Today I was talking with a 2011 owner about ESC and how it intervenes during trail braking. He had said that in the normal mode the ESC does not allow trail braking, and that he had to run with it off. His car did not have the Sport Mode. My questions are:

Does Sport Mode allow for proper trail braking?

On which models, or with which options is Sport Mode ESC available?

The owner's manual isn't clear about which cars have this mode. The Order Guides only mention that "Unique ESC tuning" is available as part of the Brembo Brake and V6 Perf Packages. Does this indicate that Sport Mode is only available with these two packages?

 

As far as I know, only the Brembo package and the future V6 Performance Package has a Sport mode. This is because they're specifically tuned with these packages and tires in mind. All the others just have full ons for Stability Control and Traction Control, but I think he can turn off either or individually somehow. I haven't ready up on the manual to really know the difference yet, work week has kept me from finding out everything about the car. And, well, I'll be keeping everything full on for a while anyway.

 

When I test drove a regular GT with 19"s I was able to turn off the ESC by holding down the button and depressing the brake pedal at the same time, and holding for about 10 seconds. Oh yeah, the car can easily get away from you, especially with 3.73s!

 

I have a base GT, no brembo package and with an auto and it has Sports mode. I believe all GTs regardless of tranny type or having the brembo package have it. I believe for the V6 you have to have the performance package to have it. In regards to using it on the track, Sports mode seems to be a better option in preventing tire burnout. With TC completely off, you'll burn out too much and TC fully on, you'll have a delay in response. I haven't raced my car in the track yet but I plan to use it in Sports mode on most runs or until I feel comfortable enough to take TC fully off and get a good start off the line.