CaddyInfo Cadillac Chat 2013-12-19

[Bruce Nunnally]

Tonight's chat link:

 

Q&A on the event page -- where you can enter questions while we are live chatting.

https://plus.google.com/events/cu1tt45namc5npnsbuod1cbj3k0

[Cadillac Jim]

Regarding one topic that came up - a launch button for the CTS-V: I said in the telecon that I didn't think that the CTS-V needed one, but wasn't prepared to talk about it in any detail. Here's my thinking.

When I had the car back in the Philly area for just a few weeks, I made a right-on-red and someone who had been whizzing along at well over the speed limit came up behind me and honked. Startled and not yet acclimated to the car, I floored it. Yes, it fishtailed a bit but it neatly snapped the car up to well over the speed limit, at which time I adjusted to the situation as safety and prudence demanded.

In the default ("touring") settings for the suspension, TCS, ABS, Stabilitrak (the GM name for electronic stability control, or ESC), and transmission, you have settings that perform all the functions needed in a launch button, and better, because there is no perceptible on-off switching as you see in videos of people using launch buttons on Corvettes and other cars. And it's there in any time you need it, no action or thought required. I think that's a safety feature; it certainly was for me.

What happens if you turn the wheel??? I don't have anything first-hand to say about that because my driving instincts prevent me from doing that. But we have seen videos, at least one posted here, where people with a CTS-V on a race track nail it while the wheel is turned and the car just turns sideways, half a wide fish-tail, and stays that way until the driver releases the accelerator, a limit of excess apparently controlled by the ESC, even in its "track" setting.

If a turn or curve is required during acceleration, you can do far better by easing the accelerator down to just under the limit of traction, then turning the wheel very slightly, at which time the whole car will turn; my reflexes straighten the wheel as the car points where I want it to point. Then you can add a tiny bit of throttle to the limit of traction again.

If you want to, you can turn off TC and ESC. I don't recommend it except for expendable cars and trained test drivers in off-road situations. Check your owner's manual for how to do this. I prefer the "sport" setting for the suspension and transmission but to leave alone the ABS, TCS, and ESC. Those settings are for of-road situations in my thinking.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Launch control only helps with getting off the line straight ahead to a standard. As you argued well in the video chat a skilled driver can almost always 'beat' the computer time. The launch system is targeted at the average driver or the driver less familiar with the car's nuances.

[airmike]

The launch control is without a doubt an advantage in my opinion. It would take a certain amount of practice, and adjustment from surface to surface. If you were at the track doing bracket racing, which I assume the car is not actually made for, but some will be doing. On any road, lets say you wanted to drag race a loud car, you can not use the sound of your car anymore to assume your rpm is where you are expecting it. Now you will need to look at the tach, well you can't be watching the tach and the road and the person setting you off, or the lights if at the track. I have been in that situation where you can't hear your car, and it is very easy to blow up the tires. You drop the clutch and can't hear if you were a little too high on the rpm or low, in which case you have already lost a close race. Of course if you are on an unfamiliar surface it is going to take a few practice launches to find the correct rpm, but once found you can concentrate on getting the best reaction time. I would admit, off by yourself, just playing or practicing, the launch control may not or probably not even get you the best 60 ft time. But with the money on the line and having found the correct rpm I want launch control to allow me to concentrate on reaction time.