ESP and slippery driving

[redwinger]

I am really anxious for winter just to see how it performs but from what i have seen and witnessed I will be driving this vehicle in the winter full time and without awd. I have always driven big 4X4 trucks and suvs and from what I have seen I have no qualms about how it will perform in the snow and ice. I demo'ed the esp system for a friend of mine two weeks ago. Here is how I did it. It was a rainny night and we had just left my house and I was explaingin to him how it works, he was really skeptical so the first stoplight down the road I told him to hold on and watch this. I floored the vehicle and got up to about 55 mph. at the stoplight i yanked it to the left at a 90 degree turn. the esp started to kick in and cut power and apply brakes where need be and it held the turn like you could not imagine. You should of seen the look on his face after that. He was completely amazed that a rear wheel drive car on a slippery rainy wet road at 55mph could hold a 90 degree turn without going into the ditch. At a ride and drive that Chrysler put on for the dealers they had a course set up where you rode with skip barber racing instructors. We had a sprint car driver who was born to be sideways. I asked him if he ever got the car to spin out with the esp on. He said that he has been trying to get it to spin out for the last six months. Here is a link to a video on how esp works.

http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/ESC1.mpg

[redwinger]

Video make take up to five minutes to load.

[joey]

ESP is nice except for traction control - I like to always control tire spin.
Have you tried disabling ESP?
I have read that switching off ESP only disables traction control (good), and maybe ESP response time.
Apparently there is no user friendly way to totally disable ESP, except by disconnecting some wires, or relays.

[redwinger]

By disableing traction control/ ESP. It will only cut out about 50% of the traction control and the esp system. It will still work in some capacity.

[jaxson]

redwinger,
Nice to hear your confidence in the ESP but what US state do you winter in?

[MightyMax]

Originally Posted by jaxson

Nice to hear your confidence in the ESP but what US state do you winter in?

Here is a post from back in April.... It's a great article, worth reading.

For those that are worried about Winter driving with rear-wheel drive...

[redwinger]

Minnesota or Minnesnowta