I am now a firm believer that AH will save your butt big time (if it's activated and it will be from now on)...So I'm taking somebody for a drive in the Z. He says, "Take this road, it's got a lot nice turns. I take them all the time in the Boxster." I think to myself, this should be a blast in the Z. The road is a back road, so it's pretty empty, as a matter a fact, no other car was around. So I open her up and I see out of the corner of my eye, the passenger's fingers gripping tighter and tighter on his knew and on the door handle . We come up to a nice turn (15 mph warning sign), and he says, "I can take this turn in the Boxster at 60 without blinking an eye." So the HUD is showing 95mph. Hit the brakes, downshift and the HUD is showing 63mph as I'm going into the turn. I'm thinking to myself, "HOLY $*&@!" It takes the turn like it's on rails. As I'm coming out of the turn, I can feel the backend start to come around and then all of a sudden, it was like I hit a rubber wall. The backend whips back the other way and the car straightens out pointing right down the road, like it's asking for more. The passenger says, "I think I poopie my pants, that was the most incredible piece of driving I've ever seen. I thought we were going off the road" I turn to him and say, "That wasn't me. If it wasn't for the AH, we would have been off the road." "How much was that option?", he says. I said, "Nothing, it was included in the price." I can see the wheels spinning in his head, probably thinking about trading in the Boxster.

So we go back to his house and he says, "By the way, remember when I said the Boxster could take that turn at 60?" I said, "Yeah." He says, "I lied. The most I've taken that turn at was about 40."

 

I was just about to post about Active Handling today also when I read this Nothing as dramatic as yours, but I made the active handling kick in today for the first time and was absolutely AMAZED at what it could do! I was coming around a traffic circle pretty fast, about 40mph, and came out on a road at maybe a 60 degree corner, and mashed the gas (not all the way, but fairly hard) in 2nd gear. I felt the back end kick out and as soon as it did suddenly the dash said "ACTIVE HANDLING" and the back end just kind of sucked right back into place! I was stunned! Was the coolest feeling ever

 

There is a very long list of Z06 owners who have totalled their cars with AH-OFF...doing just what you did with AH_ON. So congratulations on your judgment, because it's way better than those that shut it all off cause they don't need a stinking computer interferring with their "expert" driving.

Sermonette off.

Here is one I posted this in Feb 2002 (the link to the read-only thread is not working)

I've alway run in COMPETITIVE DRIVING mode at the drags. Do it on principle...It has no effect whatsoever on my times unless my rear end gets seriously out of line, at which point active handling will be invoked, thereby saving my a $ $. In such a moment, my ET would be the last thing on my mind.

Today I narrowly averted a disaster that was not of my making. AH saved my butt and vindicated my practice of running with it turned on.

I made eight passes at Capitol Raceway in Crofton Maryland. On the fourth pass, I was next in line behind a highly modified car that spewed tranny fluid on the track just after the 60_ mark. Unfortunately, no one, including me, noticed the spill as it occurred. AND, I was next.... I had my best launch of the day (1.82) and slammed 2d gear hard amidst his tranny fluid...whereupon my rear end moved violently right...toward the wall. Fortunately, Active Handling engaged and queued me to back out of the throttle immediately upon recognizing my predicament...but not before I had come within just a foot or so of the wall.

Had I turned AH off (as many people do), I surely would have hit the wall HARD. Wouldn_t have been my fault; but certainly would have spoiled the day. When that occurred, the last thing on my mind was my ET...which was a 12.81...in a day of 12.04 and a bunch of 12.1Xs, plus one trap of 118.1...all in COMPETITVE DRIVING mode.

Ranger


[Modified by Ranger, 12:06 AM 6/25/2004]

 

I never take it off... it doesn't interfere unless you need it.

 

I never take mine off on the street, I run Competitive Mode when drag racing, and depending on the track (and my experience) either off or competitive mode when road racing. For sure off in an Auto-X event.

