[s-cars] Quattro.... there is no substitute

[Pasqualoni, James E]

Ah, you poor souls Taka and Larry.  And I couldn't help myself yesterday
by 'telecommuting' from home in Maine and taking several 'test drives'
throughout the day in the trusty old 5kcstq with Hakke Rsi's.  Many,
many hero runs in snow, deep and shallow.  All the while, her pretty
tornado red a$$ was well planted (love those dual diff lockers heh heh)
like a 100 year old maple and my smile was ear to ear.  I didn't even
have a chance to take out the 91 200 20v Avant, I was having so much fun
in the 5k...

Folks, it's Just Not Right...

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of LL - NY
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 8:31 PM
To: Taka Mizutani
Cc: s-car-list
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Quattro.... there is no substitute

Sorry to hear of the difficulties of Haldex, Taka.

We had 5+ of snow/sleet on top of sleet, and snow this morn. The Saabaru
on RSi's handled things, pretty much like a quat, except with a bit of a
loose tail vs. the planted ass of a quattro.
It did quite well, this morning (speeds under 25, really needed to keep
it
there) was decent,
this afternoon (after we (my car "pool") were released, coverage was
set, so we could go home) was a different story. There were at least 21"
of snow on the ground, with drifts, road had about 9" of broken up (by
other vehicles) snow, essentially unplowed. We were told that they last
plow run was at 3 PM, and we hit the road at 3:10. Opposite lane was
plowed. They plowed the wrong lane. So alternating between "wrong side"
of the road driving where vision was clear, and "right side" around
blind hills, curves etc, we set out. Here, I wish I was in the //S-car.
The back end did want to come around often, so keeping one's foot in and
countersteer was the day's mantra the whole 8 miles. Quite a bit less
settled than the quattro (been through a 4KQ (QI), 200Q (QII) and the
//S6 (QIII), so I would concur, Quattro, there is no substitute.

LL - NY

On 2/14/07, Taka Mizutani <t44tqtro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I hate to sound like a Porsche ad, but there really is no substitute 
> for Quattro.
>
> Today we received about 3" of ice and snow, with a nice slushy layer 
> of snow on top of the roads and slick ice underneath. Not a good 
> combination at all.
>
> That said, I'd say these types of conditions are the most challenging,

> in terms of traction, kind of like loose gravel or mud.
>
> With the V70R shod with Nokian WR, I can officially say that Haldex 
> sucks the big one.
>
> I have not had issues with the car in fresh *snow* but this icy stuff 
> has the car completely confounded.
>
> Front drive starting off, then wheelspin and subsequent yaw, then DSTC

> tries to get things under control and with some countersteering and 
> throttle inputs, it rights itself.
> This cycle repeats over and
> over with Haldex, because every time things get steady again, it 
> reverts to FWD. This totally sucks.
>
> With the 5ktq on General Winterfire 195/65R15, I never had these
issues.
> With the 200q on Nokian NRW 225/45R17, I never had these issues.
> With the A4q on Dunlop M2 205/55R16, I never had these issues.
>
> All of the Audis were remarkably consistent in their responses- icy 
> conditions didn't cause the car to freak out. Zero traction is zero 
> traction, but when there is some traction, having the car go from 
> 100/0 to 50/50 or whatever, constantly changing radically, is really 
> ridiculous.
>
> I've had similar issues with Haldex on the Audi TT, so I really don't 
> think it's a Volvo-only problem.
>
> Also, DSTC makes the car extremely difficult to drive- you can't 
> initiate any slides- the car wants to perpetually understeer, makes it

> very difficult to turn on a really low traction surface. Looks like 
> I'll be driving home with DSTC off (hit the button *7* times to turn 
> it off!).
>
> Taka
> wanting an Audi again in a very bad way 
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