quattro handling at the edge

Mon Aug 9 21:42:23 EDT 2004

A lot depends on tires and alignment settings. Lower performance tires in general have a broader breakaway characteristic. Track rubber can be stealthily silent, even beyond the point of breakaway. Tow-in tends to make the car more stable, tow-out can quicken the cornering response but it’s not unusual to get bitten with aggressive settings.

 --- On Tue 07/27, Matt Evans < matt at mattevans.org > wrote:
From: Matt Evans [mailto: matt at mattevans.org]
To: quattro at audifans.com
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:48:39 -0500
Subject: RE: quattro handling at the edge

As Ti pointed out, this is situational and vehicle specific. However, I have the following observations: - don't buy any bridges from whomever told you to lift in an RWD car when the rear starts to come around. Guess what lifting does. It unloads the rear even more, reducing rear traction, meaning the rear is now sticking to the road even less than it was when it was already sticking so poorly that it could come around. Congratulations, you've spun. OTOH, LTO (lift throttle oversteer) is fun if you are expecting it, or if the point is to spin out :P The safest advice I've got for you when the rear comes around in an RWD car is to STEER through it and keep the throttle constant, or SLIGHTLY add throttle to get some more weight on the rears. The key here is STEERING through the slide though.. As if the rear moves AT ALL your steering is not pointed where it used to be. Just associate the two naturally - "rear moves, so does the steering wheel" Disclaimer - my summer car is a RWD 1988 BMW M5 :) - Now, onto quattro at the limit - Honestly, this depends on a bunch of things, tires being the biggest part of it, but also the weight distribution of your vehicle, your alignment, and your bar settings (and lots of other stuff even). Also, "at the limit" can have a few different contexts. There is such a thing as car that will understeer on turn in and oversteer under power, or understeer at speed but not at lower speeds. In my 88 90Q, with blown rear shocks and bushings everywhere, I found the handling to be very neutral if not surprisingly biased to oversteering. In the snow I've found that mid way through most turns I can get the rear to come around without significant mucking around, so the car seems to be moderately biased for oversteer. Its very easy to get the rear loose and keep it loose in this car; you can do some wonderful figure 8 drifts just by squeezing on and off the gas pedal (with wheel input, naturally). If you want to turn 90 degrees INSTANTLY, left foot brake as you're starting your directional transition.. Just a quick stab on the brakes. This is also possible on pavement with low grip tires.. Even with the NG motor. People following me on the street tell me that I lift my inside rear wheel on turns, so, assuming that's not just a function of blown shocks, that's definitely a FWD characteristic. The best advice I've seen is to go find a skid pad (snowy parking lot will do) and just try different stuff. You'll need to try a variety of speeds and surfaces to really know, but ultimately its irrelevant - nearly any car can be made to understeer or oversteer, so you need to anticipate and correct for both :) Matt 88 BMW M5 (tail wagger in the dry) 88 Audi 90Q (tail wagger in the snow) 00 Passat Wagon (no tail wagging due to "dynamic stability control module" installed in passenger seat) > Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 10:56:09 -0500 (CDT) > From: lws at o-o.yi.org > Subject: quattro handling dynamics at the edge > To: quattro at audifans.com > > Hi, I have a question about driving a Quattro when you start to lose > traction. > > The rule of thumb for RWD is to back off the throttle when > the rear comes > around, and with FWD the rule is to hold steady as long as > you still can > feel traction through the steering wheel. What do you do > with quattro, > when the balance keeps dynamically shifting back and forth? > Do you get > any warning that you're about to totally lose traction before all hell > breaks loose? > Or does the car just handle fine, right up until the moment > it doesn't? _______________________________________________ quattro mailing list quattro at audifans.com http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro

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