He lost traction on the 3rd gear shift, lifted and got back into it, and probably spun again, and lost control. I'm not sure how fast the XFi could react as it detects the drive shaft acceleration rate over a time frame. If the rate is too high over the users settings it will pull back the timing and the new firmware also the boost I heard. Here are the instructions.
32.1 Overview
There are two modes of Intelligent Traction Control that can be used in your XFI™. One is called Heuristic Mode, and the other is called PA Mode. Each mode can be used separately or together to reduce or eliminate a loss of traction which can occur due to any number of reasons such as limited tire size, suspension issues, or track conditions. Both modes utilize a speed sensor to monitor driveshaft RPM and are easily set-up using a simple 2D graph. The fact that both modes rely on driveshaft speed instead of other methods that utilize engine speed (RPM) to base their traction control on makes this much easier. The reason for that is you no longer have to ‘chase’ plots on a graph that are constantly affected by other factors such as gear changes, torque converter or clutch slippage, or anything else that can affect engine RPM and the rate at which it changes. Those variances don’t occur with driveshaft speed. FAST™ has once again come up with a simpler, easier way to get you down track or around town.
ITC Heuristic Mode
This is a traction control mode that will not limit the rate at which your car can accelerate. By monitoring the change in driveshaft speed over time, the ECU can determine whether the tires are slipping, and then retard the timing to try and keep that acceleration rate in the acceptable range you program. This acceleration is monitored as the rate in which the driveshaft’s rpm is increasing and measured in rpm increase over a 0.10 second period. It’s important to understand this as a rate of change in the RPM rather than the rate of speed (RPM) in order to use this feature correctly. It is not the actual speed of the driveshaft that we are referring to. It is the change in RPM of the driveshaft in one tenth of a second of time. For example, it will be typical to see this rate of change in the 250 to 350 RPM range for a well accelerating drag car. To know what the correct range of acceleration rate of your vehicle should be, you’ll need to log the ‘Delta DS RPM’ parameter. For more information on setting up a Dashboard for logging, see Section 14.3. Once you have acquired useful data of your vehicles ‘Delta DS RPM’ while running well in its typical environment such as drag racing, road racing, or just street driving, you can use that data to setup the curve for acceleration rate in the table ‘ITC Retard vs. Delta DS RPM’. It may sound complicated, but follow along and we’ll walk you through the process. Once you’ve been through it you won’t believe how easy it was to improve your E.T., lap times, etc.
2.4.7 Boost Reduction Mult.
This parameter allows you to link an adjustable amount of boost reduction to the timing retard commanded by the Heuristic mode traction control. In turbo applications, reducing timing alone may not take enough power out of the engine to effectively regain traction. Combining retarded timing and decreased boost is very effective at reducing engine power.
Boost Control % is reduced in proportion to the amount of timing retard. For example, if you have 10 degrees of retard from the Heuristic mode traction control and “Boost Reduction Mult.” is set to 2.5 (%/*), Boost Control % would be reduced by 25%. (10* x 2.5 = 25). As traction control feeds timing back into the engine, Boost Control % is also brought back up to normal. This feature can be monitored with the “ITC Boost Cut %” sensor.
ITC Heuristic Activity Output
When the ITC Heuristic mode is actively working, the ECU switches pin B11 (A/C Enable Output) to ground. This can be used for a dash mounted warning light so that the driver will know when traction has been lost. Or it can be used to signal an external device such as a boost controller with a boost reduction input. (Note that the XFI’s integrated traction control and boost control features can work together to reduce timing and boost without the need for third party controllers.)
