Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

Since I'm a brave and crazy Canuck I went and test drove the car on nice snow covered roads to experiment how the car and its electronics would react under different situations. Montreal and its surroundings have been getting its fair share of snow lately. Road conditions varied from hard packed snow type roads to loose snow type snow covered roads. Since I'm not an expert, my conclusions <b>may be wrong</b>. Oversteer under some conditions was minimal at best if any. However it was very wild under other conditions. Please read on.

I always drive with my ESP switched to the <b>OFF</b> position. So this little amount of testing was done to show that even with the ESP in the <b>OFF</b> position under certain conditions it might come back on and intervene.

<b>Scenario #1:</B>

- ESP = OFF
- Gas pedal = full power!
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while accelerating at full
- power.

What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by abruptly giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of pylons 50' apart.

Conclusion of this little test; no ESP intervention even if the car was fish tailing from side to side or power sliding to some interesting drift angles.


<b>Scenario #2:</b>

- ESP = OFF
- Gas pedal = idle (coasting)
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while decelerating.

What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by abruptly giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of pylons 50' apart.

Conclusion of this little test; no ESP intervention even if the car could be swayed from side to side gently. After every wheel input the tail end could be made to easily oversteer put could be brought right back by counter steering.


<b>Scenario #3:</B>

- ESP = OFF
- Gas pedal = idle
- Brake = full on with <b>full ABS</b> intervention.
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while decelerating.

What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by abruptly giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of pylons 50' apart.

Conclusion of this little test; ESP intervention? Hard to tell when full ABS is on, but most likely. The car came to a fast and controlled stop remaining under full control with the tail end more planted, no oversteer.


<b>Scenario #4:</B>

- ESP = OFF
- Gas pedal = idle
- Brake = full on with <b>no ABS</b> intervention.
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while decelerating.


What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by abruptly giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of pylons 50' apart.

Conclusion of this little test; ESP intervention? <b>YES</b>. The car slowed down fast and was under control. This time it was different. The ABS pump would only kick in when the sharp wheel inputs were given and unlike the previous test, not all wheels would get the ABS braking impulse. The braking could be felt to "jump" from one side to the other when ever the steering wheel input was changed. So <b>selective braking</b> was been applied under these conditions.


<b>Scenario #5:</B>

- ESP = OFF
- Gas pedal = steady to keep 60 mph.
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while accelerating at a
- steady power setting.

What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by gently giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of gates or pylons far, far apart.

Conclusion of this little test; no ESP intervention even if the car was slowly and gently fish tailing from side to side.


<b>Scenario #6:</B>

- ESP = <b>ON</b>
- Gas pedal = steady to keep 60 mph.
- Steering wheel angle = as required to keep the
- car under control while accelerating at a
- steady power setting.

What I was attempting to do was to provoke the ESP to come back on by gently giving steering wheel inputs from left to right as if going through a series of gates or pylons far, far apart.

Conclusion of this little test; Although this test is the same as the previous test, the ESP was selected to <b>ON</b> or its regular default position when the car is started. Since we were above 50 mph during this test, <b>EDL should not</b> be active or be part of the equation. The only other sensors left for ESP to work with would be the <b>steering wheel input</b> and/or the <b>yaw</b> sensors. Sure enough when the car was given small and gentle left to right steering wheel inputs to induce fish tailing like in the previous test, the engine management could be felt to cut power to the car. ESP intervention, yes! Were both the steering wheel input and yaw sensor used? I don't know but I would think at least one on them was and I guess the <b>ASR</B> part of the ESP was used to trim power. I did not have time to do this test below 50 mph to see if the EDL would factor in under similar conditions. Oh well there is lots of winter left for us to test this up here in the Great White North.

BTW, these new Dunlop M3s, rock big time.