Yesterday, a buddy of mine asked me if I could pick him up from the university and take him to his home. His car went kaput and it was raining hard; I agreed.

I had not noticed that in my friend's efforts to select a song in my iPod and then set the iPod on its cradle, he had accidentally pressed the TC button long enough to turn it off.

In the university parking lot, some moron student was backing onto me, set on a collision course with my trunk. The horn did not grab this person's attention, so I decided to move out of the way as quickly as I could.

I accelerated, but I was in no way prepared for what was coming next. I wasn't aware about how much performance had increased because of yesterday's fuel filter change. The car launched forward at a pace I was not expecting. Simultaneously as I accelerated I had a nervous twitch which had me jerk the car to the left. The car immediately broke traction and began a slide at about a 130° angle towards a pole. My reaction in this instance was to simply let go of the wheel and apply fine throttle control. The car quickly corrected itself into a straight line that was aimed at a tree. I realised I was travelling too fast and too close to the tree for the brakes to be successful in stopping the car on time. So this time I nudged the steering to the right, which drifted the car into a 45° angle. I miraculously evaded the tree and then I was able to bring the car back into a straight line and slow down enough to be able feel safe again.

I kept driving out of the parking lot as if nothing had happened. Maybe, in the eyes of the couple of bystanders, I was a badass driver. To me, I was very lucky I didn't hit anything. My friend said "Damn, do you think you are in Tokyo Drift or something?" My reply to him was, "I need a new pair of underwear, I just soiled myself".

Once out of the parking and en route to his house, I noticed TC was off. I set it back on and kept driving at a snails pace.

If there's water in the road, make sure you have TC on!

 

Wow I'm glad you are OK, thanks for the reminder. I've gotten in the habit of turning mine off when I may have to make a quick left turn across on comming traffic, it just moves so much faster that way. I was suprised this winter when I was unexpectedly stuck in a couple of inches of snow. I never saw a RWD car that could manage it before, well I was learning about the Traction Control.

Let me ask a question about Traction Control. As I recall it works differently above a certain speed, say 30mph, and does not employ braking. I am not a crazy driver, but I sure do like to see how fast the XK8 will take certain corners. I have never seen significant slippage at all. Now some might say: "OK you just aren't going fast enough", that's not what this is about. What I am wondering is how much the Traction control will change the failure charicteristics in terms of advanced warning and one's time to react to it should you take a corner way too fast. Let me know what you think. thanks.

 

I get the impression you are referring to stability control, which is a different animal. Traction control certainly helps when dealing with rain and snow in that it helps reduce wheel spin. It uses the ABS system to apply braking action to the spinning wheel. ASC or stability control, reduces power when wheel spin is detected. It will not save you from a gross error in cornering speed.
Neither of my cars has traction control and the XJ6 doesn't even have ASC.

 

I'm not sure about the first part, but I have noticed that ASC does cut back on the throttle when it's working.

I've had ASC and TC intervene at speeds above 50 mph. They help immensely in keeping you safe. On these cars the systems don't behave like in newer performance cars, where you get to choose how much it will intervene. So, when they work, they will do as much as possible to keep you safe. In my experience, it has always made the car easier to control. I can assure you that having those systems on does have a tendency to kill intentional fun. However, it those systems won't always save your life. I'd wager that above 65 or so, TC and ASC won't stop you from crashing, but they might make it less spectacular.

I'm pretty sure you're right about it being ASC, however, on these cars, turning off traction control also turns off stability control. It's either all or nothing. What happened to me would've been intervened by ASC, not TC. RJ, you certainly have more guts than me. I've always driven with the comfort of the electronic nannies being there unless I explicitly wanted to hoon.

 

I'm just curious of a few things,

1. Looking at your photo of your car, it appears your camber,caster and ride height in the front are way off specs.

2.The date of manufacturer and description of your tires.


I would have your car inspected at a reputable suspension and tire shop.

 

Rain changes so many dynamics when driving. Be careful out there....

Also, glad to learn that a new fuel filter greatly improved your car's performance. Your factory filter must have been extremely clogged....

 

Yes, I'm currently saving up to buy the shock mounts. I have however, already replaced sway bar bushings, and control arm bushings. My car is in desperate need of a realignment.

I received a set of Goodyears as a gift on Christmas, they're actually very grippy, specially in the dry. However there was a whole host of factors at play here. My university parking lot was riddled with puddles, it was still raining, and during the later hours of the day, leafs tend to collect in the parking lot.

Yes it was. Blowing on it revealed that nothing would get though. Blowing on it hard caused most of it to be redirected at me. I have also noticed that I no longer have a fuel smell in the car while driving. I thought that would've been the Evap purge canister, but the fuel filter seems to have solved more problems than anticipated.

 

TC can be very useful, yes.

Good job at driving your way out of the problem. YouTube is loaded with videos of guys who *intentionally* turn the TC off and then find out....usually within about 3 seconds....that their driving skills fall well short of their driving enthusiasm

Cheers
DD

 

Jajaja! Those sad cars.

I wouldn't say I'm skilled at going sideways or emergency situations. I'm just extremely lucky.

 

No offense, looking at your front end, it looks horrible,and If I can tell its misaligned from that picture, you have major issues with alignment and safety.

I knew there was more to this story.


When you are driving, the transmission,engine,electronic throttle, tires and car chassis are NOT IN UNITY.

This is why that happened, I'm glad you were not on the highway. You have a very heavy car, very safe in the rain.