[FlukeSS]

Originally Posted by Dynamical

In your view, (or whoever knows ) what is the best mode for someone at the drag strip, with a drag pack and wants all the power and best shifting that can be had in the A10. I only have sport mode (LT1) but the modes confuse me as to what they exactly do. Because I don't have track mode, am I missing out on full power or shifting? Or is the track mode vs sport more of a suspension thing?
I have it in sport, all nannies off with drag pack when going down the 1/4 but I'm still a newbie to these cars.

LT1's are a little bit of red headed stepchildren in drag racing, they are slightly lighter weight than their SS ZL1 Brothers, but as you mentioned lack driving modes to some extent.

Power wise & shifting you are not missing anything, in fact LT1's are going to be faster than SS's and SS1LE's at relative power levels due to weight differences. Its basically a V6 body with a V8 Engine without all the bells and whistles. However, the SS and SS1LE's will be better at track courses than LT1's due to cooling system differences. But for Drag racing, these cars do not need 3 radiators, one is enough.

Bare in mind gear ratios differ between models, and M6 cars. M6's use 3.73 gears if I remember right, while the LT1 uses a 2.73? and I think the SS uses a 2.85 and I think it varies further between 1LE's and non 1LE? Other people can chime in on those specifics. But gears will change how the A10 performs as well especially at low end.

Ideally weight transfer is important, but and if I'm not mistaken you won't get that on your LT1 until you do aftermarket rear end improvements, specifically one piece axle kits, and suspension. These kits allow you to beef up strength of the rear end for high horsepower applications, and actually encourages weight transfer front to back to a higher degree than stock rear end and suspension. Reduction in wheel hop on drag packs for example is one bonus resulting from that rear end and suspension upgrades.

But big difference between Sport and Track for non MRC is strictly throttle response, amount of pedal to reach WOT. It takes less pedal to reach WOT in sport mode, so if that is all you have, you shouldn't have a problem, it's just a different way to drive.

On MRC cars though Sport, Track and Touring are vastly different as they do involve suspension changes. I think in general, Track has a harder suspension setting since turning performance is more involved. Sport is more of an in between Track and Touring, where little bit light on suspension but stiffer than touring which is more for normal driving and better mpg.

Touring tries to lower your RPM's as much and as quickly as possible - Hence better mpg, than sport or track. Sport and track hold high rpm's longer before shifting if you let off the gas, and performance shift pretty much does the same thing but more aggressively holding higher rpm's because the car thinks its play time and letting off the gas won't be a common occurrence.

In terms of shifting performance, do not use paddle shifters regardless of how many people tell you that you should. The A10 is an amazing transmission and no human can shift better than the A10, and there is a measurable delay in shifting with paddle shifters.

The only time you should be using manual mode and/or paddles shifter is when doing your waterbox burn out or maybe racing on a track course.

That said however, You cannot do a 2nd gear pull on the A10, the trans won't let you shift to 2nd with paddle shifters, once your tires are spinning and you rev the RPM's up higher then you can, but you cannot do a 2nd gear launch in the A10 unless you leave it in 2nd after the burn out if I am not mistaken. Having said that, you are in 2nd gear from a dig in the A10, again DO NOT use paddle shifters, the moment you hit the gas move the stick back to Drive, and let the A10 do what it does best.

Roll racing - Performance Shift mode you'll want to learn how to use that as it is relative to the speed of the vehicle. To enable performance shift at say 50mph, slam the gas pedal to the floor and immediately let off the gas, the car will auto down shift to the lowest possible gear relative to speed and hold it for 7 seconds. Switch stick to manual to continue holding that gear, and as soon as you hit the gas move it back to Drive and let the A10 do its thing.

As it pertains to Drag Racing in particular, I've tried with all nannies off, in sport, and track, ultimately I use track, and I do not turn all nannies off for one reason. Stabilitrak keeps the car going straight, which is something turning all nannies off will not be present. So you fish tailing out of control 90 degrees and slamming into a wall is a consideration with all nannies off. (Knowing when to let off the gas is important with all nannies off.) However, with a drag pack, it might be better to have all nannies off without stabilitrak. I still haven't jumped on a drag pack yet, but want to.

