My student at Road America last weekend had a Cayman S. He wanted to try a few laps with PSM off, I told him no. PSM was showing him where he needed to drive more smoothly.

If you're advanced and want it off that's one thing, but IMHO novice students should leave it on.

Finally, in my experience with my 996 (my 986 doesn't have it) PSM will turn itself back on if you apply the brakes while you have the car beyond the allowable slip angles.

 

The SC & TC on the GT2 is too intrusive I wish I could get rid of the TC, on my 01 Z06 I could leave on the SC which is called competitive mode and it would let me push it. With the Z06 if I would turn on the traction control it sucked as well very intrusive!

 

On my friends Evolution 9 or 10? it's an 09....he was flat around a long reduced radius corner and the computer let the car rotate every so slightly....realy great system..if it was my car it would have applied the brakes and slowed us down. I think Porsche over did it...to much... where I would prefer to turn it off.

 

On my opinion anyone who needs traction controls to help them drive/save their car needs to learn how to drive. I agree that novice students should keep it on. But that is why I like PCA (as opposed to Chin) for its two novice groups. Blue group should be where they are moving to turning PSM off. If a student is going to try it, I think an instructor should be present. I don't think that we can pass someone off to solo knowing that they don't know any REAL car correction techniques because the computers are constantly saving them. I would not feel comfortable knowing that I solo'd someone off and that when they experiment turning PSM off that they will have a very high risk of wrecking. We are supposed to TEACH them how to drive, not sit behind the wheel and let the computers do all the work.

 

I have to agree with this 1000%.

 

You can rotate a 997 with PSM on. You can turn PSM off but if you get really into trouble it will kick back on. I turn oit off on the track and sometime leave it on and can;t seem to tell much of a difference.

I am at Sebring right now...2 more run groups today. I will turn it off again and report back.

 

You definitely can't compare the stability control systems of different manufacturers, or even different years. They have all evolved greatly over the years.

The DSC (or, more accurately, "ASC-T") in my E36 M3 activates by cutting throttle and applying rear brakes if there is the slightest hint of slip. Really gets in the way of track driving, so I turn it off.

In my PCA instructor training, I was taught that it is categorically the student's choice whether to have a DSC system on or off. (This is in the Lone Star/Hill Country regions) An instructor can answer questions about how/when/why to activate/deactivate it, but cannot say "turn it off" or "leave it on". This is for liability reasons--we don't want a student saying "but the instructor told me to turn DSC off!" after an incident.

--michael

 

Our region is PSM ON for novices. Once they are signed off to solo they don't need PSM if we have done our job correctly. If they still need PSM we failed in our mission. Period.

 

There is a big difference between PSM and other modern developments like disc brakes or even traction control and ABS.

PSM creates inputs to the controls that no driver can duplicate, like braking wheels individually to prevent a spin. When that happens the computer is driving, period.

Even if you are really fast and "smooth" enough not to engage PSM, you're still not learning what to do when things go all pear shaped, and that's a shame.