(Several people have been asking about real world experience at the track with Launch Control and although this particular story is about my 2010 Camaro SS, since it’s the same system and I regularly race my Corvette I thought it was appropriate to post it here.)

A few weeks back I tried taking my new Camaro SS to the drag races to see how well the Launch Control worked. My initial impression was that it didn’t as I had to back off the throttle on every pass and the wheel hop was so bad that I was fearful of breaking something. I tried launching it the normal way after that but since I was on street tires and the track wasn’t prepped that night to say it was a horrible overall first experience is an understatement. All night long I couldn’t help thinking “Why didn’t I just bring the Corvette instead?”.

Being the eternal optimist (or masochist depending on your point of view) I decided to try it again this past Sunday but equipped with drag radials this time. I usually run the Corvette in two different classes (to get more practice runs) but what I did this time was run the Corvette in the Pro class and the Camaro in the Street Trophy class.

After cutting a .102 light on my first pass I figured out when best to launch the car and I think the next four passes speak for themselves:








Not only did I manage to cut two .010 lights 11 minutes apart, I cut better lights and had more consistent 60fts on the day with the Camaro than I did with my A6 Corvette.

The rest of the runs (past the 60ft times) weren’t all that stellar as I still don’t have enough seat time racing a stick yet but I still managed to make it to the semi finals (and win a trophy for my efforts) before losing when I couldn’t turn on the Launch Control for some reason. All day long the car REALLY didn’t like the fact I had drag radials and that they were only 18” tall as I had almost every warning light show up on the dash each time but I was still able to activate it except for the last run. What happened that time was that even though it seemed to work when I launched the car, I ended up hitting an unexpected 5000RPM rev-limiter and lost the race as a result.

Overall I must say that I was quite impressed with how it worked, especially when the car behaved more consistently than the Corvette. I know a lot of people talk about how it slows the car down a bit (as compared to launching it the old fashioned way) but since I was bracket racing at the time I had no problem giving up a tenth or two on my ET as a tradeoff for the consistency.

Christopher

 

Nice runs! Now go put a cam in that thing!

 

Wow, nice lights.




Yes as you've already determined, that was most likely the TPMS simply not getting along with the shorter drag radials, possibly combined with the aggressive track driving as well. It probably worked fine up to a point but after enough miles the computer decided to fight back LOL.

 

I posted something on the Camaro5 forum but didn't get an answer so what I'll probably do the next time is to make a single pass but short shift it at 5K to see how much I may have to change my dial in at the last minute if the issue resurfaces.

 

Nice going Christopher.

 

So what do you think, Jackpot lane on a Wednesday night perhaps?

 

The system rocks, my Z06 comes out HARD and consistently on almost any surface... Those of you with 09's need to get the retrofit going, its amazing!

 

Wow very interesting! Good post and killer lights. Really doesn't get any better than that.

The dreaded 5000 rev limiter....that is what got me to buy HP tuners and learn to tune 4 years ago! In my case it was an acceleration based secondary rev limiter.

I'm surprised you hit it without putting in gears, if that is what it is.

I can dig up a screen shot of that table for you if you need it, I'm on my iPad now so can't easily find it but will if you think that might be it.

 

I know the setting you're thinking of but I don't think that's what caused the issue. It seems to be something related to the TPMS sensors and from what I've seen in my tune HPT doesn't have any control over it.

 

I use HPTuners as well and when I reflash a tune after that happens the issue seems to go away. It comes back when a critical code hits the 2nd mil status and actually trigures the light to come on. I'm not exactly sure which codes the ecm considers crucial.
Mine is having an issue with my Left Bank Rear O2 Sensor, it's throwing a P0156 code, which is the heater circuit failing. I've noticed that it doesn't lower the rev limiter when it throws the pending code, but will when it actually triggers the light, it wont let me past 6,600rpm...
Shutting the car off or clearing the codes doesn't seem to work, but it always goes away after reflashing.
My speculation is that your ecm has hard set a critical code in relation to your tire size difference. When I run my 17" DR's and my tune hasn't been modified to compensate for the smaller tires, my ECM or BCM see's the difference in speed from the front tires to the rear and assumes it must be spinning, so it kicks in the Traction Control. In my case, I can temporarily get around it by turning off Traction Control, but after a couple hundred miles or a few times forgetting to turn off the TC, it'll set the rev limiter again.

Disconnecting the battery or going through multiple drive cycles with the right size tires, might unset the code if you cant reflash it.

 

Why don't you just turn off the testing on p0156, to no error reported? That solved my error messages with my rear o2's (one of which is now my wideband).

I also get a "active handling active" message when I run my 17" drag radials....but similarly I turn off traction control and it never bothers me. It actually doesn't bother me even if I don't turn off traction control because I've taken away my car's ability to do traction control in the tune.

Incidentally, when I went with 315-35-17 drag radials, they are just slightly taller and don't set the active handling message. But, they rub on highway expansion joints with the stock fenders. I can actually smell the rubber burning. Now with the wide body kit that's not an issue.

But I never hit a rev limiter from any of these error messages.

Just another data point.

 

I'm trying to get mine through VA Emmisions Inspection currently so I've been hesitant to turn anything off... I need to find someone that knows what has to be turned on and what can be turned off to pass inspection, I've been trying to get it through Emmissions Inspection for a month now...

 

Ahh the joys of living in FL with no such concerns....

I'm talking out of school here and I would like to know a real answer, but I thought the plug in computer only read if the car had the emission controls "ready" (i.e. if you reset your battery and get tested right away you fail as the systems report "not ready" until they've done enough driving to meet the parameters), and that it tested to see no MIL was set. If those two parameters are met you're good to go.

It's an interesting question, perhaps worthy of a thread. Though people may not be willing to post on it, you might get a PM from someone who knows.

 

I've been trying to think of a tactful way of starting a thread in regards to Emmissions but it's such a touchy subject.

The 05 Vettes have 5 or 6 modules that they have to pass, I believe some of them are; Mil Status, O2's status, EVAP Status, EGR, Catalyst and Comprehensive Component... Any help would be much appreciated!