When I drag race at the strip I only double tap TC off which leaves stabilitrak on (keeps the car going straight) I find these cars can work just fine with stabilitrak on and it is safer in general. I hit my best time recently in a 1/4 with Track + Stabilitrak at 11.900 with a 1.9xx 60 foot on street tires. Of course 2 weeks later my engine locked up, still working on getting that taken care of. But, I should be able to do something about it by the end of October.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by FlukeSS

On MRC cars though Sport, Track and Touring are vastly different as they do involve suspension changes. I think in general, Track has a harder suspension setting since turning performance is more involved. Sport is more of an in between Track and Touring, where little bit light on suspension but stiffer than touring which is more for normal driving and better mpg.

I find that MRC is one of the more difficult things really wrap one's head around.

There are two main components to the suspension at each corner - a spring and a shock [absorber]. The spring will impact how much force is required to cause it to compress / how much force it expands with while the shock controls how quickly that compression / expansion actually occurs. The way that a shock does this is predominantly through forcing a viscous liquid through baffles inside of the shock.

You can think of the baffles sort of like a colander (strainer) with holes in it. In a non-MRC car, you get plain old shock fluid. In an MRC car, however, the viscosity of the fluid is influenced through electric charge which create a magnetic field inside of the shock. Different charges and magnetic fields result in 'effectively' different viscosities within the same fluid.

Tour is like pouring water through your colander - it's the least viscous and can move the most easily from one side of the shock to the other. Sport is more like pancake batter - it's thicker and will take more pressure / impact to force it through the holes. Track is like molasses in the winter - it will go through the holes but not without a LOT of pressure to do so.

How easily and quickly the fluid can move from one side of the baffle to the other is what determines the damping rate and the overall "feel" on the road. Tour is going feel softer because it can much more easily absorb minor bumps and such on the roadway. Track transfers the feeling of variances in the roadway to the driver more simply because the suspension absorbs much less of it.

[Gunkk]

Originally Posted by ember1205

Why can't I have TWO auto-volume settings in my convertible? One that's compatible with having the top up and one that's compatible with having the top down? The volume increase requirements are different due to wind noise...

I hear ya. But I have never had a single car that had any speed sensitive auto-volume setting that I preferred over just using the knob or buttons on the steering wheel. This includes two variations of the 1st gen Genesis sedan with the brilliant 17 speaker Lexicon rig as well as the ZL1 and it's Bose upgrade. None of them were/are quiet enough at the slow end for me to not be "that guy" at the stop light. So two sets of a sh!t feature would just be more sh!t that I would never use.



OP: wet/snow mode will reduce torque. The rest are all throttle maps as described above. Track=linear, Tour=somewhat nonlinear, Sport=most nonlinear.

[dting22]

Originally Posted by ember1205

I find that MRC is one of the more difficult things really wrap one's head around.

I know the manual says that MRC is in "Touring" dampening when in both Touring and Snow/Ice driving mode. However, I have noticed that when I'm going over rough tarmac, as we get here in New England, I get a slightly smoother ride when I switch to Snow/Ice mode than Touring. If I switch to Sport or Track, I can feel the fillings in my teeth coming loose when driving over that same section of road at the same speeds.

Now, is it my imagination, or does MRC in Snow/Ice actually soften the suspension (decrease the dampening) more than in Touring? Or perhaps I'm just imagining things because the Snow/Ice mode is attenuating the throttle enough that I don't feel the road bumps?

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by dting22

I know the manual says that MRC is in "Touring" dampening when in both Touring and Snow/Ice driving mode. However, I have noticed that when I'm going over rough tarmac, as we get here in New England, I get a slightly smoother ride when I switch to Snow/Ice mode than Touring. If I switch to Sport or Track, I can feel the fillings in my teeth coming loose when driving over that same section of road at the same speeds.

Now, is it my imagination, or does MRC in Snow/Ice actually soften the suspension (decrease the dampening) more than in Touring? Or perhaps I'm just imagining things because the Snow/Ice mode is attenuating the throttle enough that I don't feel the road bumps?

I have lived in New England my whole life and driven roads through every one of the six states plenty of times. Seldom have I come across roads that are genuinely "nice" to drive on in terms of the overall smoothness of the surface, so I totally understand your comments. Still, my car is ALWAYS in Sport mode and I never experience the "teeth rattling" sort of experience that you're referring to. I'm still running the OEM tires, too.

As far as your question on possible additional damping on the MRC in Snow/Ice - dunno. With the M6, the throttle is just too slow on the uptake off of the line to be anything but frustrating to deal with so I never even use Tour mode...