Track Mode

[Matt27]

That's funny that they were saying it can somehow damage the car - think of how much damage we must have been doing to all of those cars we owned before the advent of TC, ESC, and PTM! I suspect they are telling students that for liability purposes - they want people to have at least some level of safety net. As proof that it's a liability thing, when I mentioned at Spring Mountain that I had discovered with my personal 5BW that I could feel Race 2 intervening sometimes, the instructors semi-jokingly asked me not to discuss that I had learned how to really turn everything all the way off in front of the class.

I do feel like my 4BW is still intervening even though I have seemingly turned everything off. If someone has the real way to make sure the nannies are off, I would appreciate hearing it.

It's a tricky line given with TC off the e-diff will still do its thing and steer power around aggressively. I've done a non-Spring Mountain wet skid pad and wet autocross day where all we did was slide for a few hours. Had everything off (or so I thought) and you can definitely still feel the back end hunting for traction sometimes.

 

[Melon]

That is how you're supposed to do it, but there is a warning in the manual about hard driving with traction control disabled. At Spring Mountain the instructors said GM engineers also told them the same thing. GM engineers recommended leaving the cars in Race 2 and not fully disabling TC.


View attachment 34003

I can imagine with the IRS and proper tires you can get bad wheel hop.

 

[jvp]

I can imagine with the IRS and proper tires you can get bad wheel hop.

The first gen CTS-V had that horribly. It was solved for the second and successive gens with a diff update and half-shafts. That doesn't happen any longer.

 

[Melon]

The first gen CTS-V had that horribly. It was solved for the second and successive gens with a diff update and half-shafts. That doesn't happen any longer.

Right, I remember all the differential bracing that was required on the Getrag unit. Similar to the S2000 diff issues.

That's the only thing I can think of that would cause damage, other than excessive heat.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

Bringing back this thread because I am confused about something I think I am experiencing in my '26 4BW that does not occur in my '24 5BW.

With the 5BW, I hit V button (with PTM Race 2) then hold down TC button until the light comes on and that definitely turns everything all the way off and you can spin the car into oblivion if you want.

But with my 4BW, when I do the same process, under certain very brisk low speed cornering (sub 50mph), if I need to tighten the line like at the end of a freeway underpass U-turn lane, I swear I am feeling a front brake drag. As if maybe the car is detecting a slight understeer and trying to correct it.

So my question is: is there a slightly different process for freeing the 4BW from the nannies? What is the right way to turn all Stabilitrak and Traction Control all the way off?

What you're looking for is "competitive mode", which is engaged by putting the car in Sport (not PTM sport, just Sport mode) and pressing the traction control button twice about 1 second apart. You will be rewarded with this screen, and I believe all traction and stability control are turned off.