An adaptive vehicle control system that classifies a drivers driving style based on vehicle launching maneuvers. A process determines whether the vehicle speed signal during a predetermined time window is greater than a speed threshold, whether the vehicle speed signal before the time window is less than the speed threshold and whether the average of the vehicle longitudinal acceleration during the time window is greater than a first longitudinal acceleration threshold and, if so, determines if the vehicle is in a vehicle launching maneuver. The process then determines that the vehicle launching maneuver has ended if the average of the vehicle longitudinal acceleration during a second time window is less than the longitudinal acceleration threshold. The style characterization processor can then classify the vehicle launching maneuver using selected discriminant features.