Sweeet so you where drifting on the freeway! lol good thing your a good driver or it could have been worst!

 

a good driver? I don't see traction control saving your *** as being a good driver

I once passed these old ppl on a coastal road in an S10 pickup, they were driving about 15 mph for over a mile so I got pissed on the corner and gunned it, passed them with a car coming the other direction pretty quickly and the *** of my truck hanging out. One side of the road was a rock wall and the other side was a barrier with a straight drop onto the rocks and the ocean. stupidest thing I've ever done I think... I was really really lucky the truck didn't spin out or suddenly catch and go off the cliff, but for a pickup that thing handled amazingly well. I can still remember riding dirt roads at 65 drifting thru the corners like a rally car

my point being, you can do some really stupid crap and come out fine from it, doesn't mean you're a good driver, just means you're dumb to try it. And also, I don't think better schooling is going to help in those cases, it's an impulsive action that you don't think about, you just do it.

 

Doesn't mean you're not a good driver either. In a completely out of control situation you'll have to help the traction control out a bit. Which means you at least have to know enough to attempt to bring the car under control.

I agree, but you can also do stupid things without being dumb to try it. My example: One of my previous cars was a Z28, which almost always tended to oversteer. 5 years of driving that light rearend beast ingrained into me to lift throttle on excessive oversteer, as that tended to bring the car back into line. Habits are hard to break.

So... the very last day I ever turned off the DSC for street driving, I was coming through a 90 degree corner a little too fast (but not enough to be worried, just some tire squeel), enter a very slick patch of something + sand, rear end slides out, I lift throttle. Immediately I say "****" knowing this is the wrong thing to do in the Rx-8 (but there's that habit again), now I'm headed for the curb very sideways (rear end heading directly for the curb). "No problem" I think, and I start correcting. Car starts to straighten out, then goes the other way. Repeat 3 times, and I just give up and stop the car. Facing the wrong way. Pull a u-turn, and head on my way, a little embarassed, but happy enough. I was experienced enough with the dynamics of a rwd car to prevent any serious incident. Just not enough with those of this particular car to come out with ego intact.

The 8 is very easy to drive up to the limit. But exceed that limit more than a little, without enough experience with the car's characteristics, and it can be difficult to bring into line. Traction control would have resolved the above issue without much fuss. But not without my help. More experience with the 8, or a hiperformance driving school in the 8 would've aided me greatly in this particular case. But a little OJT never hurts, assuming you don't crash .

Lesson learned. I don't touch the DSC button any longer, except for the occasional u-turn. I'll still mildy activate DSC about once a week, but it's not that intrusive, and serves as a reminder to stop driving like an idiot in public .

 

only time i ever turn the dsc off is on the road to my house its very windy and the dsc comes on for every turn scares the **** out of me i think im gonna hit 1 of the rock walls

 

I turn the DSC off for autocross and the track. I like having it on most of the time. When it kicks in it's kinda like the car tapping me on the shoulder saying, "We're pushing it a bit for public roads, aren't we?"

 

I JUST saw one of these the other day on I-75. The funniest part of it all was that he was almost a 1/2 mile past his exit. Low and behold, here he comes in reverse at a pretty good speed. Mind you, this was also during 3PM rush hour on an already over-populated 2-lane interstate.

I was about to call 911 to send for the ambulance right then...