MarkRx

What's the difference? here's what i read in the manual about my 08 coupe z51 mn6:

press button once - traction control off
press button twice - competition driving mode (traction control and active handling off?)
press button three times - traction control and active handling on (back to normal)

I noticed if you press and hold the button it will say traction control off... wait a few seconds and then it will say traction control and active handling OFF. isnt this what comp driving mode is?! what's the difference if any and why would they put that feature in?

Here's my hunch... some cars still retain some traction control even when you turn the traction control off... like an Rx-8 for example. you can press the traction control button off to disable it, but it doesn't do it completely. if you press and hold it will completely disable it. did i just unleash some hidden power?

EDIT - Okay i answered my own question as i didn't read the manual carefully, however another question has come into play.

It turns out comp driving mode disables traction control but still retains active handling.

**** So now, what is the difference between traction control off and comp driving mode if both have active handling and the traction control is disabled?!?

carlrx7

ive wondered the same... ttt

hogasm

FWIW ... when in competitive mode (nannies still help maintain control to a lesser degree) the driver has full control over the rear wheels while the active handling system helps maintain directional control. Provide less intervention tham TCS & AHS turned on

Wayne O

Traction control off is just that...AH remains on

In comp mode TC is off and AH remains on but with higher tolerances for sliding or drifting the car (like you want on a road course).

Pressing and holding the button will shutoff both TC and AH.

XvettemanX

FLZ_Boy

The real fun at the track begins if you have both off.

rockethead7

Wayne and Vetteman basically said it....

Competition mode still uses active handling. But, it lets the driver get away with more aggressive things before it starts trying to correct the situation. The most obvious of these is powering at high speeds through corners (steering assisted with the throttle). With everything in the default mode, the car basically won't let you do this (the system will stop the back end from kicking out at all). But, when you go in competition mode, it lets you power it through corners and kick the back end out more. It won't let you bite it altogether... it'll still kick in before you wipe out.

But, that's only the most obvious situation where you'd notice the difference... there are other situations too.

Bottom line: Default = granny mode. Competition = still will save your butt before you wipe out, but it will let you slide around more than the default mode.

MarkRx

gotcha! now i wish i would of started driving the car with everything disabled, then turn on the active handling and see how it feels from a different approach.

DarthStimpy

Comp mode seems a little aggressive. I'd say there was another 10 - 15% more to be had before you loose it.

Learn to drive the car and it will reward you.

rockethead7

You certainly could be right. I won't claim to be a pro racer. But, I will say this... back a few years when the C6 first came out, there were a few articles in magazines that talked about this. The pro drivers initially thought the same thing. They initially said (paraphrasing), "I am sure that I can do better than the computer... just turn the system off altogether, let me run my best laps with my skill, and I'm sure I'll run faster than with the competition mode."

So, then they ran some laps each way (comp mode vs. system turned off)... after the laps, they said, "yup, the car sure felt a lot faster with the system turned off, I'm sure my times were better using my skill than with the comp mode computer"....

Ooops.

Nope, as it turned out, they ran faster laps when the computer was in comp mode. The drivers were surprised, because they thought the car felt faster when it was 100% in their control, but they couldn't argue with the lap times... they did BETTER with the computer than they did by turning the whole system off. The drivers were impressed by the computer (and surprised).


So, yeah, anyway, like I said, this is all based on READING from the pros... not because I'm a pro myself.

haljensen

Don't forget to turn both off when you Dyno. You don't need the Computer deciding to apply the rear brakes (or pull timing and/or spark) since the front wheels aren't turning.