Les

 

I was traveling up a very long hill on an autobahn in Germany, in the winter, and gaining altitude and not paying attention to the outside temp reading. It was raining at the lower altitudes It seems the bridge was at the right altitude for 0 degrees and I hit black ice. As my 500 mile Z06 was sliding toward the guard rail I let off the gas held the wheel straight and AH was going crazy, car was fishtailing back and forth. If I ever meet the engineer that programed our AH I'll kiss him on the mouth (I hope a woman programed our AH)

 

Amen to that! Very well said!

 

It saved my butt the very first night i had the car!!!

 

AH is great!

One thing, you better have the wheel pointed where you want to go when AH gives you the car back, because that is where you are going whether you want to or not.

AH saved me and my car on the way back from picking it up at the dealer. I picked up my girlfriend on the way home to give her a short spin.

I pulled a U-turn and got on it too fast and too much. Had it not been for AH, I would have wrapped it around a tree with about 230 miles on it.

Also, at DE events I have received rave reviews from instructors on how well I recover after going into a turn too hot and having to do some heavy trail braking.

Great cars!

 

When active handling is activated does it only show in the DIC, not the HUD? I think that it was activated once or twice when I was driving, but I was so busy at the time that I didn't know for sure. How long does it stay on the DIC?

 

Darn, I thought it was just my great driving skills

 

COMPETITIVE DRIVING is nice too, I went to the track and was running, when I went to 3rd it got out of hand and the back started to come around and all the sudden I was stright. If it wouldnt have been on I would have been off the track.

 

At the couple of AutoX's I did I had it in Comp mode, there was one turn before a short straight towards the end, All three runs I had it sideways, one of them by quite a bit, I lifted a little, counter steered, car straighted right out pointed in the correct direction.

 

Here is a video (about 500kb) of a classic idiot doing an autocross with AH off. Unfortunately, the driver quickly let his speed outrun his experience...to the horror of the spectators.

<A HREF="http://www.z06vette.com/media/idiot.mpeg" TARGET="_blank">Autocross Accident Video</A>

When bad things happen, they happen fast. COMPETITIVE DRIVING mode is there to help average drivers avoid disaster. But not everyone wants to believe that they are just "average."

Ranger


[Modified by Ranger, 2:51 PM 6/25/2004]

 

Hey Ranger
That video is horrifying. What happened to that poor person that got hit? That's a good wakeup call for autoXers. When youre working a course you better expect the unexpected.
lori

 

Hope so to for your sake, Capt.

 

Hey Z06gal,

Report was that the victim was not seriously injured.

I have a video of a similar drag racing mishap. C4 driver loses control on the shift to 3d when the car gets loose and he has no AH (C4 not C5) to save him. Car climbs the wall. No serious injury to the driver but the car was badly damaged...and no insurance.

If anyone wants to host that vid (3.2 mb), I can email it to them for posting a link on this thread. Good exhibit for why to run with AH-ON at the drags.

Ranger

 

I don't race my Z06, except at the drag strip, so I hope I never find myself in a situation when I need Active Handling, although it sure is a nice feature to have in emergencies.

 

I run it at the strip and it has not activated, and hopefully it never will. Great feature of a great car. Take car all!
Dave

 

I had an similar AH experience recently.

I was driving in an empty industrial park (no side streets, no traffic, no buildings, wide smooth streets, in short perfect!). The only thing that I could possible hit were curbs. I was driving about 80 around a nice gradual curve and was having a ball... when I encountered a dip in the pavement that I had not noticed at lower speed. The dip caused my Z to briefly lose contact with the pavement and the back end of the car "hopped" out a couple of feet. By the time I started to react, AH kicked in and snapped my Z back straight again. It was all over before I even knew it had started. My car moved only a little out of my lane and I was no where near the curb. But needless to say, it scared the crap out of me.

This does raise an interesting point though... does AH make you a worse driver? I've always prided myself in my driving skills and my quick reflexes. I've saved my own butt more than once without AH. But now that I have a car with AH, I am getting lazy. I am coming to trust AH to get me out of binds.

Food for though...