Could you live without the Adaptive Chassis Control?

[jphealy]

I'm in Ireland and I still have not decided whether to order my Scirocco here or in Northern Ireland. A bit cheaper and better spec in the North, but much more hassle.

Anyway, if I decide to order at home, I'll have to consider whether to choose the ACC as an option (not standard as it is in UK). It costs €1,247 (UK£1,135). So, I know most of you have no experience of not having the ACC, but all the same - do you think it is something you could live without, or is it a must have feature?

By the way, if it makes any difference, I will be going for the 1.4 PS160.

Thanks!

[wigit]

in the uk we have not been able to drive a car without out so comparisons cannot be drawn as i've only driven one with it

i thought it was a gimmick but actually there are differences and give recent weather has been in comfort, whether i'd have specified it if it was an option, not sure but do now i have it i would

the H+R and KW springs work with the acc as the dampers aren't changed, a question for the more technically minded is there are some coilovers being marketed for the roc and have not seen what happens with the acc in this case, KW didn't really anser it at Autosport as its an option on the continent

[Andy-GTI]

If you swap to coilover you lose the ACC, simple.

As its fitted as standard to mine i'm quite impressed witht he system, and hopefully it will still be good with the HR springs when i get them fitted.

However, had the car not had it as standard i wouldnt bother speccing it, and would fit some top of the range full adjustable coilovers (for about the same price as the option cost) and fit them instead, that way you can adjust the ride height and adjust the damping to suit (admittedly not in car, but still quite easily.)

[wigit]

cheers Andy-GTI

[risingblue1]

ACC is £1135

No way worth it although agree it makes a difference. I have left mine in comfort for about 3 months!

[CTRnutter]

I quite like it, and now I have used it I probably would pay 1k for it, It does make it feel as though you have tewo cars, leave it in comfort and auto when taking it easy then into manual and sport when you want to play has anyone driven the car in normal? I never bother its either comfort or sport

[danbailey77]

I love the ACC and would definitely spec it if it wasn't standard. Really good if you do a lot of motorway miles. If i change it to sport when on the motorway feels so bumpy. As said earlier it also gives you 2 set ups and i also keep the manual/sport set up for when i want to go for a 'drive'.

[rehmondo]

I could easily live without really glad it wasn't an option I paid for, Sport and Comfort drink a little more juice plus Normal is rough enough for me
When in Sport I get less than 290 miles per tank when in Normal I get around 340 miles haven't bothered with Comfort.

[Andy-GTI]

I could easily live without really glad it wasn't an option I paid for, Sport and Comfort drink a little more juice plus Normal is rough enough for me
When in Sport I get less than 290 miles per tank when in Normal I get around 340 miles haven't bothered with Comfort.

All it does is adjust the damping of the suspension, nothing more.

You wont see any difference in fuel consumption between the settings unless you drive differently!

[CTRnutter]

I could easily live without really glad it wasn't an option I paid for, Sport and Comfort drink a little more juice plus Normal is rough enough for me
When in Sport I get less than 290 miles per tank when in Normal I get around 340 miles haven't bothered with Comfort.

All it does is adjust the damping of the suspension, nothing more.

You wont see any difference in fuel consumption between the settings unless you drive differently!

I was about to say the same it makes no difference to throttle well at least I didnt think it did!?

[krn1]

All models benefit from Adaptive Chassis Control (ACC) which operates via a set of four electrically adjustable dampers to alter the car’s suspension, steering and throttle response set-up, and allows the driver to choose the most appropriate setting for the journey.

This system particularly impressed the judges with them explaining, in the Awards issue of Top Gear magazine: ‘The standard ACC system allows you to swap between soft and scythe at the touch of the button, giving you a spread of abilities far beyond what we’ve come to expect from the average car.’

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/volkswagen- ... s/item/116

I will probably pay out for the ACC when the time comes. If I go with coilovers in the future the money is wasted, and I'm not mad on the idea of just lowering springs. There might also be a chance the suspension from the R20T could fitted to my car in the future, using some of the ACC controls perhaps

[wigit]

its the monitoring tabloid i knwo but relates to the 1.4

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews ... rocco.html

settings dont make any difference to my fuel consuption its my right foot that does, sport mode isn't always the best mode for rapid progress

[rehmondo]

I'll give it another try but during the one week I did use it constantly in Sport (without changing my driving style) I noticed a drop in miles.

