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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Traction control, RWD, handling and the wet


TrickTT

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has anyone on here ever lost it because RLTC has made things worse for them rather than better?

 

that's kinda what is being suggested on here, I wonder if there is any evidence of it because there are loads of cases where it has helped out (and lets face it we are only going to hear about the crashes not the times when something like RLTC silently went about its job and saved what could have turned nasty).

 

remember RLTC doesn't cut all the power (like stock TC), only enough to keep traction. So if you are in the slide you have enough power to get the car balanced again - it will just stop you adding too much power and spining the wheels up even more and making things worse - this is a good thing not a bad thing!

 

of course everyone should concentrate 100% all of the time (although how many people can maintain 100% race mode concentration all of the time? It's very tiring after an hour or twos driving)

 

nethertheless, whatever the case accidents happen and anyone who thinks it could never happen to them is a fool tbh

 

couldn't agree more that you still need to know how to drive and handle the car first though. RLTC is something to help stop you get into the situation when unexpected things happen - but you can still find yourself in a slide for other reasons and when that happens you have to know how to deal with it, there are no effective gadgets for that - except the one in your head :)

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Chilli - I'm not trying to discredit RLTC, I'm just trying to show people that fitting a TC system is not the simple answer to stopping a car from sliding. There are arguments on boths sides of the dibate which hold a lot of weight. But by putting 100% reliability on a TC system when driving can be dangerous way of thinking/driving.

 

I'd be interested to know how does RLTC control power delivery through the LSD ? Is it an even distribution or is it a logic distribution (similar to how the logic ABS works?) Or is it all done with the LSD ignored, and left to do its own job as its separate device?

 

I'd say a good LSD would work better than electrical power cut/application method, but thats just my own opinion. But saying that though the new electrical LSDs that Ferrari use (eDIFF) are said to be the best set up, which is a form of electrically controlled power application.

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I'd be interested to know how does RLTC control power delivery through the LSD ? Is it an even distribution or is it a logic distribution (similar to how the logic ABS works?) Or is it all done with the LSD ignored, and left to do its own job as its separate device?

 

Er, it's only wired up to the ABS sensors and the fuel injectors... Plus the diff is mechanical. There are a lot of configuration things you can do but basically if it detects the rear wheels going lots faster than the fronts then it cuts injectors. It may sound simple but it's very flexible and knows when you are turning and so forth.

 

It's also very very effective. You can still get lateral sliding in the wet though so you've gotta have your wits about you at all times. Drive like it's not there and you can't go far wrong.

 

I can't believe we haven't got any "Real Men Don't Use Traction Control" heroes posting up yet :D

 

-Ian

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Trouble with that is, you lose about half your grip in the wet - so just when you need the traccy control, it's a far lazier response as you are spinning up well before your preset parameters...

 

That's the way I see it anyway - does it work that way?

 

-Ian

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Trouble with that is, you lose about half your grip in the wet - so just when you need the traccy control, it's a far lazier response as you are spinning up well before your preset parameters...

 

That's the way I see it anyway - does it work that way?

 

-Ian

 

Are you refering to the AEM or something else?

 

If its the AEM then you can setup a dash mounted adjustment similar to the RLTC, you can turn the sensitivity up and down on the fly. I think it would be pretty pointless without this.

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Brief description of how RL actually works...

 

The system monitors all four wheel speeds via the ABS wheel signal lines.

If the RL unit detects a predetermined variance in wheel speeds, (Adjustable via the dial on the dashboard, ie 10% and three percentage 'cut tables' in the sofware), it will then start cutting out one injector to every four fired, for it's first 'cut' sequence. If the wheel speeds are greater, it will then begin it's second cut sequence, which it to prevent one injector opening, to every three fired. If the wheel speeds are even greater, it will then remove one opening every other injector.

 

In other words, say you were travelling at 100 mph, and the RL noticed the rear wheels were moving at 130mph, it would instigate 'hard', then 'meduim', then 'soft' injector cut until the wheels were spinning at the percentage set by the dash adjuster. (10%=110mph).

 

Soft = 111101111011110

Medium = 1110111011101110

Hard = 1010101010101010

 

About five of years back, I did a trackday in York. In the morning, it was nice and dry with sunshine and a cool breeze. I was getting low 13's on the dragstrip. Later in the afternoon, it started pooring with rain. My quarter mile times went up to high 13's. That's got to be a good testomony to how well it works in the rain.

 

As for Clarksons opinions. In the recent GT4 vs Cosworth video, Jeremy says, "I usually look forward to driving a Toyota with the same enthusiasm as a visit to the dentist" - So, if we all believed everything he said, we'd be selling our Supra's right now ;)

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Are you refering to the AEM or something else?

 

If its the AEM then you can setup a dash mounted adjustment similar to the RLTC, you can turn the sensitivity up and down on the fly. I think it would be pretty pointless without this.

 

Yeah, the AEM. I didn't know there was an adjuster - yes it would be pretty pointless without it :) Still sounds like a bugger to set up though, I do like the fire-and-forget nature of RLTC.

 

-Ian

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Having driven an EVO with active YAW control unless you are a complete nob I find them very difficult to crash. Tell it what to do and it does it. Hammer them into a corner and they always seem to come out of it the other end :D

 

You can't defy physics.

 

On a related note, if you stacked it & the accident investigators saw that you had turned your TC/RLTC off prior to the accident, would that have any effect on the outcome of a payout?

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