{"id":7811,"date":"2018-01-15T04:42:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T12:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=7811"},"modified":"2018-01-14T19:09:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T03:09:28","slug":"should-i-turn-traction-control-off-when-driving-on-the-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/should-i-turn-traction-control-off-when-driving-on-the-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: Should I turn Traction Control off when driving on the track?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: “I\u2019m a novice with a couple HPDE track events and I\u2019m hooked. I\u2019m getting conflicting information as to whether I should turn Traction Control off or leave it on while learning to drive faster. I drive a 2017 Mazda Miata so power isn\u2019t huge. I know that TC may save me from myself, but might it also mask some of the ‘limit sensors’?”<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Ahhh, the most-asked question of them all! And one that is impossible to answer definitively. And everyone has their own opinion. So, here\u2019s mine\u2026 It depends! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In the perfect world all drivers would start track driving in low-horsepower, low-grip cars with no traction control (E30 BMWs, early Miatas), and the driver would learn car control at relatively low risk. But so many cars have TC now, so it\u2019s less likely that a driver will not have it as an option. So, what to do? I believe a driver should start track driving with TC on, and then when he\/she can tell when the system is helping, then and only then should the driver turn it off. If the driver can\u2019t tell whether it\u2019s assisting or not, then the driver has not learned enough about sensing what the car is doing. Once the driver has developed the ability to sense when TC is helping, then it\u2019s a good idea to turn it off so he\/she can fine-tune their car control skills.<\/p>\n

Yes, TC masks limit sensors. They also cover up mistakes that drivers make – often mistakes that the driver doesn\u2019t even realize they\u2019re making. TC also reduces the chances of crashing. So, some good things, some less-than-good.<\/p>\n

Since I don\u2019t know what level you\u2019re at with your ability to sense the limits of your car, I can\u2019t say for sure what you should do. But based on you saying you\u2019re a novice with a couple of events under your belt, I\u2019d suggest leaving TC on until you can consistently tell exactly when it\u2019s assisting – when it\u2019s activating. Once you know exactly when it\u2019s activating, and even when you\u2019re able to predict when it\u2019s going to kick in, then consider turning it off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what the new Miata has in terms of settings for TC – does it have steps? If so, turn it one step off, where it activates a little, but not fully; then with more experience, turn it off entirely. I also don\u2019t know whether your car has stability control in addition to TC? If so, I\u2019d emphasize what I said about TC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m getting conflicting information as to whether I should turn Traction Control off or leave it on while learning to drive faster. I drive a 2017 Mazda Miata so power isn\u2019t huge. I know that TC may save me from myself but might it also mask some of the ‘limit sensors’?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7811"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7816,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions\/7816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}