Hi folks,

Tonight I had an interesting experience. I have a RWD V8 S, VAP tuned to ~650 hp w automatic transmission. There is a quiet intersection enroute to my house where I generally like to kick the rear end out a bit. This evening, there was one car waiting for the light, zero police. So I juiced her a bit. The rear end kicked out and then some, and I ended up correcting for oversteer a few times before reigning it in. Nice elongated W of rubber behind me. I took a deep breath, thanked my guardian angel, and then noticed that traction control was off. I hadn't fussed with it during the drive. I came to realize that when I drive through town in manual sport mode, I like to shift via the center console stick. I guess this is an ego thing because I fantasize about having a manual from time to time. I should seek help. Anyway, I noticed that when I lay my hand on the shifter, my palm rests on the traction control button. I had kept it there long enough to completely disable it, resulting in my wild little adventure.

I just wanted to share in case its helpful to anyone who happens to shift manually w/o the paddles.

 

I can relate...


Last September I'd driven out to the Fraser Valley to visit a friend and fellow car guy.
I'd had the F Type for nearly two years but this was the first time that I'd been able to show it off to him properly.
There are some beautiful out-of-the-way twisties through the forest around where he lives, so off we went for a hoot-hollering rip like the pair of irresponsible kids we are.

At one point I'd turned off the traction control to do a dead-end turnaround with a little added *flair* (don't worry, no one around).
A few minutes of carving the turns later, we arrived at a sharp-ish right at the end of a slightly downhill straight.
To set the scene, there was a large wide gravel pullout on the far side of the bend (service access for a transformer box).

I'd noted the turn earlier, and, spur of the moment, being completely overcome with testosterone, decided this would be a good fun spot to kick the tail out.
Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the TC was off....

.... anyway, once the dust cloud had finished settling on our heads, we did a quick inspection for damage (none), brushed ourselves off, and returned sheepishly to town (active exhaust off, to suit our now subdued mood).



Could have been MUCH worse... had there been no pullout, we would've been in the ditch!
A sobering wake-up call.
Hopefully it'll be a while before I need another one... in the meantime, I'll be *quite* careful with the TC button!

 

I have never been able to use the center stick as my brain is wired to 'forward = up a gear'. Maybe that goes to the way back time when I had a B&M Megashifter in my '77 Firebird.

 

I have been in unintentional drift a few times in my life, the key is to not panic and not rapidly change inputs.

 

Been there done that. This is mine with the traction control completely off on purpose. Was doing a video shoot comparison between the RWD and the first of the AWD for an online car journal my son used to write and produce for. We were in a huge parking lot near Annapolis and had a cone course set up. It was a wild ride it she handled it really well. Those were Pirelli’s at the time which added to the fear factor,