[gosi]

Hi guys,
what’s the best thing to do, transmission wise, if you spin your car with the ZF8? Do you:
a) Leave it in gear and keep spinning the tires. The downside here is that you destroy your tires
b) Let off the gas and let the car engage neutral/shut off engine on it’s own. I’d guess this is the worst idea
c) Quickly shift it into neutral. Kind of hard to do in the automatic compared to just pressing in the clutch with a manual.

Thanks

[ralawren]

Originally Posted by gosi

Hi guys,
what’s the best thing to do, transmission wise, if you spin your car with the ZF8? Do you:
a) Leave it in gear and keep spinning the tires. The downside here is that you destroy your tires
b) Let off the gas and let the car engage neutral/shut off engine on it’s own. I’d guess this is the worst idea
c) Quickly shift it into neutral. Kind of hard to do in the automatic compared to just pressing in the clutch with a manual.

Thanks

Curious to see what the experienced "track rats" have to say. My experience at HPDEs is that I only had time to depress the clutch which is not possible with automatic.

But my focus when losing control was where the car was going and avoiding danger areas. Pretty sure I wouldn't have time to put car in Neutral.

Hopefully by running in SPORT + the BMW engineers programmed the car to protect the transmission and driveline 🤞

[overcoil]

when your car gets past 90-degrees to the direction of the road your pretty much assured to not recover.

If you can go into neutral with your automatic do it.

if you can lock up the brakes do it, you'll only regain steering with the brakes off so as you slow let off the brakes to steer away from obstructions.

Tires are a lot cheaper than a transmission.

Nice to have a system that reaches neutral when both up and down shift paddles are pressed in.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by ScottSinger

if you can lock up the brakes do it, you'll only regain steering with the brakes off so as you slow let off the brakes to steer away from obstructions.

IIRC, ABS cannot be defeated in our cars, so "locking up" the brakes isn't possible, and the driver is able to steer the car while braking at the limit.

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by dradernh

IIRC, ABS cannot be defeated in our cars, so "locking up" the brakes isn't possible, and the driver is able to steer the car while braking at the limit.

hard on the brakes slows a spinning car usually better then feet off the pedals.

Spinning and low coefficient between tire and road the car has a hard time figuring out what to do.

But once the car loses control it’s a game of luck.

Though once you slow to a manageable speed it’s important to realize you may need to get off the brakes to steer as opposed to staying fully down on the brake.

[msendit]

Originally Posted by gosi

Hi guys,
what’s the best thing to do, transmission wise, if you spin your car with the ZF8? Do you:
a) Leave it in gear and keep spinning the tires. The downside here is that you destroy your tires
b) Let off the gas and let the car engage neutral/shut off engine on it’s own. I’d guess this is the worst idea
c) Quickly shift it into neutral. Kind of hard to do in the automatic compared to just pressing in the clutch with a manual.

Thanks

I've spun my ZF8 quite a few times on track. Probably not as much as autocrossers, but in the same vicinity.

a) If you're spinning out, you're not being very kind to the tires to begin with. Plus staying on the throttle is what you should be doing to try and save it in the first part of the spin (lifting will shift weight forward, so even less grip at the back).

b) Nah, I'd always assumed it's OK. Our cars do disengage and shut off the engine in more serious spins. The annoying part is there often seems to be a weird throttle/RPM blip when it does so (you can see it in a datalog) -- usually right when you're pointing in the wrong direction -- which makes for unintentional 360s, when all you want is to just slow the rotation down

c) I wouldn't have the time to do this either -- my hands are usually busy trying to save it. Once you're spinning fast enough it's beyond saving, just step on the brake to slow things down as much as possible.

[cooolone2]

Computers can measure metrics and process data at amazing bandwidth and speed, it can perform a bazillion calculations in a micro second... And more!

What it can't do (yet), is "FEEL"...

The human brain is an amazing computer not yet matched in this regard. And no matter how hard they try, you cannot program intuition and reaction from that feeling. Like the feel at that exact moment grip was lost... Sure the computer might have detected a release on throttle, change in direction, loss of traction and speed... But it didn't feel that slip.

All just my opinion and a reason why I dislike some of the new fangled controls, or loss thereof... Drive by wire, electronic shifting, etc. Yes, quicker than I can ever be. Better? Not sure that's true, in all circumstances.

[MasterFloody]

Originally Posted by msendit

I've spun my ZF8 quite a few times on track. Probably not as much as autocrossers, but in the same vicinity.

a) If you're spinning out, you're not being very kind to the tires to begin with. Plus staying on the throttle is what you should be doing to try and save it in the first part of the spin (lifting will shift weight forward, so even less grip at the back).

b) Nah, I'd always assumed it's OK. Our cars do disengage and shut off the engine in more serious spins. The annoying part is there often seems to be a weird throttle/RPM blip when it does so (you can see it in a datalog) -- usually right when you're pointing in the wrong direction -- which makes for unintentional 360s, when all you want is to just slow the rotation down

c) I wouldn't have the time to do this either -- my hands are usually busy trying to save it. Once you're spinning fast enough it's beyond saving, just step on the brake to slow things down as much as possible.

I am impressed with how calm that reaction was in the video. That's how you do it!

[gosi]

Since I made this post I’ve spun out a few times and I’ve acquired muscle memory to be able to shift into neutral with one hand motion. Saves a lot of tire life.