Thoughts from the Curb

Nov 14, 2008 - Safety First?

(photo by these guys at CafePress.)

Stability control is mandatory on all cars as of 2012. Mandatory computer interference on all cars--think about it. Stability Control goes by many names DSC, VSC, VDC, stabilitrak but they're all essentially the same: They detect your steering angle, wheel speed, and some figure out your slip angle and gauge what you're doing to fix it, then it jabs the brakes in a controlled manner to keep you on track, facing forward and facing right-side-up. It sounds great until it bites you....try accelerating from a stop while turning right. Traction control hates steering imput, on good systems you'll just get a slap on the wrist for turning, bad systems will cut throttle. Real fun if you're attempting to merge into traffic.

I remember the first really fast car I drove. It was a 4th gen trans-am and it was also the first car that I'd ever driven. The owner (a distant relative) told me to floor it. It'd be fun, he said. I crammed my foot into the carpet and the car pivoted on its central axis as a concrete wall whirred past my windshield. I lived and the car was fine. But I learned something that day that kept me going through the snowey winters and rainy, leaf-strewn fall: cars are dangerous and the throttle pedal needs to be respected lest you really want to be tossed about in circles. I learned, as did every other driver previous to today, how to modulate the throttle to control wheelspin, even using it as an aid to reduce lag-- or have some fun. But why learn when a computer can do it for you? Let's do away with math class while we're at it. We've got calculators. History? Screw that, we've got wikipedia. And as far as the basics, do we really need to walk anymore? Really?

The upside to mandatory traction control is fewer stupid accidents. (I know it's saved me at least once.) The downside is more people who won't learn their lessons at low speeds but when the limits of traction control have been eclipsed and not even a super computer could save their bacon.

Thanks, but no thanks. Let's bring the art, and the fear, of driving back. If the government wants to make stability control mandatory, they should put a bit of reasonable fear back in people and make seatbelts illegal.

...well, maybe that last bit's going a bit far....

-mike magrath

2:58 pm | Categories: car news commentary, thoughts from magrath Comments (3) | Permalink | Alert Administrator

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Nov 13, 2008 - Where's the skill?

Where's the pride in driving? It seems that there's only a few of us left who regard driving as a persuit worthy of perfecting. It's not about clipping apexes or maintaining a dramatic slip angle; it's about care and dedication and, to a certain extent, ego.

How many times in the last week have you seen something stupid on the road? Either a botched lane-change, rash indecision or a paniced and needless brake application. My guess is so frequently that you've lost count. I know I have. It's rare these days to see a confident paralell parking job. A smooth acceleration. A decisive lane-change. Things that require thought, skill and execution. It's rarer still to see any of these things come from a driver who isn't obviously one of us.

Sure, there's nothing to be gained from driving well. And even your passengers may not notice that you've perfected downshifting and braking to a level where the water won't spill from a full cup sitting on the dash. But we'll notice, and most importantly you'll notice, and you'll know that you've done something because anything worth doing is worth doing well.

-mike magrath

3:04 pm | Categories: driving adventures, thoughts from magrath Comments (1) | Permalink | Alert Administrator

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