Just my opinion but leave it on it works!

I did something stupid today. I was driving in the third line on the highway ont he way to work. I was paying attention, and suddenly realized my exit was right there.

I mada a quick merge to the right (center lane), barely squeezing between two cars. Then...the stupid part...

I saw I wasn't going to make into the exit lanes (traveling 60mph) so I swerved through the little white triangle/median thing dividing the exit, and the highway.

Well, usually this wouldn't be a big deal, except I banked HARD to get in, and there just so happened to be a lot of gravel in this one.

I lost it...countersteered to try to correct the rear end swinging out, but as I came off theh gravel all four tires broke loose. But as soon as that happened a felt a jerk, a little grind, and I was popped back straight again! whew

It scared me half to death, but I am convinced that I wouldn't have been able to correct without it!
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hehe that "grind" or "bang" is a little concerning when it happens but it does a good job :)

Came out of a car wash once and made a right into a space that is normally easily attainable, expect forgot about the water/soap dressed tires. That rear snap the second I gave it gas, counter steered a bit and even before I could do that the DCS clunked on and snap the car perfectly into the lane. Most likey if it was turned of, I would be facing the other way, or at the very least the rear would have snapped into the other lane were there was a car. The look on their face was priceless though :)


Its nice for those, you are a moron, what the hell you doing to me moments that your car can have. Yet autox it is a pain in the arse and glad it can be completely turned off, on the street though best to keep it on.

Yeah it may have saved your life but in some situtations it may cuase others to get into accidents. Couldnt you have just waited till the next exit. I dont like to take those kinds of risks in my car. Glad you are alright.

Yeah it may have saved your life but in some situtations it may cuase others to get into accidents. Couldnt you have just waited till the next exit. I dont like to take those kinds of risks in my car. Glad you are alright.

Yes it was really dumb, but it was kind of one of thoee, "I didn't mean to do that..." type situations. It's like I saw it and just went, not even really thinking everything through.
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well that oops is alot better than a "remove the car from the guardrail/bottom of a overpass" oops...

It prevented me from hitting a tree on a drive with the car club. I leave it on in any situation where I am not 100% cofident in the condition of the road and location of obstacles.

I actually saw a Civic try to do the exact same thing on I-95 yesterday but he wasn't so lucky. He locked up his brakes trying to cut over and lost control, sliding off the road down into a small embankment at around 50 mph then glancing off a tree, which caused his car to roll. I was in a state vehicle so I cut across the grass median and turned around to see if he was alright. It probably took me two minutes to get back to where he was and by that time he was standing on the side of the road trying to wave cars down. The kid said he wasn't even wearing his seatbelt but he somehow managed to walk away. Anyway, after seeing this accident I think twice about turning off the DSC.

dmorales,

I was thinking about this the other day as I watched someone on the expressway take about a dozen people's lives in their hands just to avoid missing an exit. And I'm ashamed to admit...I've done the same thing myself before. Probably we all have.

Massively selfish and irresponsible if you think about it. It's an automatic reaction you must NOT give into when you have that "OH SH*T...THERE'S MY EXIT" feeling. :eek:

I made up my mind that if I ever find myself in that situation again, I'll just drive on...and take the next exit or whatever. Hope you decide the same thing.

saxon

dmorales,

I was thinking about this the other day as I watched someone on the expressway take about a dozen people's lives in their hands just to avoid missing an exit. And I'm ashamed to admit...I've done the same thing myself before. Probably we all have.

Massively selfish and irresponsible if you think about it. It's an automatic reaction you must NOT give into when you have that "OH SH*T...THERE'S MY EXIT" feeling. :eek:

I made up my mind that if I ever find myself in that situation again, I'll just drive on...and take the next exit or whatever. Hope you decide the same thing.

saxon

I live in Northern VA, and we have some pretty bad traffic. Every day almost i see this exact scenerio pan out, (although it is usually some crazy soccer mom) and my wife and i just say "why can't people just go to the next exit and turn around?"

I'm sure everyone is guilty of doing this at one point or another in their lives, but one or two times should be the limit. It's just too dangerous to you and to other drivers to try and 'catch' your missed exit at 60 mph. Even if you CAN control your car and know what you're doing you can never anticipate the reactions of other more inexperienced drivers when you suerve across multiple lanes.

/rant.

On another note, the DSC/TCS system on this car is very good. So good that when I try to have some 'fun' in the car i find it extremely annoying, but I don't turn it off for normal driving despite the fact that I know I can maintain control, it's just too much risk.

Now for track and autox, it's the first thing I do when i get in, push and hold that DSC button for 10 seconds. :D

I'll piggyback on your thread if I may.

It save me this morning. Coming down 183 north of Leander, which is a rural 65MPH area of the highway. The road is 2 lanes either direction with no turn lane. I'm running my usual 65-70 range and 2 Deer come from left to right across the highway just in my high-beams. I go hard on the brakes and pull it left very hard. The back end started out, but the "gadget" saved my arse.

