Augered in my 5000s wagon!

[Bob Kunz <bkunz@hpbs114.boi.hp.com>]

Hi all,

No one hurt but this last Saturday I augered in the '86 5000s into a snow
bank on the way down from skiing. This is not a quattro and was the first
time I took the car up skiing to this area. It is not a quattro but I
clearly was driving wrong. No damage to the car either (snow was soft).

This was on a downhill left hairpin turn which I entered too fast. I had
been braking on the straight before previous turns and applying power
about half way through to bring the front end around. I simply entered
this one too fast and didn't have the room to increase speed to power out.

I usually take my Chevy 4x4 up and of course all four wheels brake the
vehicle for me but with just FWD on the Audi, those wheels have *ALL* the
work to do -- braking, turning, accelerating. In this case they could not do
all and I paid for it.

What would be correct technique for this situation? Is light application of
the rear brakes through the manual brake going to help? At the time I was
in 2nd gear (5 sp manual), engine at about 2500 rpm and about 20 mph.

For the rest of the way down, I played with 3rd gear, went much slower
into the turns. Everyone else could go faster than me and did when I let
them by. I didn't think of applying the rear brakes till later.

Thanks,
Bob