Do you improve your driving skills if you drive ASM off

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My friend and I race each other all the time. My friend uses ASM & TCS and I only use TCS. Does that make me better driver because I drive with ASM off?

PS - Does it requre more skill to drive a car without a ASM?
 
This is a frequently asked question. Driving with no aids at all is best, at least in my opinion, because you are controlling the car completely and the computer has no say in what happens to it.

Turning off TCS - the car's engine will do exactly what you tell it to, so if you don't overdo the throttle and rip the drive wheels apart, you will be faster because the computer isn't taking any power away from the car.

But that's not what you asked about :P
ASM is a slightly less known effect, but basically what it tries to do is make your car more stable. 'Stable' is best defined as going in a straight line, so ASM usually blunts your turning capability. I don't know of anyone who has ASM turned on to make any car faster - in almost every situation involving a skilled driver, it will slow you down.

As I said, my recommendation for being a better driver is to turn all the aids off. I would say that the skill levels required is changed more by taking off the traction control than the stability devices, but the fewer aids you have on the more you are actually driving the car yourself, so you could say it requires more skill.

If you beat your friend without ASM when he has ASM on, there's two possible reasons:
1) You are a better driver, and therefore do not need the ASM to help you
2) Your friend is a better driver, but he is being slowed down by the ASM trying to stabilise the car

:P It's a pretty philosophical question, but I hope that helps 👍

DE
 
if the car needs stabilising i'd rather do it through mechanical means where the response time is instant and tuned in a way that doesn't interfere with the driver's input.
 
Yes, that's the best way to do it in the end, provided you know what you're doing. Fiddling with the suspension (or any other) setup will always be better than turning on the aids, in my opinion. And if a lack of traction control is making you spin the drive wheels, well, that's the price you pay for a 300bhp FWD :P

DE
 
yes, my driving skills have improved a lot afetr i took all driving aids off. and they imrpoved even more when i purchased DFP, since now I can't go from lock to lock in 0.25 seconds, which is just realistic.
 
latestgood
My friend and I race each other all the time. My friend uses ASM & TCS and I only use TCS. Does that make me better driver because I drive with ASM off?

PS - Does it requre more skill to drive a car without a ASM?
Click to expand...

Im not sure about being a better driver if you drive without ASM, possibly the answer is yes, more car control skill is necessary with the driver aids switched off.

I find that in just about all the cars on GT4 TCS/ASM will slow you down, however, we ran a 17wk race series on the Nurburgring recently over in the long race series forum, it was only on the last few weeks driving the Toyota 7 race car and the Jaguar XJR9 that I had to switch on TCS/ASM to keep up, my view on that was I wasnt skilled enough to drive those cars flat out on the limit and needed assistance, the aids gave me about 10s per lap btw....

regards

David
 

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