Someone’s fitted traction control to my ‘2!

[proeliator2001]

My car is just about run in now so I decided to go and practice launch control and 0-60 times with the Gtech meter.  Well, I am seriously impressed with the mechanical grip of this car so much so that I found myself looking for a flashing traction control light somewhere on the dashboard convinced someone had sneakily fitted it.!!!

Even putting the revs to just under 4k and letting the clutch up as quickly as I dared it still wouldn't break traction.  The CTR I had before would spin its wheels in the wet with 3k and a fairly ginger throttle!  In the wet it would sit there spinning at 2k.  In 700 miles I've spun the MR2 wheels once.  How bloody good is that?

So, any tips on launch control then as I only broke 8 seconds to 60 once, which I think is pretty dismal.  Had been expecting low 7's but saying that, the engine often bogged down due to the grippy starts.  I did read that with Pots its best to go to 5k rpm – any other techniques?

[Tem]

Basically you have two choices.

1) Rev high enough so you can sidestep the clutch and have a little wheelspin without bogging the engine. IIRC, that's about 5k rpm and flooring the throttle when you release the clutch.

2) Keep the revs a bit lower, like 4k and feather the clutch so that you don't break traction. This makes a great launch once you get it right, but it will also kill your stock clutch in no time.


(the weight is on the rear wheels, so you will have tons of traction)

[Jap GT300]

Where you practicing in a super market carpark?  Many now have anti-skid tarmac.

They also have these at a lot of traffic lights and blackspots.  Try hand braking a front wheel drive car and it just sticks.

Mine always brakes traction at 4k

[ninjinski]

I have to say I really notice the new set-up on  my 04 compared to the 01 - Takes much more effort to get the back to slide on corners when u floor it compared to how the old car was. Pretty good now when driving hard but I do miss the easy break away when fooling around! I think my lowering spring set up is also helping traction too - overall a much better handling car is the 04, much better!

[proeliator2001]

I'm doing accel and braking tests on a quiet B road near me.  Fairly flat with long straight to make sure no one else is around plus no houses within earshot to annoy with wailing engines.

It just totally amazes me how well glued down the rear end is.  I expected a lot more slippy slidey antics by now but all I've had is some tyre squealing and understeer.

Saying that though, I'll give it 3000 miles till the grippy bit of the Pots have worn off then I'm sure I'll start having to steer through the side windows (same tyres as fitted to the CTR which I binned as soon as they wore out - great when new but terrible when old or in the wet).