All Wheel Steer was Audi vs Subi

[Lawrence C Leung]

Super HICAS was installed on some of the last generation 300ZX's (by far
and away the best, and the second prettiest of the series, behind the
original 240Z). That's it for US Nissans. The Galant VR4, the 4WS
Preludes all had ACTIVE (as opposed to passive, such as the Weissach
axle) rear wheel steering. There was a definite handling advantage to
these active systems, according to road tests in both Car and Driver and
Road and Track, but the 'merican public just wouldn't bite at the added
cost. FWIW, the 'merican market seems most driven by style over
substance, so I'd be willing to bet the current popularity of
Quattro/4Motion, Volvo X/C, Subaru AWD, 4Matic, iX, etc. is a direct rub
off of the SUV craze. Sorry, but true IMHO.

LL - NY


On Mon, 30 Oct 2000 15:34:59 EST Kwattro at aol.com writes:
>In a message dated 00-10-30 11:15:43 EST, you write:
>
><< I had a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 the first of 2 years they sold them 
>here.
> Besides AWD it had rear steer up to 1.5° in the direction the car 
>was
> steering.  The result was that you could make an abrupt steering 
>change (as 
>to
> avoid a piece of retread on a highway) at high speed without 
>upsetting the
> balance of the car at all. Surprised we don't see it more.
>  >>
>
>
>We did - just not in quantities that one would notice unless well 
>informed on 
>the car buisness - Nissan had Super HICAS 4 wheel steering, which 
>varied rear 
>angle depending on speed.  Honda had a similar system which was used 
>on the 
>Prelude models - only the upper end, if I remember.  Every time I see 
>one of 
>them, all I can think is "Gee, if it's 128$ for one of my rear tie 
>rods, I 
>wonder how much it costs to fix and align that thing...."  As you 
>mentioned, 
>Mitsu also had a 4 wheel steering system.
>
>Later!
>Carter J
>Kwattro at aol.com