I just experienced an interesting happening.. We have had moderate rain all day here in New York.. The town I live in has a lot of hills.. As I was about to go down a steep hill (wet and covered with leaves) My car started to slip sideways.. It was the first time I saw the slip light come on.. I let up on the gas and was able to make it down OK.. I just got home and discovered there was an bad oil slick on that hill.. It's now closed after 4 accidents which had to happen a few minutes after I went down.. I believe if I didn't have VDC and Traction control, I would have smashed the car into either a tree or other parked car.. 2 of the accidents were late model cars hitting trees after skiding on the wet, oily surface.. I'm very glad I ordered the touring model with all these slick options.. They worked for me..

As I type this, my scanner is on and there is a report of a car upside down on the hill after failing to stop at the request of the police!!

Steve (k2we) Dobbs Ferry, NY

Touring/6MT/KY0/Side air bags & mats 3015 miles in 7 weeks!!

 

hmmm that is cool. tho for reference to those that dont know, if your car loses traction, dont hit the brakes at all, roll through it. you can actually get better traction if you dont make your tires move you in the front or back direction, but actually just keep a constant speed.

good to hear you didnt bang up your Z tho.

 

Watch out for leaves. They act like little oil patches.

 

i believe what ares is saying is that if you hit the brakes on a slippery surface you will lose control because of this :

wheel stop quicker because not as much friction keeping them rotating. wheels lock (even w/ abs) but cannot regain rotation because the surface is slick, your basically sliding..
if you did not hit the brakes and just turn your wheels to control your car, what little traction it does still have (remember static friction is stronger than kinetic (moving friction) ) can be used to control the car.

your car has static friction even though its moving because at any one time (under normal straightline driving conditions) the tire is relatively positioned with the road, the two surfaces do not move against one another, but as the wheel rotates it propels the car forwards.. thats why your outter circum of the wheel = distance traveled after 1 wheel revolution

 

I have a Touring also but can't find the TCS button. Do the Touring models have it? All I see is VDC.

 

it's one button for both VDC and TCS, despite what the owners manual might say.

 

I was driving my car up hill and around a corner in wet leaves last tuesday when the TCS kicked in. I thought I had broke something. The car deacclerated very quickly and tossed me foward into the seatbelt. I had to laugh when I saw the yellow light flashing. Then I read about someone up north who was caught in rain that turned into snow. Their car spun into the barriers at about 10mph. Now I wonder if his TCS kicked in and caused him to swap ends. Has anybody else experanced a sudden deaccelration at low speeds when the TCS kicks in?