One of the experiences I had in my early learning I've never forgotten. I started this addiction in a Jaguar XJR sedan and by the end of the second weekend I was starting to set off its nannies. Moved on to an E36 M3 and when those nannies started "getting in the way" I would turn them off. Standard fare for most cars, the turn off had to be repeated each time the car was restarted. I would go to grid, and either turn the nanny off or find out a couple laps in that I had forgot to turn it off and it would bother me. Then a funny thing happened - with better driving the nanny stopped feeling the need to intervene. I'd have a great session and not realized until the end that the TC had been on the whole time.

That period did not last long, as once one gets to the intermediate level, it was too intrusive, so I did eventually permanently disable it. The stuff in new cars is amazing, and if it really waits until the car is really out of sorts, why turn it off?

The system in E36 M3s was circa 1996 - over 26 years ago. There has been enormous progress in processor and inertial sensors since then (performance & cost) - it's really not surprising the systems today are as good as they are. In '96, they were downright crude.

 

That's my main takeaway from this thread - there's a big difference between old vs. new cars, and street vs. race cars, so you can't really generalize across all of those.

 

Would only add that if you're careful and incremental, as you should be anyway, lightning will not strike if you gradually turn down (if possible) or off, the nannies.

 

This is my take. It's pretty clear in the 981S in Sport Plus when you yaw too far and the hand of god steps in to stop the rotation. I was out of shape and that would have been a spin. I can learn the same lesson from that intervention as I would from actually spinning. If I drive relatively tidy I don't sense any intervention. It's possible its doing something, but if it is, its nothing like the forceful "hand of god" that stops over rotation. I drove nothing but E30s and E36s for 15 years before getting the Cayman and I still have an E30 lemons car so I know analog I guess. I normally keep the nannies on (in Sport Plus, the nannies in Sport are horribly intrusive) and feel pretty snappy in my time trials.

 

It's a mistake to think God is watching and that His hand will always intervene to save you...

Have seen plenty of advanced/instructor level driver's cars damaged with the nannies on, too.

 

I believe he is referring to how it feels rather than it is a true divine intervention. Point taken on the limits of such systems though, even they have a limited number of inputs and finite reaction time. Plus human stupidity is boundless.

 

My MoTec ECU supports traction control. All I have to do is add the sensors at all four wheels. I wonder what that option would do for a 2000 lbs car with 430 HP......

 

Yes, I know of a case where a 991.1 GT3 was spun at high speed with the SC/TC on. Luckily, the car didn't hit anything. Those systems can do quite a lot with rapid control of the throttle and each of the four brakes separately, but there's a limit to what they can do.

That said, another benefit of leaving SC/TC on is that you can take some liberties you might not otherwise take. For example, on wet tracks, I'm often 'rough' with the car in areas where the speed isn't high and the runoff is ample, in order to work on car control, knowing that SC/TC will likely catch the car if I get it too far out of shape (usually by being too aggressive with the throttle); it has always caught it (so far). On dry tracks at full speed, I always drive as though the SC/TC is off, I don't rely on it at all to save me.