Well the govt wants in everything...but that is another topic.



I honestly don't think this is any malicious attacks at tuners and racers, I would bet the regulators of this don't even know what brake stands or heel-toeing is. This is for those dumb drivers that panic and hit both pedals and drive into building and such. Like lady driver that drove her BWM on top of that one car and then tried to drive away in Canada I think it was. Or the many femail drivers cought on tape edging forward and then all of a sudden flooring it into buildings... I think I have seen like 5 vids of femail drivers in teh past year doing this. And no I'm not sexist, just saying what I see.....



But I think this is for those types, so when both are pressed, the brake overrides the gas.

 

For the Focus the ESC always FREAKED out if I would get the tail out even a little. It's way of solving this was to hit the brakes for me. I was at the extreme limit of what the Focus was capable of, so hitting the brakes meant that I went straight off of the road instead of doing a slightly cool semi-drift around the corner. Pulling the e-brake also made it very unhappy.



While the ESC was intervening I had effectively no control of anything but the steering. Throttle was cut, and I don't think I tried the brakes, because applying the brakes would be counterproductive.



I did not have extra insurance on the rental, but they didn't notice the damage when I returned it. It wasn't too bad considering.

 

This is unfortunate that it happened to you and nice that you got out of it, but not to kick a guy while he is down... I think ESC works better than many give credit, you just have ot know how to use it. Meaning getting back out on that wet parking lot and re-learnign it. Most ESC's try to staighten you out....relative ot the steering wheel. If you were half drifting in a left turn, your steering wheel was most likely right of the road, so ESC used it brakes independantly to 'correct' your car where you where pointing your wheels, so it sounds like it worked well, you just weren't expecting it to work as well and were attempting to 'drive' the car out of it as opposed to letting the car drive you out of it.



In the futue if you do try this in a parking lot try to steer out, no accel, no brakes, just steer where the road is and let the ESC brake indipendatly and it will get you there. Accel would jack it up further and tha is why it disables it, and braking isn't the best thing either, as it needs to have full control of each wheel braking some wheels, and letting other wheels spin to get int back into control.



Though it works surprisingly well, it is quite hard to break the habbit of steering and driving the car out of a spin or slip. But tradition driving doesn't mix well at all with ESC. As in this situation, if you didn't have ESC ans steered ot the left, you would have done a 180 and flew off the road backwards or sideways and flipping. But with ESC, steering left (towards the road) would have put you stopped, right on the road. Without ESC steering right and giving it some gas would have drifted you right down the road fine. With ESC and steering right put you straight right off the road.

 

So we have to learn how to drive around the crippleware installed on cars?



Thanks, I think I'll keep my manual-everything controls.

 

I can't wait to see how these electrocomplex components hold up over the years,



never did i think automakers would go plug in crazy like mercedes and bmw.



my biggest pet peeve is that some drive by wire throttle cars dont have the tapping sensitivity of cable throttle..

 

I am very familiar with how ESC systems work. It was a left turn. I was at 100% of tire grip in the front, slightly beyond it in the rear. I was steering slightly left of center of the road, and intended to overcome front grip with a little application of throttle to have the car a few inches from the shoulder traveling parallel to the centerline. This is within my car control capabilities. Even touching the brakes, at all, exceeded the available traction of the tires. Sure, a Focus isn't designed to do what I was doing. I was on a narrow road and my intended line was going to put me near the gravel shoulder on the right side of the road after touching the apex on the left hand corner so veering me a few feet right of where I should have been was enough to put me on the gravel shoulder with no grip.



ESC systems can't defeat physics. There wasn't enough grip to go to anything but the cornering and it did fairly aggressive braking which put me through a fence and into a field.



If you're just driving along and something happens, for most drivers ESC is better than not having ESC. But, if you're pushing the car best case scenario it was annoying, worst case it makes you crash. It would not be possible to race this car in any way without defeating the ESC.

 

I hate it when the ABS fuse falls out, it's a big shame because it disables all of these wonderful systems...

 

Right you are! I LOVE my throttle response 68mm BBTB with Airram. Instant.



I drove a few of these new cars and I'm wondering why what's really so new about them mechanically (not safety, comfort, or electronic)? They keep adding these unnecessary gadgets.

 

This is kind of a misnomer. That delay is a build in 'safety' function. Since the fuel isn't carb'd ('regulated' automatically with air intake) and you have to sense how much air to add the fuel, this delay is just to make sure you are reading it right and don't blow your engine. But many aftermarket companies can give you 1:1 throttle response and it is just as quick as a cable. EFI, is so much better in terms of fuel efficiency and tuning and upgradng so much easier, and DBW is a far better option, as long as you have the ability to tune it to your liking, it will ensure a longer lasting more efficient engine. the biggest drawback is the fixing it if it breaks as it isn't mechanicle, you have to have access to the computers that control it which can be expensive at first. They both have their pros and cons.



Cables/linkages have been known to get stuck too, it isn't just DBW that has gone wonky with unintended accel.



I would personally take a 2012 mustang v6 over a 1985 mustang v8 lol. Sure they might have a that .1ms better response time, but then you leave it in the dust while getting better mpgs.

 

i guess i'm the conservative old fashioned, i will always prefer mechanical over computers.



funny thing is my xg350 had the delayed dbw while other xg's i driven didn't have the delayed problem.