Is wheel hop a big issue with these cars or is mine just broken?
 

Hello everyone. Let me start by saying I got my 2016 Camaro SS a couple years ago, and this site has been a valuable resource for me for all things camaro related so thanks to everyone who contributes. This is the first time I have posted. My car is a bone stock SS manual. I have done many street pulls in Mexico and never experienced anything like what happened this past weekend at the track. So first I get there and air my rear tires down to 26 psi. They are BF Goodrich Sport Comp 2 AS. I know these are not the best tires, but its my daily year round so all seasons are the most practical for me. They work well enough for my HP level on the street. Anyway, I air them down, double tap the TC to go into competitive mode, drive around the water box, and stage. I was worried about potentially snapping an axle and not having car to get to work the next day so I left pretty conservatively. The car dead hooks and bogged so I'm able to mat the gas. The prep seemed pretty good and the car is hooked and pulling, but not as hard as it does on the street surprisingly. I get about 60 feet out mid way through 1st gear and the car violently starts shaking and there is a loud thunk thunk thunk sound coming from the rear of the car. I felt like it was coming from the diff/driveshaft/cradle area. I mean violent to the point I thought I broke something and got out of it. Once I realized it was ok I got back in it and it starts again. I made several more passes experimenting with every drive mode/traction control setting combination and all were the same way. Even put air back in the tires. Hooks, then shakes hard 60 feet out and pretty much the rest of the way down the 1/8 mile. It doesn't even feel like it's spinning to me to be honest. Just makes that loud thunking sound, shakes, and pulls power/stutters. By the way, I get the same thunk sound every time I no lift shift, but only once each time I release the clutch. Not repeatedly and never mid pull in a gear. Its always done thos and I assumed that was normal. I have a dragy device and my times on the track were WAY slower then I have ever had on the street even on the worst of roads. Car feels like its down 70 hp. You can see from the dragy pictures that it is significantly slower and these pulls were on the same day. Look at the acceleration G. The faster one is on the street. My questions are this:

1) Would wheel hop happen down track at stock power levels?

2) Would a more grippy bias ply drag tire make the situation better or worse since this has never happened with street levels of grip?

3) If it is wheel hop, does the car's ecu have some sort of wheel hop protection and pull power or does torque management intervene even with all nannies off?

Just my perception... and a couple of partial answers. The competitive mode will still allow some torque management. It allows wheel spin for a short duration before it tries to bring it under control. I've been told it has more to do with ESC kicking in than traction control... so getting slightly sideways will still activate some intervention by the car. Can turn it all off by holding the tc button for 10 seconds until the tc and esc lights come on.

I do not think that wheel hop is a huge issue for the cars in general. Only had a slight wheelhop slightly after launch last time I was out. This was on NT05's on a well glued track.

I would probably get under there and check all the suspension and mounts and ensure everythings tight. Sounds to me like something isn't right.

Thanks for the reply. I found out about the competitive mode after the first pass. It was giving me issues on the second pass when I tried to do a small burnout and it didn't like it. I did do the 10 second hold and turn everything off after that. Didn't make a difference with my issues on the track though. My gut tells me this a bushing or mount issue as well, but Im no expert by an means. This may sound like a dumb question so excuse my ignorance, but is it possible for the car to confuse the vibration and thunking with engine knock causing knock retard? Like I said, the car felt so down on power and was down 5 mph trap speed. I did pulls on the steet that night leaving the track on my way home and it felt normal again.

I would have to say no.... engine knock and retard would not create the sound you describe.

Hard to say what it could actually be. Let us know if you find out.

I’m not sure if this will help you or not, but when I first got my car and was trying to learn the no lift shift properly. I also heard and felt a thud sound from the back end. It was like something was kicking the car in the back. I found out that I was actually with out knowing letting off the gas a tiny bit when shifting. That caused the thud sound etc. When I did it completely without lifting my foot off the gas the thud went away and got the sound from the motor that the computer was working.

If you have a data logger like hptuners or something would be interesting to see what going on. The part that confuses me is shake and vibration for the first 1/8 mile but fine on the street. There is some kind of power hop (i think its called) control in tq mgmt, but not sure if that is cancelled by holding down tc or not.

I believe some form of torque management is still active even with traction/stability control fully disabled based on my experience in the video below. I got the flashing traction icon at the beginning in the PDR recording and felt the back of the car bouncing and a short cut to throttle even though I had traction/stability control fully disabled and didn't lift. For reference, the flashing traction icon has never appeared on my road course PDR recordings with traction/stability control disabled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icteXIHzAaE