Lots of good words. Some speculation. All good fun.

 

As was stated above, the wheels have to spin/slip for the system(s) to kick in and do their thing. ABS is another system that gets regularly tested on a quiet road (honest officer, I'm just taking the shine and rust off my wife's discs).

 

If the experience of many with the A2 is anything to go by, this is an incredibly good idea. Keep the discs flat and non-rusty and specifically force the rear ones into use occasionally. At least on the A2, they will rust really quickly without hard use, which tends to mean they won't be as effective when you need them as ESP helpers....

 

 - Bret

I'm not sure what it is mechanically, I haven't yet serviced it (only 9 months and 10k km) but I will ask the technician what could explain it. It does however reappear over and over under the same circumstances so I have cone to accept it, given that the car behaves perfectly in all other respects.

Sounds like tramp to me.

Got distracted at the dealers. Apologies

VW have an anti tramp system, I know it's on the performance golfs but don't know about the octy.

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/technology/anti-tramp-function

Found the point the other week where there's so little grip the only way to get the car to ease round a corner was with the handbrake. Braking would just send you forwards - sharp 90 degree left-hander - not enough grip to pull you round, so it's handbrake, wait for the swing, and then hit the pedal. 

On Winter tyres. Walking speed.

At 0C. With spikes. And ESP on. Nuts.

 

Incredibly impressive what the car can do, especially as I slipped over several times and have sprained my ankle as a result.... braking wasn't the issue, but accelerating was.  We also managed to get a BRZ into a position where the wheels were turning, it was in gear, but it wasn't going anywhere... Doing 80km/h+ in a 5-series is an experience I'm not going to forget in a hurry,  feeling the weight being thrown around. The vRS was also remarkably chipper with ESP off. Still got the back of teh Octy to swing out with ESP on, mind - too little grip. 

 

The short experiments on that surface are pretty one-dimensional, though. At the extreme, there is no option but to wheelspin. ASR will also allow it. I might yet try to get some video comparisons done while the weather is clear and cold, but I'm relatively immobile right now.

 

 - Bret