I traded away MY05 s2k two years ago for a STi so I'm not considered about the electronic throttle. You're always on the same page with the s2k and its easy to keep under control compared to most RWD sports cars.

Does VSA with traction control on new cars mean that both are not turned off all at once?

 

EVERYTHING is turned off. Simply push the button for 1 second. And then powerslide, drift, do donuts, burn rubber... to your heart's content.

 

I thank you and Honda.

 

 

How bad is losing traction for the diff?

 

usually better than not losing traction.

differentials only handle a certain amount of torque before you break something. if you're spinning the wheels, you're not stressing the diff much at all--there's little torque/energy transfer through the differential when the wheels are free spinning (wheel inertia+sliding friction) compared to when the tires are holding solid, resisting ~100% of the torque transfer to the ground.

 

Counter-intuitive, but excellent

 

so if i'm understanding correctly, in the long run you're differential will break sooner if you're grip driving rather than sliding the car

 

if its too much grip, it will be able to break catastrophically. for example, pull the CDV if applicable, throw slicks on a stock car, go to a sticky drag strip with plenty of DHT, and you can break the differential with only ~200whp. yet on the street, you can launch 100s of times without having problems; wheelspin unloads the differential before anything is broken.

think about what would happen if you bolted the hubs down to something rigid and then launched (ie "hooking up"). compare that to launching when the car is jacked up and the tires are in the air. which is more likely to break the differential?

i know in reality that neglects the load due to the sliding tires, but sliding (kinetic) friction coefficients, which are proportionate to the torque transfer, are always lower than static friction coefficients. so if you drop the clutch equally hard, sliding will always be easier on it mechanically than gripping. energy transfer is the same; most of the torque goes to heat and other waste as the tires slip instead of twisting your drivetrain.

i'm not speaking much to wear, but differentials (as any gears) are hardened and they don't generally fail due to "wearing out" in the strictest sense. crack propogation is a process etc etc i know, but crack initiation is usually due to a shock, and the differentials we see broken here are *almost always* either a bad install or a hard launch with no wheelspin.