Quote:
Originally Posted by admranger
FWIW, the two times I was at the BMW Club Europa's 'ring school, I always drove with traction control off (2002 M3, 2003 330i ZHP). I drove the A1-ring in a driving rainstorm with the TC off in 2002. No big deal if you know what you are doing, though we had the benefit of Derrek Bell giving us pointers on driving in the wet so we may have had a *slight* advantage. Drive within your talent limits and TC is unnecessary.
I've seen a car crash b/c the traction control was on (it was very wet) but the skilled driver could not control the car with all the electronics trying to save him. It may have been better for him to just take his hands off the wheel for all the good the electronics did him.
The E9x is a bit of a problem b/c of the outstanding power of the car, the grip of modern tires being close to or exceeding the r-comps of old, and the very limited capabilities of the drivers, myself included. Couple these with the mass of the E9x platform, and you have a very high kinetic energy car with drivers thrashing it around like it is an E30M3 on forgiving tires. Big problems await.
In 1995 with the E36M3 we had these same discussions b/c we knew no-one at the track was as capable as the car was. People went off track with abandon back then too.
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The E9X M3 (and the E46 for that matter) has another little hidden devil, it's hidden in the M-differential when driving in the wet. The M-differential is great to power out of corners or to do nice controlled drifts. However, when you hit a big enough puddle of water with only one rear wheel while under full acceleration, the differential will send all the power to the opposite wheel. This will instantaneously throw the cars sideways
. Ask me how I know
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This one of the reasons I believe it is more prudent driving with DSC or MDM activated on a wet track.