Some may ask why I pulled it left; actually aiming for the Deer. 2 reasons:
- I've always aimed for where the accident starts. In this case where I first saw the deer and determined which direction they were running. Rather than intersect them as they cross, I hoped they wouldn't be there when I got there.

- I was alone on the highway and had 3 more lanes of pavement to work with on the left. Right is ditch, trees and other nasties.

I never thought I would need it, and so far haven't, but I"m sure glad I had it then.

I guess Mazda has probably saved like 100 lives by now!

I nominate Mazda for a Nobel Peace Prize!
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The DSC is one of those things you almost never need. But when you do need it, you need it very badly. I'm very glad it's there.

I also turn it off for autocross and track. Once at Summit Point/Shenandoah I forgot to turn it off ... I was in a high-banked section of track when it kicked in. Scared the cr*p out of me - I thought a wheel had fallen off! :Eyecrazy:

DSC or ESC should be standard equipment on all cars.

Funny, I think tougher liscencing and car control schools should be mandatory, not computers to make up for poor decision making and car control.

im glad your okay
be careful :)

Funny, I think tougher liscencing and car control schools should be mandatory, not computers to make up for poor decision making and car control.


I agree completely, but since that's not going to happen in America (we'd have to accept responsibility for our actions then...), I suppose electronics are a decent stop-gap measure.

Funny, I think tougher liscencing and car control schools should be mandatory, not computers to make up for poor decision making and car control.I SO agree with you. But I think it's good to have DSC/TCS, too. It's not as if they can't be turned off. And for every talented driver who's frustrated that he/she has to defeat it, there must be 25 mediocre drivers who get saved.

so yeah, that made me laugh when you said you went out of control.. not that it was funny, but that i know how you feel... i love my RX, but its extremely easy to handle.. i had a firebird formula that didnt have traction control. so just a little tip on how to control your slide in your rx.. find someone who has a mustang, trans am, or camaro without traction control and then take a corner and go full throttle and let the back end slide out on you, then try and control it. that will help with your sliding problem with your RX :)

Funny, I think tougher liscencing and car control schools should be mandatory, not computers to make up for poor decision making and car control.


I agree and I'm 18. I've actually been looking for something that'll actually put me behind the wheel getting myself out of sticky situation if they arise. I've taken a class that put me in a swivel chair that was a "car sliding out of control" because its apparently the exact same thing.

I agree and I'm 18. I've actually been looking for something that'll actually put me behind the wheel getting myself out of sticky situation if they arise. I've taken a class that put me in a swivel chair that was a "car sliding out of control" because its apparently the exact same thing.

I am 17 and autox but before I began I took a couple classes that did exactly this. One was the Evolution driving/autox school http://autocross.server269.com/evolution/modules/news/
In the class youd use your own car and one of the exercises was taking the car up to a certain speed (in the rx8 around 45-50) in a straight line with a wall of cones at the end. The instructructor would then wait untill you were appx 15ft in front of the cones and tell you "Right" or "Left" That was one of many exercises. Wow, certainly got into some sketchy situations there! Oh, also the first time I spun my car completely and learned the limits better.

When I first got my car I was making a turn onto a freeway, regular 90 degree slightly downhill onramp. Before I knew it I felt the back out the side and traction control saved me. Scary moment and I had no idea what had happened, I was just going regular speed. I went back and found oil had spilled onto the ramp :/

On a side note, it kills me when people drive up Angeles Crest Highway (super fun canyon run) and drive down with their car covered in snow. Most of the time it ends up falling off in the turns where people brake, making the road slippery at the worst parts possible.
/novel

Even though the 8 intially handles 100 times better anyway, I've witnessed first-hand how quick the tail can kick on on high HP RWD cars. 97 Cobra doesn't have TC or any type of stability, and its almost annoying how quickly the tail will kick out going no more then 15MPH on a turn.

Since i've had the car, I believe there may have been ONE time that i've even had the DSC kick in, and it worked awesome. Even though to be hoenst, the car handles so well below 50MPH that unless it's a last second emergency, you almost don't need it.

Very nice though :)

One time I wish DSC and/or TCS was working was in a first-year S2000 I was pushing hard through a fast track corner. I had the line, and the nose was neatly tucked in, and so I started pushing as I cleared the apex. I felt the LSD start to chunk a bit from the back end and thought: "Oh well, no problem, I'll just back off a bit." Just as I start to lift slightly, out comes the back, and now I'm heading neatly away from the apex, backwards, at around 140 kph towards the corner.

Two feet in, and I just clenched my teeth and expected the worst. ABS doesn't seem to work very well going backwards in a slide, either, I discovered.

Thank goodness for long sandy/grassy runoffs. I had my first (and last) experience with those early S2000s and their snappy oversteer at the limit... they should have put that in the manual, IMHO.

I really like the idiots who, following their "oh shit there's my exit" moment, miss the exit only to pull onto the shoulder and BACK UP to the exit. At the very least there should be a hunting season on these jackasses.

