today at a novice autocross school, an instructer told me on his evo 9 the tarmac setting is basically an "idiot" mode. he suggested using gravel, and yes it did seem faster. i have an evo x mr.

 

Huh?!? Who was it? I assume it was Ace. He also told me to move as close to the steering wheel as possible, so I would take everything with a grain of salt. I'm sure others will chime in, but I only use gravel mode when its wet.

You guys didn't have timing set up did you? That way you could tell which was faster...

 

its just different ways power is put to the ground, a certain mode being faster isn a definative answer, it will depend of what you doing, track, auto-x, road etc. I havent tried it personally but for tighter tracks maybe the gravel would be faster as it will provide a greater amount of grip in certain corners/situations. give it a try with some timers

 

The 10 is different from the 9 for sure... but IMO, you want ASC 1/2 off (just press the button -- holding it makes my car much harder to control) and in Tarmac mode. I played with the ACD a bit and it simply seems to plow more in gravel or snow vs. tarmac.

 

I have always used tarmac in autoX regardless of the course conditions and had great results with it.

 

i turned off the asc of course, the guy had an evo 9 and said on his gravel mode gives you more of a rear bias for power distribution. new to evos as well...

 

Here is one of the best explanations for the ACD i have read:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...wet-autox.html

hope that helps...

 

basically
tarmac give u understeer when u push it over its limit
gravel give u abit of oversteer when u push it over its limit
so depends on what style u are driving
different ppl have different type of driving style
thats just it
u like oversteer...go for gravel
u like understeer...go for tarmac

basically tarmac will make u feel more secure and car is more controllable
gravel tend to make the rear end break loose during limit

 

^ I so totally disagree with that. My testing on gravel roads is that "Gravel" stops the rear end from swinging out (oversteer) whereas when in "Tarmac" on a gravel road, it's tail happy as all get out.

On asphalt, gravel feels like more power is on the front wheels, so it isn't all that tail happy.

Then again, my car is on really stiff springs and can spin whenever I want to if I set it up correctly.

 

You guys are forgetting how it reacts dynamically. I don't know a whole lot about the X system, but I know the 7-9 did most of it's work under decel. I'm not saying it's even similar, just sure it does more for the driving style than just pick where to put power down.

Anybody know how it brakes/decels in different modes?

 

I've also heard using Gravel is better for auto-x, for the same reason
And I have also gotten tips from various instructors to sit as close up to the wheel as possible

I don't have too much experience with Gravel, but from what I understand the timing of how it locks is in between Tarmac and Snow.
From what I've experimented with in the snow, Tarmac usually sends me understeering through, while Snow mode will actually help me turn/kick out the rear end - thanks to the delayed locking of the 4wd - So it actually will wait until I'm in the turn/trying to turn, then lock the diff. This was my understanding of what it does anyway - If that's not how it works, it's still how the car responds at least. I would think the same is true for Gravel mode - just slightly faster than Snow. So the rear end will be more likely to kick out once you get on the throttle mid corner.

But then again, who knows how s-awc works