Yeah, if you notice in the second before you hear them pop, the car straightens up REAL hard and he corrects going the other direction. My guess is this is sensed as imminent rollover like Camride said. OR, the forces were so hard when the car changed direction that the sensors were tripped.

 

I think that was one of the reasons the Dodge Viper had to be killed.

Yea, no more stripper cars. I really wish there was a 1LE 5th Gen Camaro. Doubt that will happen.

 

hmm... my 2011 lancer's esp is defeatable..

 

Are you sure, or is it limited and tells you its off?

 

The ESP in the Genesis Coupes is also completely defeatable. They unfortunately still have torque management so you don't blow the rear end out on powershifts (unless you defeat that with a tune.. but I don't know from experience )

 

Esp?

 

Extra-sensory-perception. Or "electronic stability program" A new one I actually wasn't fully 'up' on was EBD, or electronic brake-force distribution. Pretty neat stuff. Too many car safety acronyms to keep up on these days. They'll go the way of SRS though..."supplemental restraint system" has gone with the easier moniker of "airbag", just like all these safety systems will eventually be consolidated down to "CYA" (cover your ***).

 

maybe... i know with it off, i can manage a small burnout..

 

My 2010 Mini can have it turned completely off. Nothing was stopping me from doing full slides on dirt and I can spin my tires all day.

 

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Safety, Videos, Chevrolet



Having a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS stuffed with a 426-horsepower V8, six gears and the rear wheels doing the pushing is reason enough for anyone to want to get a little sideways. Trouble is, letting the tail hang in your 5th-gen Camaro could get pretty uncomfortable.

During a drifting session in a parking lot at Michigan's Milan Raceway, Paul Beiswenger of Lopez Tire and A&D Autosport managed to deploy the car's side curtain airbags, apparently spontaneously. Beiswenger was fine, but his female passenger suffered minor burns on her right arm. The solution? Cut the airbags down and keep going. We love it.

General Motors' take? The incident is an indication that the system is working as it should. GM spokesman Alan Adler said the car is designed to "predict" an imminent rollover and deploy the curtain airbags proactively. That's a brilliant feature if you're indeed on your way through the spin cycle, but as you can see, it isn't exactly conducive to hooning. Video's posted after the jump.Continue reading Camaro airbag spontaneously deploys while drifting

Camaro airbag spontaneously deploys while drifting originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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I have some mixed feelings on this. Going by the video without seeing actual data, I tend to think that the airbag sensors are a few percentage points too sensitive. It just didn't look like the side curtains should have deployed.

Then again...like insurance, it is better to have them then to not have them.

 

It looked like a big swing in g-force caused it.

So who pays for that? Insurance? Warranty? Warranty will probably tell him to **** off after watching the video. They usually don't cover racing.

-Geoff

 

I can't think of an instance where you would be on a road and do to your Camaro what that person was doing to that Camaro in terms of the number of direction changes at that speed..... (unless you were WAY out of control....) (...watch the whole thing)

Here's the problem: We (and you) need a 5-star crash rating. The car has to be safe. (and we both know that accidents in Camaros and other high performance cars tend to be 'spectacular'...) No 5 star crash rating? Insurance skyrockets. We (that's you and me) don't want that,now do we?

So - let's assume we take your 'flawed calculation' as fact - and the engineers 'tighten up' the deployment algorithm -- and the next thing you know, you have a 'whoops' late at night and the airbag DOESN'T deploy.......

there are a ton of attorneys out there licking their chops..........

Again - go back and watch the video from beginning to end (not sure if the link shows the entire episode) - yes, these are performance cars, but we didn't design them to 'drift' -- we designed them to be driven on public highways first........

 

Makes a whole lotta sense to me. Thanks, Scott!

 

I can understand what you are saying Scott, and let's remember this is only a one time deal... if I started to see it happen all over the place I would worry. I have done my share of "spirited" driving with the Camaro. I am no angel while driving... I have done my share of drifting when it's safe... but i did notice that he was a little all over the place... the drifts looked a little "out of control" not really smoothly done.... I am sure that if you did your "drifting" a bit more smoothly the airbags wouldn't deploy.