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We all know the routine, right? Open door. Sit down. Strap in. Clutch in, wiggle the shifter into neutral and crank the ignition. Next step, reach for that traction control button, and set it to off. It’s the auto enthusiast’s equivalent of the pre-flight checklist. But you may want to eliminate that last item, especially if you drive a newer car. Why? Well, chances are, you’ll actually be faster if you don’t turn it off, and I don’t just mean on your commute—I’m talking ever.
Don’t believe me? Fair enough. How about The Drive‘s captive racing driver and high-performance driving instructor, Nik Romano? His credentials are a bit better than mine, I’ll admit. And he’s picked the right tool to demonstrate this for us today: a 2026 C8 Chevrolet Corvette.
This mid-engine performance coupe has more than just the necessary hardware to go fast around the racetrack. It has a killer software package to go with it. Every automaker with track aspirations has some sort of race-derived traction control system these days.
Unlike old-school traction control systems, which simply cut throttle in response to signals from the ABS system, these new suites are capable of working electronic miracles with even the most ham-fisted of vehicle inputs. Even rudimentary traction control systems have proven to help rather than hinder in the real-world; that’s how many racing series ended up banning the technology in the ’80s and ’90s. Today’s systems are exponentially more complex than those old on/off switches.
Whether you’re in a Cadillac or Chevy, GM has a single name for its advanced traction control system: Performance Traction Management, or simply “PTM.” But how good can it really be? Well, back in the early aughts, GM was concerned that buyers would struggle to manage 400 horsepower on city streets; today, GM sells multiple rear-wheel-drive performance cars with more horses under the hood, and PTM deserves at least part of the credit for giving the company the confidence to brave the potential liability. All I have to say is, more Blackwings please.
To demonstrate just how good these systems have gotten, Romano took the Corvette to California’s Buttonwillow Raceway for some hot laps. Starting with the system in “Touring” mode (the default for most daily driving), Romano lays down a lap in each of the PTM’s performance levels, working up through Dry, Sport, and the various levels of Race. And then the holy grail mode: Pro, which is Chevy’s way of saying “you’re on your own.”
PTM integrates with the car’s other systems, including the Magnetic Ride Control suspension and (if applicable, as it is in the Corvette), the automatic transmission. It is also heavily dependent on the car’s electronic stability control system. The sensors that detect a car’s pitch (forward/rear dive) and yaw (side-to-side) are critical for predicting vehicle motions.
This not only makes them good at their day jobs (anticipating and intervening before a driver can completely lose control), but makes them excellent tools for monitoring and proactively accounting for various conditions on a race track, where weight management is the name of the game.
Romano spent the day lapping the C8 in various modes at different tire and surface temperatures in an attempt to eliminate any outliers in the lap times. The results? Well, if you’ve been paying attention, they should have been predictable. While the Touring lap was the slowest by far, it wasn’t the Pro laps that ended up being the quickest. That honor went to Race 2.
After a review of the data, the results are pretty clear. Not only were Romano’s fast times quicker with PTM on, but he was smoother too. So, the next time you set off on your commute (or maybe even on track), think twice before you turn traction control off.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