Here's are good guide to how it works...

http://www.volkswagen.com/vwcms/master_ ... n/dcc.html

[robrob]

I never use "Sport mode", I find it too hard.
Normal setting is hard enough thanks...

I do tend to keep it in Normal most of the time as it gives the best balance.

No way would I pay that kind of money for it.

[DavidH]

I'd say it's worth every penny, the damping is fantastic. Comfort mode is where it's at, it just swallows up rough sections of the country roads up here, the perfect b-road setup , it has that bottomless, long travel suspension feel, it's awesome. The softer compression allows more travel on compression and it slows the rebound down too so you don't get that bobbling at low speeds like most performance cars. The body does float momentarily but the damping is still active so it still ramps up the damping when necessary. The handling balance and grip is better too. You'd have to be off your trolley, or care about absoutely nothing but looks to modify the suspension or change the wheel/tyre setup on one of these for road use. The travel and the excellent damping is probably the thing i like best about the car.

[ondinescurse]

No I couldn't live without it. Leaving the car in comfort is sacrilege in my opinion, comfort is for cruising on long journeys. If you want to go round corners with a smile on your face then sport is a must.

Zero body roll, poise, beautiful turn in and composure, minimal understeer on progressive exit. With comfort comes body roll, if thats what you're used to then it's 'comforting' i suppose, but give me hard and flat round corners any day.

[DavidH]

The softer setup has more grip though (obviously).

Edit; Ok, i didn't want to ramble on and bore you with a lot of technical blurb but i'll bite, plus someone might find it interesting. I'm going to tell you a bit about how cars and tyres work and how we can apply this to thinking about the different ACC modes. It boils down to some simple vehicle dynamics: For a given ride height, a softer roll stiffness across a given axle actually gives more grip. It's to do with the nature of the way a tyre behaves-the more weight over a tyre the more grip it has (most people know that bit), but... as load is transfered across an axle there is a net loss of grip, that's a key fact to remember. In other words what is lost by the inside tyre is not all gained by the outside tyre- there is a net loss. It makes sense when you think about it, maximum load transfer is achieved when the inside tyre leaves the ground, and this happens earlier with increased roll stiffness. (you might know if you fit a whopping anti-roll bar on the rear of your front drive hatch for track use, it lifts an inside rear very early on turn in and is more prone to oversteer).

Taking a front engined, front drive car as an example, the front end is heavier, and has more natural weight transfer across the axle at that end as a result. If we have equal roll stiffness at front and rear the result is understeer. That's why we stiffen the rear roll stiffness so much relative the front, so that it cocks an inside rear wheel, this send the balance of grip forward and balances it out. You'll notice F1 cars lifting an inside front on turn in, that's the same principal, the weight of the car is very rearward , and has more natural load transfer at the rear, so they have to stiffen the front roll stiffness to such an extent so that it lift an inside front, this sends the balance of grip rearwards and balances out the chassis.

Now apply what we know to the different modes of the ACC, the softer mode has more roll, less total load transfer and hence more grip (remember are net loss as load is transfered). Lowering the car is another way of reducing load transfer, we stiffen lower cars to stop them bottoming out, not to provide more grip. It is true to say it sharpens reactions, because it shortens the time it takes for the suspension to load up, but i'm talking about grip. Since the ride height is fixed with the ACC, the only way to increase grip (by reducing load transfer across the axles) is to soften it off. The Scirocco can get away with this softer setup as the ACC is an active system, it can ramp up the damping in a fraction of a second to stop it wallowing or bottoming out.

This is how cars work, anything you read on the net that contradicts anything i've said is utter misinformation.

[DavidH]

Erm..that went down well then

What i would say is that what matters most is driving enjoyment, shaving tenths is just so totally irrellevant to road driving. So if you're using the mode of the ACC that you enjoy the most, and like the feel of the best, then i would never say you're wasting the car. It's also a case of which is best suited to the surface you're driving on, a very stiffly setup car is absolutely the wrong tool for the job on the rough, slippery roads i use my car on, if you want to travel quickly.

In any of the modes the great thing is that it's adaptive, and the comfort and normal modes probably make better use of that advantage.

[martdy]

Nice write up David , very interesting. Although I understand the basics of ACC and suspension set up I'm now better informed TA!

[wigit]

cheers DavidH