What on earth is the purpose of launch control??

[RDMcG]

For some time I have wonder about this...have had the feature on cars since 2006.

Assuming street cars, not dragsters, I cannot figure this out.

I tried it at full abuse level on a Porsche Turbo S at Porsche track event ,,,both feet down, rev the hell out the the car, chug, chug,,,WAAAAH.....out of there with your face pasted back.


Strangely..I had the feature much earlier on an E63 M6 and never used it. I thought about how to take off from a traffic light....plan the timing of the green...set the damn thing up...rev..rev...GREEN.....Rubber streaks and the entire world thinking..what a moron in a BMW......BMW...moron..BMW.....

I never used LC on that car.


Now I have it on some current cars. Again, never used.

Are there any circumstances beyond dragstrips where people have used LC????...........

[RDMcG]

Globs said:

Oh yes, when reviewing a car on Top Gear.

Of course...I do a lot of that on my celebrity appearances...of course...
I
am
the
Sti.....

[RDMcG]

Pothole said:

Just willy waving, surely?

Possibly so,,but can you imagine doing this at a traffic light and looking ..umm..cool?.... or just an idiot?

[RDMcG]

Of course.on a bike its immediate. Launch control is a planned thing so makes zero sense to me.Maybe I am missing something. When I tried it at a Porsche demo it felt very hard on the car and I had a 'so what?' feeling. Certainly impressive acceleration..but...so what?

[RDMcG]

When I did it in a Porsche Turbo S ( Porsche's car not mine) it just felt unnatural and very abusive to the car. I am not someone who abuses cars although I drive quite briskly at times, and I just felt I was flogging the thing,,,

[RDMcG]

Osinjak said:

Fun. Quiet road, bored, select LC, smile. Do it again in a few months time. You don't have to use it but as it's there, why not? Some people really need to lighten up, it really is just a bit of fun and if you don't want to have a bit of fun with your car every now and then, well...hand in your licence.

Cue lots of comments about not needing to thrash your car's gubbins in order to have fun, etc.

Fair enough. I started the thread because I genuinely did not get this thing. Yes, I have tried it, but for me personally slamming forward at the limit of the car does not do much for me. Mind you, I am not a fan of roller coasters either.
I enjoy hard driving but at much higher speeds...

[RDMcG]

I think my dilemma is that you have to take seconds to set the thing up and then rev the damn car to distraction.

If it were built in so that all you had to do was press a single button, hammer the accelerator and nothing else and the response was in microseconds then i can see it.

The current tech is as if in the throes of passion ready for the big moment, you have to stop to remove your socks.