Did you spec ACC for your new car?

[Top Cat]

I was lucky enough to get invited to the Mk6 GTI launch day at Milbrook. They have all sorts of road surfaces there to test on.
We were all allotted a trained driver, and i have to say the chap we got could really drive, he was doing all sorts of mental things but kept in complete control most of the time. 

Anyway i asked him about this system as a few people that i knew had it on there Rocco's. What he showed us was amazing. He did a fast lap of the alpine circuit in sport mode, bare in mind he was driving it like a rally car, Scandinavian flicks all over the shop, pance sh!ttingly fast.    He then did a lap in the softest setting and the car was a lot faster. 

What he was showing us was with the firm suspension in sport mode, we would get pitched all over the place making the car difficult to control and not necessarily faster. In the comfort mode the car took the bumps in its stride and was balanced going into all the turns.

Now obviously the road surface was exaggerated but it gave a perfect example of the system working in its different modes, which isnt always obvious on normal roads. 

[mac7]

Is there a definitive article about this, suitable for the merely semi-techie to understand?

How's your German Rolfe? http://www.volkswagen.de/vwcms/master_public/virtualmaster/de3/unternehmen/innovation___technik/fahrwerk/dcc-daempfer.html

In particular the last sentence of the third paragraph, which translates as:

"Nevertheless the automatic control always remains active and also provides switching in the 'Comfort' mode for a sporty, taut absorption e.g. with fast track driving."

[Ivan]

VW website gives a little more :

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/golf-gti-vi/explore/experience/drive/optional-adaptive-chassis-control/

[Rolfe]

Thanks fellas.  I don't remember seeing that last at the time I was on the web site speccing up cars.

So, if the thing is always active and changing the setting merely changes the bias, does that explain why it can be quite difficult to tell much difference when changing the setting?  Is the test really, how an ACC car differs from a non-ACC car?  (I presume a non-ACC car doesn't ajust at all.)

Also, if the car races round corners better in Comfort than in Sport, someone tell me again what Sport is for....

Rolfe.

[Ivan]

VW website gives a little more :

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/golf-gti-vi/explore/experience/drive/optional-adaptive-chassis-control/

Just open the technical pop up and they try and explain the techy bits, its seems fairly straight forward to me
IMHO its wasted on us joe public

[herbie911]

According to some car mags, ACC will not only continously varies the rebound etc.. of your dampers over a certain parameters, it also influence the throttle response and weight of the steering. Strangely, none of these extra function are mention in the VW GTI brochure.

As I am still running in my car, I had not driven the car hard enough to notice the difference in throttle response but the ride in town is definitely better in Comfort mode. Its been in that mode 99% out of the 250miles I had done in the car!

[Ess_Three]

According to some car mags, ACC will not only continously varies the rebound etc.. of your dampers over a certain parameters, it also influence the throttle response and weight of the steering. Strangely, none of these extra function are mention in the VW GTI brochure.

It must be fairly obvious as I have read about it...
That would be one of the main advantages in my book...the sharper throttle response and tighter steering feel of Sport mode.

[mds69]

So, if the thing is always active and changing the setting merely changes the bias, does that explain why it can be quite difficult to tell much difference when changing the setting?  Is the test really, how an ACC car differs from a non-ACC car?  (I presume a non-ACC car doesn't ajust at all.)

Probably give the suspension/ACC until 12 months old.  I drove a 12 month old Passat CC courtesy car last week and there was a distinct difference between the three ACC settings.  My mate's brand new CC however is pretty similar to my Golf (i.e. not much difference between the three settings).

[Top Cat]

Thanks fellas.  I don't remember seeing that last at the time I was on the web site speccing up cars.

So, if the thing is always active and changing the setting merely changes the bias, does that explain why it can be quite difficult to tell much difference when changing the setting?  Is the test really, how an ACC car differs from a non-ACC car?  (I presume a non-ACC car doesn't ajust at all.)

Also, if the car races round corners better in Comfort than in Sport, someone tell me again what Sport is for....

Rolfe.

It was only faster on our test because of the road surface. The point i was trying to get across was a lot of people just read on the net that it is just a gimmick, which makes people discount it without trying it. That session proved to me that it defiantly benefits the handling in certain circumstances. 

[McMerc]

This is a link for DCC from VW Germany in English. http://www.volkswagen.de/vwcms/master_public/virtualmaster/en2/experience/innovation/running_car/dcc.html