a3 20 fsi

[Brett Dikeman]

At 11:51 PM -0500 3/20/03, luke wrote:

>so this new a3 coming out 2004? it has a torsen?
>a torsen, dual clutch transmission, 2.0l fsi engine... in a light
>hatchback body shape...
>that spell wrc to anyone else?

Not really.  Audi doesn't rally anymore.  It's too "low brow"; they
see themselves as 'above' it.  It's also easier for management to
understand; Lemans, the car goes by a bunch of times instead of once,
everyone gets a really nice hospitality tent to wine+dine the
mucky-mucks, and all the rich customers you've got your sights set on
know Lemans.  To them, "WRC" might as well stand for What a Revolting
Concept.  I mean, mud?  Yuck.

I think they had their sights set on using the DSG in F1, but the
Luddite rulechanges seem to put a damper on "fully automatic
gearboxes", according to the stories I've read.  DSG seems "fully
automatic" to me.  So much for that.

Luddite ain't a bad thing for the sport though.  I tried to watch an
F1 race a few months back and it was like watching paint dry; boring,
and you knew what the results would be right from the start.  Imagine
the headlines.  "Someone other than Schumacher wins F1!  Homeowner's
wall goes polka-dot while paint dries!"

   I also can't stand Schumacher and Ferrari- he's an arrogant, snotty
little prick; they're like the parents who constantly reward the
spoiled-rotten brat.  "Awww, you didn't win?  Okay, okay, stop
crying, we'll take the win from your teammate, here you go Mikey, go
look fierce for the cameras."

You might as well paint a target on his back for any of the other
manufacturers who would just love to be known as the marque that gave
him a good ol' fashioned Italian grandmother smack upside the head.

>if not as a factory car, a private party could do it :)

Without factory support, between FSI and the DSG, sounds like a
nightmare if anything broke or started acting up.  Given DSG hasn't
seen any racing action yet(someone correct me if I'm wrong) I'd say
the possibility is a strong one; at least FSI has been fully sorted
out in the race cars.  Neither has seen any action in 'real' cars.

What you will probably see is VW rally cars based off the R32...

Brett
--
----
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/