Traction Control

[Thundersports]

Having thoroughly enjoyed my first taste of the British Hillclimb Championship at Prescott one thing puzzled me; The big single seaters are using traction control. Why is it permitted? Is it safety?

[Woolley]

It's a very open formula, hillclimb is very open to technology of all kinds. I imagine policing it would be difficult as well.

If I'm correctly informed, a certain F1 team's TC software was tested on a hillclimb car long before it was used in F1.

[midgetman]

Speed events are fantastic as the last bastion of the home engineer. Single seater with an engine that you just happen to have lying around? No problem. What about a jet engine in a Clubmans car? Par for the course.

It all makes TC on the big cars look pretty simple and long may it remain. Love it, such a refreshing change from "spec racing" on circuits.

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[Tel 911S]

What a lot of people do not know is that maximum grip for accelerating , cornering or braking comes when there is a certain amount of tyre slip across the road surface .This can be something like 10% on dry tarmac , up to 20% odd on other surfaces .
Road going traction control is no good for competition use as it does not allow hardly any slip factor .
There are special competition ones made , which are being improved for various uses , and are getting better , but still not as good as a top driver who is looking ahead and seeing bumps, water , gravel etc and adjusting for it before it happens , which is something the computer cannot do .
Couple of examples --- Audi tried an ABS and traction control on the Scottish Rally a few years ago . It was totally useless .
Another one was the Peugeot works car on Pikes Peak . Over several practice runs they adjusted the various settings to try for the best time . Then Seb Loeb went a lot quicker than the computer said was possible .
So a good driver is still probably better than any computer controlled system .

[midgetman]

Good point well made, Tel. Even at my meagre "Standard Class" level I have been known to rip the ABS fuse out and regain control.

Even on the road ABS and TC are a bloody nuisance in slippery weather.

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[Tel 911S]

[QUOTE=midgetman;4235693]Good point well made, Tel. Even at my meagre "Standard Class" level I have been known to rip the ABS fuse out and regain control.

Even on the road ABS and TC are a bloody nuisance in slippery weather.


Thinking back to a Top Gear from years ago . Clarkson was going for a hot lap on their test track , when he was starting he said , " Right , traction control off ".
I did think that some people might wonder why he did that and check up why that should make it quicker .

[flatlandsman]

If you watch a lot TS, you will see it as just a thing that is done, even the smallest of bike classes will invariably use it. 180hp in a car weighing that little with coldish tyres is always likely to need TC off the line.

I would also that every car I see uses paddle shift now, and a very basic form of electronics or a more complex version is pretty much in all cars that have some power.

In the top class it is really obvious not so much lesser down, only being really obvious at the start, and the best guys use less of it than others as they a re more skilled.

But you do notice more gearchanguing now as a result, instead of Roy Lanes two speeds at Shelsley style using torque over electronics in his day.