A memo was sent at my office today that I though might be interesting to others. It talks about the effectiveness of DSC (ESC by industry name). I thought that the research might be interesting for other thinking about DSC or who already have it and want to know more about it.

The article states that from research and vehicle simulations they found that 34% more drivers could maintain control of their vehicle in the simulation with DSC than without. You can find the full article Here

This is published by the ESC Coalition, which is a joint effort from Bosch and Conti-Teves. (Conti-Teves makes the MINI DSC).

Their home page is http://www.esceducation.org

 

Interesting!

 

Thanks for the link. An interesting article, but I wish that it had provided more data.

 

Turning off the DSC is part of my pre-flight routine.

 

>>Thanks for the link. An interesting article, but I wish that it had provided more data.
>>

me too. I believe that in the next couple of years, there will be much more data, since in Europe the percentage of cars with DSC is very high thanks to the Mecedes A-Class.

 

For those of you interested in exactly how DSC works in BMWs and MINIs, there is a great descripion in the Bentley Manual for the BMW 3-series. I'm sure it will also be included in the Bentley Manual for the MINI (which, BTW, is due out this fall).

FWIW,

Theo

 

>>Turning off the DSC is part of my pre-flight routine.

 

>>>>Turning off the DSC is part of my pre-flight routine.

For Autocross, fair enough*...anything else, I leave it on.......

* when I don't forget to turn it off......AAAARGH did it TWICE last Sunday........

 

actually, this site (mentioned already) http://www.esceducation.org/ has quite a bit of data on ESC/DSC/whatever. Actually has some videos of with and without, very interesting.

 

>>>>Turning off the DSC is part of my pre-flight routine.

Interesting. Why did you waste $500 on a feature you're afraid to use? That's a nice pulley and intake.

 

I haven't had a chance to kick it in. What does it feel like? I know it can apply brakes indepenantly, or in combinations, as well as in combination with automatic deceleration, and I wouldn't think of turning it off right now. Maybe after I expeirence it, I'll dislike it? Sort of like ABS, but you can't turn that off.

Also, I thought it was to help reduce "skid"? I know there's this new thing called "drifting" where you actually want to cut loose, but other than that, even on the track, you want your tires to stay stuck. Skidding reduces momentum, and therefore speed? Sometimes, you have to decel to stay put on the track, and hold your line. If you skid out, you're off your line, and loose more time/speed re-tracking than letting a stability system take care of it for you.

Am I nuts?

 

>>I haven't had a chance to kick it in. What does it feel like? I know it can apply brakes indepenantly, or in combinations, as well as in combination with automatic deceleration, and I wouldn't think of turning it off right now. Maybe after I expeirence it, I'll dislike it? Sort of like ABS, but you can't turn that off.
>>

There is a bit of misconception about the difference between ASC and DSC. DSC waits until is senses the vehicle not following the line of driver input by applying brakes to one of the wheels to right the path. There are nice video albeit large on The ESC Coalition Website.

ASC is what annoys many racers. ASC looks at the driven wheels and senses when one looses traction and applies brakes to that wheel to shift the torque to the other wheel. At the same time, it trys to reduce the torque to the wheels by asking the engine to reduce torque. It is this which kicks in when you try to accelerate quickly on wet pavement, snow, ice or around a sharp corner that causes one wheel to lift slightly.