NEW77GUY

I'm waiting for someone to post that clip of the guy crossing the double yellow and going up the enbankment in his C5 at a Vette rally. He was showing off...and after pulling into traffic, broke the tires loose and over-corrected. Tore that fvcker up. Think it was yellow...don't remember. Pretty sweet either way....

Tom Steele

Umm, yeah - that's what I was saying...

bernrex

Particularily when the AH/TC isn't that apparent .... as these owners are suggesting. Seems some C5 Z owners are used to a higher level of AH/TC than the new Z provides.

Then again others are complaining that it is unnecessarily intrusive (pulling too much timing in the Comp mode). May just be that the extra HP/TQ of car is gonna take some time to get use to.

As many have already said, a 530 HP car is a different beast than the 405 car.

jrz1

Google translation:

"Wow, I thought if I completely ignored the laws of physics and drove my car like an idiot, GM's engineers would use their wizardry to protect me from myself in a car I don't really know how to drive; I'll need to remember this if I ever get my new Z"


If you buy this car and have never been to a high performance driving school (either Skip Barber etc. or one of the car club events), you're a potential hazard to yourself and others (not to mention you're really not getting your $$ worth out of the car). Go sign up for one of these classes, have a blast and save the world from yourself.

Tom Steele

I can tell you that the C6 Z51 AH/TC was far less intrusive than the C5 Z06. But it was still annoying to me. Whether the C6 Z06 is any less involved, I have no way of knowing.

But I am certain you can definitely wreck one with AH/TC on, which is my point. It would have to be very non-intrusive for me to leave it on most of the time though. I've said this before, I don't think I am the next Ron Fellows, but I can drive a high-hp, high torque car without a babysitter. I prefer the car to do what I expect it to do at all times. When I'm on the throttle and shifting or turning, I'm always expecting the back end to want to come around and I'm preparing to handle that.

TripleBlack99

i dont think many people actually think that AH will repeal the laws of physics. The ultimate would be for people like yourself to be able to cofigure via the DIC to have competition mode (or an even more sporty mode) on all the time.. and for other people to have a setting where the AH is turned up a bit more... this does not make the the people that want enhanced AH any less of a man or less of a driver or less intelligent about the laws of physics as some people are implying.. it just means that people like myself realize that sometimes it can be more slick that i anticipate because of rain or frost or oil on the road.. and mayby our reaction times are a bit less or our paranoia is a bit more, and dont mind the ah intervening earlier... not to prevent the accident (that would be naive) but to perhaps make an accident less likely. And if i am feeling particularly alert and sporty on a day, then i just hit a button to going into comp mode. Note i just realized that my view on this whole thing might be warped because i use the corvette as a daily driver... if i did not drive it every day, i.e. if i had a "normal" car in addition to the corvette, then i think i would be less of the above opinion.

jrz1

Here's part of the initial quote that started the thread....

"I was giving a friend a ride and got on it in 1st and shifted fairly hard into 2nd at about 6000 rpms. The car broke traction and started to go sideways, thinking the traction control would kick in I left it to the floor and the car went further sideways...."


To me, if you are driving the car in good weather conditions and you're gunning it to impress a friend and the net result is that you start to go sideways in a new $70K car yet you still keep your foot on the gas waiting for traction control to save you, it's a case of not understanding the car (& its TC) & the physics surrounding it's handling. Either that or a driver with really big *****, a very high tolerance for risk or maybe a few cards missing from the deck.

TripleBlack99

yeah, i agree... if the car is starting to go sideways i am going to hope the ah kicks in AND i am going to let up on the gas... the logic of keeping on the gas to coax AH is a bad idea.

DRDVETTE

I started this thread. That being said. I was not trying to coax the AH to come on or trying to impress my buddy. He wanted to see how fast the car was. We took the car to an remote area where there was no traffic and I showed him. The car normally hooks up extremely well and this was the 1st time the car had done this. It is simply a matter of getting to know this car as the previous Z I had definately was much more intrusive with the AH. It caught me a little off guard, but as I am getting to know and get the feel of the car I can assure you I won't be caught off guard again. I was simply asking if anyone else had this happen and is the TC/AH that much different on everyone else's car than it was on the C5 Z. I guess the answer must be YES.

Tom Steele

When you put it like that, I agree. But I have been in threads where I really do believe that some people think the AH/TC is a LOT MORE of a safety advantage than it actually is in real life. I've seen posts with people who think it is a necessity for a car with this level of performance to have AH/TC and they seem to think anyone who turns it off is a fool. That leads me to believe they have an over-inflated idea of what it can, and cannot, do.

I agree, but since GM in its wisdom makes me go through a pre-flight routine each time I start the car, I find it mildly irritating that the car has been "dumbed down."

I also get irritated when the AH/TC is turned off but the anti-abuse algorithms kick in if I want to hammer second gear. Very frustrating to have the car doing something you aren't telling it to do at any time.

Completely agree. I fully support and suggest that anyone who feels like they need AH/TC turned on, turn it on - but don't place undue faith in it. It can't do miracles.

Mine is a daily driver too...

But like I said, I'm with you if you want to turn it on - by all means turn it on. I don't think any less of you. But I have been in threads where I think people believe the AH/TC is something that it is not. You aren't one of those people obviously!

Yogivette

AH has kicked in on me a couple times. Usually i didnt want it to but sometimes when i thought everything was fine and the back end came out. Ive found i actually need to take corners slower in my z then i did in my z51 c6. When taking a cloverleaf on ramp i felt like i was hardly on the throttle in 3rd gear, not high in the rpms, and near the end of the turn the back end went out and AH kicked in. I just couldnt believe the back end actually went out in 3rd gear with hardly any gas. Maybe its the runflats? I mean obviously there is still a lot of TQ but i still wouldnt have thought the back would come out like it did considering the circumstances.

TripleBlack99

Absolutely. And as someone else noted, it might that the AH algorithms are the same and the increased horsepower has this affect on the behavior of AH.. or it could have been a conscious change that GM did to the AH algorithms, or a combination of the two... or a mistake (unlikely).

dexter

My prediction is that you'll start seeing threads about guys who've totaled their new Z in a couple of months after the noobs who were late to the waiting lists start getting their cars (assuming that the early deliveries are probably going to guys who've got a reasonable amount of experience driving a high performance car and got on the waiting lists early). I've definitely noticed that the AH/TC is much less intrusive on my new Z06. On my H/C S/C C5, the AH still kicks in before the *** end slides.

The one area I think the software can be improved on the new Z is in the torque management - sometimes when you really punch it, it almost feels like the engine bogs down slightly at around 4 - 5K rpm. I'll also predict that when LS7 Edit (or whatever) comes out and you can solve that, you'll see 1/4 mile track times come down another couple tenths on otherwise bone stock Zs.