I autocross mine at least twice a month. It's been chipped, but is an automatic, and I have no problem when I turn the ESP off. You're very right about not having full control when it's on. It will only let you have what it thinks you can handle. But, when I turn it off.... I've smoked the tires and even spun the car out in a complete 360! I don't think the chip had anything to do with the ESP though and I have no idea if the ESP works differently with the manual tranny. Maybe one of our Tech.s can shead some light......