AWD Alfa 164 Q4 [was: 5 bangers galore]

[stevanov@orion.crd.ge.com (Ljubisa D. Stevanovic)]

 >From: Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>
 ...
 >> With continuously
 >> variable, microprocessor-controlled, torque-split with many input
 >> parameters, it doesn't make sense to talk about specific differential
 >> ratios (e.g. 50-50, 20-80, etc.) 
 >
 >one could talk about constant speed torque splits.  e.g. travelling
 >at constant speed with "dry" one knows for a fact that the split
 >is 40-60.

I'm still not convinced. Say we consider two cases: 
- First, the car is traveling at constant speed v1=55 mph with intake 
  pressure p1=0.5 bar (arbitrary numbers);
- Second, the car is traveling (flying) at constant speed v2=155 mph with 
  intake pressure p2=1.5 bar.
If the torque split is boost-dependent as you say, wouldn't this imply that 
the car's steady-state fore-aft torque split would differ in the two cases?

 >> in a production road car." 
 >	^^^^^^^^
 >
 >the 959 was hardly a production road car.  also, it is not clear to me

Agree.

 >i have also not read any comparison tests between the alfa and the
 >lancia delta integrale.. i would pick the lancia because of its
 >impeccable breeding and rally heritage.  too bad audi quit the
 >racing business.

Incidentally, in the same article the Fast Lane mag. mentioned a
comparison test drive around a race track between 164 Q4 and 155 Q4. They
described the 155 Q4 as "the first cousin" of Integrale, although I'm not 
sure what that means (if they have same AWD setup, suspension, etc.). The
conclusion was that the 164 Q4 was very neutral and composed around the
track, while the 155 Q4 had a tendency to understeer most of the time 
(this doesn't sound like Integrale to me, which was proclaimed by the same 
mag. (and others, including the Car) to be the best handling production car 
in the world). 
As for breeding and heritage, Alfa and Lancia are both Fiat owned and I'm
sure that Alfa has relied on Lancia's expertise for development of it's
production and (extremely successful) racing (DTM 155.V6 Ti) AWD cars.

Regards,
Ljubisa Stevanovic (stevanov@crd.ge.com)
87 5000 TQ