When Am I Ready to Disable The “Nannies?”

Modern performance cars hide a team of “invisible co-pilots” working behind the scenes to make you safer. These save-your-butt computer systems are affectionately known as “nannies.”

For beginners and intermediate drivers at HPDE events, these electronic helpers are safety heroes. They allow a new driver to push harder than they could otherwise, often making the car feel unflappable.

As valuable as nannies are, they also can create a false sense of security and hide driving mistakes that teach important fundamentals. So, drivers naturally ask, “When can I turn off my nannies?”

What Are “Nannies?”

By “nannies,” we mean the computer-controlled driver aids designed to keep the car stable and prevent loss of control. For this article, we are focusing on the two primary systems most cars offer.  Each brand offers various incarnations with different marketing names, but the systems essentially accomplish two main things:

• Electronic Stability Control — might be called “Dynamic Control,” but will usually include the word “Stability” in the title.
• Traction Control — might be called “Slip Regulation” or other term, but will usually include the word “Traction” in the title.

Nearly every modern car has these systems — often merged into a single button that can be enabled/disabled — but some manufacturers let you dial them up or down, disable one but not the other, or disable everything. For many cars, the systems are never entirely defeatable, always monitoring from the background, ready to “save you” in hairy situations.

It’s worth noting that anti-lock braking system is technically a nanny but is neither adjustable nor can be turned off on street cars. Therefore, we won’t cover ABS since it’s always on and is one of the best safety features invented.

How Nannies Work

Although they work together, ESC and TC solve different problems.

Electronic Stability Control addresses the car rotating or sliding more than intended. It monitors a complex ballet of steering angle, yaw rate, wheel speeds, and other proprietary inputs each manufacturer develops. If the car starts to rotate too quickly — think of your car spinning like a top when looking at it from above — or begins sliding sideways, the system can brake individual wheels to bring the car back in line.

The micro-corrections happen so quickly and fluidly that many drivers don’t even realize what’s happening, but your instructor should. You might feel pulsing through the brake pedal or a strange momentary hesitation, as if the car briefly took control.

Traction Control (TC): Monitors the drive wheels and prevents excessive wheelspin. If you have a heavy right foot and tend to smash the gas pedal like a cockroach, the system reduces engine power. If you’re too aggressive, TC will even apply some braking in addition to reducing engine power, attempting to reign you back in.

Most drivers notice this when exiting slow corners. They depress the throttle a bit too assertively and suddenly the engine power fades, often accompanied by a flashing orange light on the dashboard.

Since ESC and TC are often merged into a complex, intertwined system, your dashboard may light up like a Christmas tree when any part of the system engages.

My advice for beginners and most intermediates: Leave them on if you’re new to track driving, and especially if you haven’t tried autocross first, my admonition is simple:

Leave all the nannies enabled.

These systems protect you from many, but not all, of the mistakes that cause spins or off-track adventures. They buy you margin while you’re learning other fundamentals: vision, smooth inputs, braking technique, and car balance.

However, don’t ignore the systems. Instead, learn to feel when they’re intervening and try to understand why. Try the following two exercises:

Exercise No. 1: Feel When Stability Control Intervenes

ESC often activates when the driver combines too many inputs at once, especially braking and turning.

Commonly, ESC “saves you” when two corners are linked closely together. As you exit the first corner, you may still have steering applied when you begin braking for the second. This transfers load heavily to the outside front tire and quickly unloads the rear tires. Without Stability Control, the rear end would attempt to swap directions with the front. ESC senses instability and applies individual brakes to regain stability.

Try to feel this momentary chaos. It’s like a pulsing, perhaps a hesitation, plus odd brake feedback being performed by the computer. To correct it, do most of your braking with the front wheels pointed as straight as possible. More steering necessitates less braking — the car stops best with the front wheels pointed straight ahead. If you’re exiting a corner, and are still turning the wheel, and then hit the brakes, you’re likely to spin.  Wait until you get the turn finished, aim straight ahead, and then brake.

Exercise No. 2: Learn What Traction Control Feels Like

On corner-exit out of a slow corner, try applying throttle faster and more assertively until you just begin to trigger TC. When it engages, you’ll likely see a flashing light on the dash and feel engine power soften or fade. It can feel quite intrusive, and yet it can save you from spinning!

Your goal is to explore the threshold just before TC engages. Try a more progressive throttle application. This teaches “throttle discipline” and helps you understand how much grip your rear tires have.

How to Ease Into Disabling Nannies

Some cars just have one button, while some have an ESC and a TC button. Others might have knobs, switches or other controls to adjust driver aids. Read your manual to understand them. Here are my top five tips for working your way up to disabling the nannies:

• Try a car that doesn’t come with nannies in the first place. Cars such as first- and second-generation Miatas, Spec Boxsters, and BMW E30s and E36s are nanny-free. They have no crutches or driver aids except ABS. They will teach you the fundamentals at lower speeds. My opinion is that most drivers would benefit from starting out with a nanny-free, “slow” car if they’re serious about becoming an expert. Feel free to debate in comments.
• Do autocross. Racers might “poo-poo” driving in a parking lot with cones, but it’s the safest way to disable all your nannies and see how much the computers have been doing for you.
• Let an ultra-experienced instructor drive your car, initially with nannies on and later with nannies off. Sit in the right seat, paying close attention to the difference. Ask the instructor to deliberately engage the nannies by over-driving a smidge.
• If your car has a separate control for ESC and TC, a good first step for confident and capable drivers, is to disable stability control while leaving traction control active. This removes the safety net for yaw correction but still prevents excessive wheelspin on corner exit. Or, if your car offers multiple settings, start with the safest setting and try disabling by one increment at a time. Your goal is to edge your way up to just barely engaging the system for a split second, and be able to predict the limit, identify when you’ve breached it, and smoothly recover.
• Turning TC off is the most serious step. In powerful cars, aggressive throttle can quickly overwhelm the rear tires and cause a spin, especially when exiting slow corners in second gear. Be judicious with throttle and gradually work your way up — this is the big league of throttle discipline. Even for advanced drivers, leaving the TC “ON” might actually be faster. The systems are just that good.

Final Thoughts

Driver aids are game-changing tools. They save spins, build driver confidence, and allow drivers to explore performance in a safer way than ever. But for those interested in “pure” fundamentals, they should be viewed more like training wheels rather than permanent crutches.

Use the nannies while you learn. Pay attention to when and why they activate.  Understand what mistakes they’re correcting. Then, when your fundamentals are solid, start exploring what the car feels like without them. After all, the goal isn’t to drive a car that “saves” you. The goal is to become a driver who doesn’t need saving.