Plastic bumper 200q20v Digest, Vol 30, Issue 24

[Phil Rose]

At 9:11 AM -0600 4/28/06, Ed Kellock wrote:
>I'm sure they've thought of this too but...  Could you use the parking brake
>for this purpose?
Yeh, unfortunately they figured that one out. I tried it, but no go 
(literally). And in addition to the ECU reducing power once the revs 
climbed much above 1K/sec, it was surprisingly difficult to pull  on 
the brake with enough force to overcome the engine torque--even at 
those low RPMs. In the A3, the handbrake handle "slides" almost 
straight up rather than having the expected levering action (poor 
ergonomics?). Even if the p-brake could fool the ECU, it wouldn't be 
easy to avoid "crawl" when revs approached an "interesting" level.

To bring in some '91 200q content (and relevant to a recent thread) 
I'm hoping that my A3's VR6 engine can deliver something close to the 
overall fuel economy I've typically had with my '91 200q. My 
"in-town" driving indicates the A3 is capable a couple of MPG 
*better* than the '91 200q, but the limited time I've spent cruising 
at 70+ mph suggests  only about 25-26 MPG, giving ol' Lago Blue an 
advantage of 2 or 3 MPG. Well, perhaps by the time it's broken in 
I'll see a bit better fuel economy. It's hard to match a chipped 
turbo for economy cruising: the 2.0T version of the A3 is reported to 
easily get 30+ MPG on the highway.

Phil


>Ed
>
>On 4/28/06, Phil Rose <pjrose at frontiernet.net> wrote:
>>
>>  Without a Launch Control mode, the ECU will reduce power
>>  if you attempt to rev the engine while brakes are applied--e.g.,
>  > prior to a standing start.
>>


-- 

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net