not sure how any of you guys have issues with T/C lol...legit, maybe get rid of that crappy diff MB put in, it's pretty sloppy compared to other ones. i run on the lowest profile tires on the forum and my car hooks up with ESP OFF in the snow...i rarely loose traction even with ESP off, it just launches forward like crazy

btw with ESP off its still 10-15% on, you need to go into dyno mode to completely disable it to 0%

 

In my opinion (and experience) some slip angle is faster than no slip angle.

Usually it is faster to keep the ABS from kicking in as most ABS are not set up for ultimate lap times and will release the brakes a bit too much. But beating the ABS is no small feat. Many drivers over the years argued to be able to beat the ABS stopping distance very few can. Not only that, but without ABS it is really easy to flat spot the tires. But most of the great drivers cars have the ABS kicking in to the oblivious driver who just think he is good.

Out of a corner I believe some slip is faster than no slip. Of course, the smoke in the fenders type of wheelspin is not fast. There is a fine line between not enough slip and too much. It all depends on the speed/type and roughly maximizing overall speed.

The main reason I always turn my esp off on the track is because the stupid system won't let you throttle lift oversteer. So imagine you're in a bit too hot in a corner (in a student car) and you're washing wide a little. No big deal really. Now you just lift the throttle a bit to get the rear to slip and realign the car in a perfect line out of the corner and then the stupid $%&*&? system kicks in and puts your nose towards the Armco on the outside of the corner instead of nicely pointed towards the exit point! Yep. No biggie, didn't crash or anything. It's just that ESP will prevent some actions that could be done to help the car turn. The system always assume you want to go straight and acts accordingly.

It happened to me once some 7-8 years ago and never ever run with the ESP/DSC on ever again. Stupid stupid system on a race track. Okayish for the average joe on the street. I believe sport should be the default mode as it at least leave some space for line correction. Full off is good if you know how to drive.

 

We're not talking about professional race car drivers here - we'e talking about overpowering the tire adhesion limit during acceleration, and the solution to that is to get on the throttle more slowly. Yes, nowadays I do turn consistent laps, but it took me ~15 years to get there, and it wasn't until the last three or so that I learned from someone who really knew their stuff well (actually it was from the chief instructor - ex- F1, WTCC, Le Mans and ALMS racer - at one of the advanced AMG Driving Academy courses) and with the help of telemetry analysis that wrestling with the car at the limit is considerably SLOWER than driving it smoothly. I used to do exacly what you do now for many years, thinking that that's how it's done, and that chewing up a set of tires, cooking the brakes or in the C63 overheating the oil was the norm. It was only fairly recently that an expert who was pacing me for many pals and and watching how quickly I got on and off the throttle and brakes on the telemetry data that I realized that going around the track his way was three seconds a lap quicker than they way I went around it, and there were no issues with chewed up tires, overheated brakes or engine oil, and the TC didn't even come on once (including a morning on a very wet track). Despite your belief - and until recently my own - you are overpowering the tires. Get on the throttle more smoothly. The TC/ESP does NOT interfere in any way, shape or form unless you're really pushing *way* beyond the limit.

 

The basic rule of race car driving is "smooth is fast". When I am competing, I try to be as smooth as possible. But when I'm just trying to have fun during practice, I hang that mother out as much as possible, lol.