. as one guy said you can control the spin and get a good launch with practice.

 

Sure, in theory, traction control would just barely slow your tires down to where they start gripping but what happens is that traction control slows your tires waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down so that you start like a mouse.

When you start spinning your tires, you roll forward a little too and its likely that your tires will start to grip as they roll forward and you then take off pretty quick so you don't want something taking the power away at the first sign of slipping. The idea is that you're on the gas a bit with the clutch all the way in and as you go, you slip the clutch quickly and add gas, if you get the optimal take off, you'll sense the wheels just barely slip before they grip and you start to take off. If you hear the wheels screeching too long before you take off, you know that you've got too much gas or your slipping the clutch too fast.

 

I have an automatic!

 

I'm always in Comp mode on roadcourses

 

Oh! Duh... Well, I think that you can still probably take off better in your auto in comp mode

 

OK, so this explains Comp mode (depressing button for 5 seconds). But what about just hitting the button once? I believe this turns off active handling? And why would I ever want to turn off active handling?

 

Hit the button just once and you're on your own... I guess if you really wanted to get sideways easy, this is the way to go...

 

When you are really pushing the car (as in AutoXing) and not being smooth, you can get the car sideways in any mode. (been there and done that.) It is said that if you are smooth and doing it right, you will never know that Active Handling is turned on. For the rest of us individuals who have names that do not have the initials MS or RB or KM it is kind of fun to feel the AC take hold and apply a bit of brake on an individual wheel to help you make it through the turn.

If you get out of shape, the AC will shut down the engine until you get it back under control. This really kills your time and that is why so many Corvette drivers use Competition mode. When the back gets a little loose they can control it with the thottle because AC does not shut down the engine. However, watching the split times in Grand Prix racing, it is easy to see that getting a little loose in the back end slows you down. In first gear, in competition mode, the back end is very loose. With AC and competition mode off, it is interesting. Smooth is best. Easy said, hard to do. However, as I said, go wild with wheel, and brakes and yes you can spin it with AC active.

Note, I am just learning to drive this C5. My prior AutoX car was a Miata with an automatic and you have to push the throttle the entire way to keep momentum up. This tactic is a killer in a Corvette.

 

In case you wanted to get CRAZY .....and maybe give your body shop man some work

They can get away from you. A/H is a GOOD thing