70 F at noon......I mowed the lawn....starts raining at 3:30 pm....wife leaves work in her Crossfire at 4:00 pm.....Old 5 HWY...(serious twisty fun route)....raining....suddenly at 55 mph in the twisties she runs into 300 yards of HAIL SLUSH?????? 2 inches deep....she claims Wilma's ESP saved her life. Hail was already on the road...none hit the car.

Fred has saved my life twice....black ice under bridge - curving - at 80 mph. etc.

 

The pass side left the road 90/100mph on long down mountian curve, grass edge. I did not touch brake , just trying to hold on, pass rear start easeing around I thought we were going to flip, then i felt the esp take over . It felt like it applied the front drivers brake and car just leaped back on to road. Me and the wife thought we had bought it. She was not to happy with me OUCH ! Danny

 

I bet that woke ya up!!

 

Long live Fred and Wilma !

 

====



You bet Chris, i still have flash backs . I try to play it out in my head ,what would have happened. I believe if we had flipped, we would have rolled over road and off side of montain. It did come to mine to try to steer pass side into treeline . But car did good Danny

 

every time I drive it saves my life, there's no way I could movie 40+miles/hr without being in it

 

A year ago on the bridge crossing the Illinois river in Peoria, hit some black ice doing 65-70... slid towards the wall, then counter steered and slid into the opposite lane, counter steered again and back into my lane, finally regained traction. I don't think it was the car that saved me, but it sure helped. I've done some crazy things with my XF now that I've plenty of time to figure out her qualities.

 

i've never been in the situations listed above...calif. weather...but i can say that on the crazy freeways in our "drive while distracted" state, the graphite moves out of harms way. quickly, telepathically. and with no mods, even.

i love these cars.

 

Mine has saved my butt from my stupidity, or that of others, on many occasions.

I just hope that it never as to make the ultimate sacrifice to save me.
I know that it would roll into a ball and protect me, the bags would deploy and the crush zones would absorb the energy of my foolishnesss

But it would break my heart.

roadster with a stick

 

I don't think I drive mine enough to have it save my life....To the contrary, She is presently in the garage under a cover...so I guess I'm saving HER life.

Monty

 

Like Franc, mine has saved me from myself. That may sound stupid, but I've learned to trust it, and push the car harder than necessary - especially on twisty mountain roads.

I am surprised though that once the TC / ESP didn't seem to do anything. I pushed a corner too hard on the Dragon and found myself with my back two tires off the pavement. Like Danny, I just rode it out and tried not to let the back end come around on me. No brakes, no gas, just steering into it. The drag on the back wheels pulled it right back into place. Sure, I needed to change my shorts afterwards, but no TC or ESP action that I could tell.

 

TMI Tom...TMI!!

 

i dont know but i used to drift cars here and there but esp is confusing me a lot. i expect car to slide one direction at a certain amount but then ESP kicks in and messes all my calculations. It is scary for me. If the car didnt have any esp, i could control it better. Now ESP is GREAT for those "unexpected" slides. I try to mess around with my car alot by drifting at corners and thats to ESP I am not able to fully experience the joy. But, i love riding her...

 

These are very hard cars to drift. You would be better off attempting making it into a dragster than a drifter.

On that score my 75 Starfire was a king. One could breaktherear a little loose and then simply steer with the throttle.
These little guys just won't stand for it.

Confuses me two sometimes cause I just feel like it could drift well.

But thecomputer ESP says "nope, not gonna do it. And you can't make me do it."


roadster with a stick

 

Though I'm not a drifter, just homeless. I would have to agree with you one million percent here. I know what a car is supposed to do. This stuff not only gets in the way. But it makes the car unpredictable. Even when the thing is off it's still on. It's aggravating. I actually enjoyed driving the car more this winter when the the ESP/BAS light was on and the spoiler was stuck in the up position. At least it did what I told it too for a change.

 

I work untill the wee hours of the morning, and well over 50% of the drivers I encounter on the interstate on my way home are intoxicated. When I see another car, I watch where it is going. One night, I see headlights headed right for me from the other direction, travelling across the open median.
I floored the SRT which led me safely out of the way fast. I don't know what happened to the other car - I didnt stick around to look for it.

 

Had the scariest experience in a vehicle and it happened to be in the Xfire. It was late fall and snow was starting to fall when I was at my gf's place which was 45 mins away from home. Knowing I had sport tires on I headed on home but, by then it was already starting to lay.

Went around a slight curve on the highway and instantly lost traction and swerved left and right several times and came head on with the side railing. Not sure how it happened but, I turned the wheel hard left and hit the accelerator by accident and ended up doing a 180 and stopping instantly.

Had to be one of the luckiest moments in my life...

 

Musclefan, do cars with less than a 100" wheel base make good drift cars?
The reason I ask, is because it's been my experience that cars like ours tend to be more of a "doughnut car". ie (tend to do 360's rather than drift).
With an 04, 6 spd. the traction control can be disconnected with no penalty. I would think, by taking the yawh sensor out of the loop, and using some skinny tires as well, it may help turn a Crossfire into a better drifter. (if that's what you really want).
But only on sanctioned drifting course, never on the street.

 

If by "saved your life" you mean hitting my breaks and shutting down my gas, about thirty. If you mean actually took me out of a dangerous situation--one. But that one was likely worth it. You don't test the limits of your new car on a circular on ramp at the local interstate. A Sears parking lot at 2:00 a.m. is much better.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. I have had the limits of cars bite me in the tukus many times. Severe understeer had me taking out a light pole in my Fiero GT in 1986 and sleeping overnight in a ditch on a country road in my 1986 Bertone in 1992. Severe oversteer had me doing a 180 across a lawned median in my Boss 302 Mustang in 1974.

Further to another post, the cost of repaiir on the Fiero was $600.00, on the Bertone $40.00 plus a tow (muffler), and on the Mustang about $120.00 (idler arm and a tire). From what I've been reading here, any of these incidents in the Xfire would be a house payment.

So, my wallet is likely grateful for these interventionist electronics. I'm safer for them. You should also feel safer for me having them (see above). Probably a fair trade for the lack of bonzai abilities.

 

by no means i wanna take this thing to track and drift this thing. I just meant that i like sliding around the corners sometimes and ESP makes that difficult. thats all.