[V8] v8 urban assault vehicles

[Scott Justusson]

 Two sailors in a bar, each from the same class destroyer, one bragging that 'his' ship's ordinance can hit Bagdad from 25miles out, the other can only do so from 10.....  One might remind the braggart that the other 95% of the time, both ships cruise the open water quite the same.

Tom, I prefer 'educated opinion' to "weird".  It's not Steamboat Lake, it's Georgetown Lake and Steamboat Center for Ice Sciences Track respectively.  The 540I is RWD btw.  With all due respect, your old saab wouldn't run circles around a 740, because the faster you drive FWD is on ice, the less the dynamic handling advantage, because the front tires have to steer and add traction (friction circle exercise).  I'm driving enthusiast without prejudice, ice competitor and ice instructor, and my passion is low cf vehicle dynamics.  I currently own 2 v8, 2 CGT, 2 Urq's, a 4ktq, A6avant fwd, and a 94 supercharged Landcruiser.  My folks on the other hand, have owned BMW's for the last 20 years, and they live in the snow belt of upper Michigan.  I equip them with the best snow/ice tires (blizzacks and Hakkas respectively) and make sure that the ice compound is still present each season.  Your amusing anecdote aside, their machines have never needed a tow...  So all the grandstanding and flag waving aside, your opinion seems lopsided to me...  but this is the v8 list!

I also tow for a living, and routinely recover overzealous under-educated/equipped drivers with 200 feet of 12000lb winch cable.  
http://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165400&pictureid=235723
In 15 years of road recovery 'tows', I recover more awd Audis, subies and suv's, than I do BMW RWD vehicles.  Usually because these folks, just like your post below, 'believe' they can run circles around other vehicles.  IME that's an education problem, usually combined with an equipment problem (audi doesn't equip any awd vehicle with snows, that decision requires education on the value).   

Back to the sailors and the ships.  The comparison of the 740 to the v8q is apples to apples, because the 740 and the v8q are two v8 luxo-barges that eat up luggage, 4 passengers, and cross country road miles in fine style, btdroveboth.  And honestly, the 740 may have the edge in balance, chassis stiffness, and brakes for the 95% of the cruising you don't reference.  You want to 'claim' the v8q is better for 5% of the driving?  Feel free Tom.  But, it might be interesting to note, that when I put a set of Blizzacks on my Landcruiser and played with some of the best and 'better' lb/hp equipped quattros at Steamboat, my green giant would 'do circles' around (actually just outperform) *every* single quattro on ice.  So much so, it became the video chase car for Chad, and even Golledge in the venerable LT1Q.  That doesn't change my enthusiasm for the v8q ownership, but it puts your flag waving perspective in the rear view mirror.  

18 years of Steamboat and Georgetown Lake Tom, I have yet to see you there doing *any* circles.  Come give it a try, but I will warn you, v8q's don't really do that well at either venue.

Cheers

Scott J
Eventmaster 
Steamboat Quattro Ice Driving Experience 1999-2012
92 v8 auto
91 v8 auto 4.2 ABT Chipped
and many others doing circles....


 

-----Original Message-----
From: toml99 <toml99 at todomundo.com>
To: v8audi <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 1:22 am
Subject: Re: [V8] What's it worth.....


  "Wax poetic the virtues of awd, a good set of snows these days  
overcomes that unfair advantage pretty quickly".

Hey Scott, that's a pretty wierd comment from someone who's been to  
Steamboat Lake.  I don't see a lot of 7-series up in the mountains,  
and I'm pretty sure you saw none on the lake(or even in Steamboat).   
I Pulled a 540I out of the ditch this year with the V8 on the way to  
the mountain on a big day.  He had Blizzaks BTW, but the 6" of new  
after the plow(dumping) was just too much for the inadequate/ 
overpriced FWD car. (He had a tow strap in the trunk BTW as he had  
needed it on occasion).  You are comparing apples to solid gold  
oranges and you DO know the difference.   My old Saab would run  
circles around any 7-series on the ice, but my V-8 would kick the #$%  
out of my Saab with smooth road tires.  If you want to chat about  
740's. there's a website for that.......Tom