Why Disable Hicas?

[SilverECR33]

HICAS can cause excessive oversteer when exiting a corner.

Basically if you add alot of power around mid corner, rear of car steps out.

But this is a Characteristic with Any RWD Car with lsd with some power.

Ive found that its actually alot more controlled in the skyline over alot of other cars.

I remember 1 interview on "the skyline story" with the falken GTR and THIS question was asked to the japanese driver, And he said "The hicas is removed to save weight, if the hicas was there, you could corner quicker easier, but overall the benifits of the weight reduction is why they do this"

I reckon if the japanese racers say this, Ill take their word for it. So for my street car. Hicas all the way. all the REst is Hear-say and personal Preference.

[Lunatikk]

It's also a good idea to actually leave the lines under the car (capped at both ends) as they make good fuel lines if you ever have the need in the future. R32 only for obvious reasons

[SKYPER]

you could corner quicker easier

Silver bulletR33, I guess you would have to look at

some lap times, as that should shed more light on

if it's a worthwhile mod or not.

I've seen some footage of a Lemans racecar driver

who reported that a Lemans racecar doesn't feel

right and the suspension engineers change the

suspension settings. The racecar was slower

after some test laps. After a few suspension

setting changes and test laps, the suspension

engineers reverted back to the original settings

they came up with and the racecar was faster.

It seems that what a racecar driver says, is not always

what's the best setting for a racecar.

From what I remember, some GTR racecar drivers find

the rear more predictable without HICAS. It seems

they are used to driving cars without HICAS.

Edited May 31, 2007 by SKYPER

[RBwhatever]

Got the lock bar fitted. To clarify, the Hicas computer was not unplugged and the steering did not go heavy at low speeds/parking etc.

Also steering through corners feels a lot better, it's more direct, the car goes to where your point it more easily, there's no vagueness or funny feeling in the rear going through and exiting the corner. It's more controlled I guess you could say.

Very happy with it anyway

[djr81]

This subject has been pretty much flogged to death, but nonetheless I would like to add my 10 cents worth.

I have driven my car (R32 R) on the track both with & without HICAS.

The reason people (atleast me) remove it is that generating a good lap time requires you to keep the car on its limit of adhesion thoughout the four stages of the corner, ie braking, turn in, mid corner & exit. The HICAS system is (on an R32) reactive, slow & not particularly helpfull.

Take as an example the turn in phase of the corner. In a Gt-R you will be lightly trail braking to help the nose turn in. At this point the HICAS decides you need some opposite phase rear wheel input. It is difficult to diferentiate between the back end sliding (ie you are on your way to a spin) & the HICAS doing its thing. Secondly if you are trail braking you will be carrying more speed at this point than you would be otherwise. HICAS removes the need for so much retardation hence slows you down at a point where it is easiest to make time on your opposition.

So in summary the HICAS system interferes with the feel of the car & by its action makes it slower. It is also heavy.

So why would you want to keep it?

[9krpm]

For a properly sorted GTR you don't need to trail brake into any corner, just full throttle around the corner mate

If your car understeered then either you did not get on the throttle early enough, you are taking that corner too fast or your car need another appointment at the wheel alignment shop.

What you guys are describing is possibly due to poor wheel alignment or worn out bushes. A properly working hicas system will make the car turn in better and feel a lot smaller. It's only a problem if you have too much power (320+rwkw) and try to control the car with most of that power around the corners. The last thing you need, in this case, is some extra changes in the rear wheels during turning.

Another factor to take into consideration is that the GTR needs good tyres. If you have poor rubbers then it is the same as driving a high powered car around corners (just with a slower corner speed). Removing the hicas in this case may help but you are really chasing your tail rather fixing the problem.

I've driven 320rwkw cars with proper suspension setup and still has hicas. The car still feels so good around fast corners.

My track car has much more power than this and the hicas is disabled.

[Pietro]

No way to add a simple button to temporarily exclude Hicas at least on electric model? Just to know...

Edited June 13, 2020 by Pietro
add of a concept

[GTSBoy]

6 hours ago, Pietro said:

No way to add a simple button to temporarily exclude Hicas at least on electric model? Just to know...

Yes. It would be trivial to do it on any version of HICAS. All you would have to do is trigger a fault by interfering with any of the sensors that the HICAS CU wants to see working. The steering angle sensor would be the obvious one. HICAS will go into "fail safe mode" when faulted. Meaning it won't do anything.

I did it on my R32 because I had no steering sensor. I pulled the smaller of the two plugs out of back of the HICAS CU and it put it into failsafe with no dash light (because the dash light is run from that plug!). I claim credit for discovering that hack, more than 20 years ago.

But, it is just f**king stupid. Take off and kill HICAS from orbit. It is the only way to be sure. Anyone who wants to keep HICAS working doesn't drive their car hard enough.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

HICAS = coronavirus

Both can be deadly.

[Greekos]

years ago when my gtr had 240ish kw's and the hicas was operational running stock suspension, i could throw that thing around like a go kart it was amazing the handling and how well balanced it was. but once the hicas shit's itself and everything is worn how forget about ?