Base model, no DSC/TCS. No room to f8ck up. :rock:

Funny, I think tougher liscencing and car control schools should be mandatory, not computers to make up for poor decision making and car control.

I agree whole-heartedly... Were it up to me, the parallel parking test would be done on a real street in a crowded area where you won't find a 20' wide spot, the driving test would be done on a highway, and it would be mandatory to pass thru a tunnel where you would fail the test if you slowed below the speed of traffic/speed limit...

But with regards to this thread, I'm certainly glad to know our DSC/TCS is so great, and I'm glad that you survived unscathed (sp??)

Just my opinion but leave it on it works!

I did something stupid today. I was driving in the third line on the highway ont he way to work. I was paying attention, and suddenly realized my exit was right there.

I mada a quick merge to the right (center lane), barely squeezing between two cars. Then...the stupid part...

I saw I wasn't going to make into the exit lanes (traveling 60mph) so I swerved through the little white triangle/median thing dividing the exit, and the highway.

Well, usually this wouldn't be a big deal, except I banked HARD to get in, and there just so happened to be a lot of gravel in this one.

I lost it...countersteered to try to correct the rear end swinging out, but as I came off theh gravel all four tires broke loose. But as soon as that happened a felt a jerk, a little grind, and I was popped back straight again! whew

It scared me half to death, but I am convinced that I wouldn't have been able to correct without it!
Sweeet so you where drifting on the freeway! lol good thing your a good driver or it could have been worst!

a good driver? I don't see traction control saving your ass as being a good driver

I once passed these old ppl on a coastal road in an S10 pickup, they were driving about 15 mph for over a mile so I got pissed on the corner and gunned it, passed them with a car coming the other direction pretty quickly and the ass of my truck hanging out. One side of the road was a rock wall and the other side was a barrier with a straight drop onto the rocks and the ocean. stupidest thing I've ever done I think... I was really really lucky the truck didn't spin out or suddenly catch and go off the cliff, but for a pickup that thing handled amazingly well. I can still remember riding dirt roads at 65 drifting thru the corners like a rally car :D:

my point being, you can do some really stupid crap and come out fine from it, doesn't mean you're a good driver, just means you're dumb to try it. And also, I don't think better schooling is going to help in those cases, it's an impulsive action that you don't think about, you just do it.

a good driver? I don't see traction control saving your ass as being a good driver

Doesn't mean you're not a good driver either. In a completely out of control situation you'll have to help the traction control out a bit. Which means you at least have to know enough to attempt to bring the car under control.

my point being, you can do some really stupid crap and come out fine from it, doesn't mean you're a good driver, just means you're dumb to try it. And also, I don't think better schooling is going to help in those cases, it's an impulsive action that you don't think about, you just do it.

I agree, but you can also do stupid things without being dumb to try it. My example: One of my previous cars was a Z28, which almost always tended to oversteer. 5 years of driving that light rearend beast ingrained into me to lift throttle on excessive oversteer, as that tended to bring the car back into line. Habits are hard to break.

So... the very last day I ever turned off the DSC for street driving, I was coming through a 90 degree corner a little too fast (but not enough to be worried, just some tire squeel), enter a very slick patch of something + sand, rear end slides out, I lift throttle. Immediately I say "shit" knowing this is the wrong thing to do in the Rx-8 (but there's that habit again), now I'm headed for the curb very sideways (rear end heading directly for the curb). "No problem" I think, and I start correcting. Car starts to straighten out, then goes the other way. Repeat 3 times, and I just give up and stop the car. Facing the wrong way. Pull a u-turn, and head on my way, a little embarassed, but happy enough. I was experienced enough with the dynamics of a rwd car to prevent any serious incident. Just not enough with those of this particular car to come out with ego intact.

The 8 is very easy to drive up to the limit. But exceed that limit more than a little, without enough experience with the car's characteristics, and it can be difficult to bring into line. Traction control would have resolved the above issue without much fuss. But not without my help. More experience with the 8, or a hiperformance driving school in the 8 would've aided me greatly in this particular case. But a little OJT never hurts, assuming you don't crash :) .

Lesson learned. I don't touch the DSC button any longer, except for the occasional u-turn. I'll still mildy activate DSC about once a week, but it's not that intrusive, and serves as a reminder to stop driving like an idiot in public :D:.

only time i ever turn the dsc off is on the road to my house its very windy and the dsc comes on for every turn scares the shit out of me i think im gonna hit 1 of the rock walls

I turn the DSC off for autocross and the track. I like having it on most of the time. When it kicks in it's kinda like the car tapping me on the shoulder saying, "We're pushing it a bit for public roads, aren't we?" ;)

I really like the idiots who, following their "oh shit there's my exit" moment, miss the exit only to pull onto the shoulder and BACK UP to the exit.

I JUST saw one of these the other day on I-75. The funniest part of it all was that he was almost a 1/2 mile past his exit. Low and behold, here he comes in reverse at a pretty good speed. Mind you, this was also during 3PM rush hour on an already over-populated 2-lane interstate.

I was about to call 911 to send for the ambulance right then...