| delete the HICAS.... here's why: The HICAS system is designed based on the premise of all wheels maintaining traction. So long as this is the case, it will produce results consistent with what is advertised. However, consider when this is not the case. You come into a turn hot, standing on the brakes and sling the steering wheel hard left. Once the car is pitched you then advance the throttle to produce a drifting motion - the rear swings right and you counter-steer to the right to prevent a spin but only enough right steer input to maintain a leftward turn. At the moment you entered the turn by steering to the left, the HICAS turned the rear wheels IN to the turn thereby reducing the probability of spinning. When the HICAS does this, it requires additional steer-in to cause the rear to break traction enough to produce a drifting motion. At this point you are turned in LEFT something fierce just to get the drift and then this is where things get really interesting. :) Once the rear is in drift, you must counter-steer to the right to prevent a spin. The transition from the hard left position required to produce a drift into the steer position hard right to counter the spin will cause the HICAS to react as if you were making a right-hand turn. In this case, the HICAS "thinks" you are trying to turn to the right as per the steering wheel position sensor. However, you actually have the car pitched such that it is holding a left turn drift. The moment you transition to the right-turn to hold the drift, HICAS will steer IN to the right while you are still in drift. When the rear wheels are turned IN to your drift, their "slide" across the road will rapidly turn into a "GRIP". Next thing you know, the car is now in an unpredicted right spin. For the drifters, HICAS is the anti-christ. Despite this, looking closer at the original intention of Nissan's engineers, what they were trying to do is a form of traction control. The problem with their approach is that it was designed around the premise that the tires have positive traction. I would guess to say that at the time, the development cost of implementing accelerometers into this system was likely cost prohibitive so they did the best they could within the budget constraints they were given. Having countless opportunities to drive in both turbo'd Z's with and without the HICAS it is my personal opinion that the HICAS was a cool idea for the late 80's but a seasoned driver can push the envelope harder and produce better results in a Z without that system.
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