Re: 328is v. Jeep CJ 4x4 in Snow

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

there's a guy in the vw newsgroup that "competed" his corrado vr6 with
his boss' bimmer with TC.. don't remember what tires were involved
but even the corrado's relatively crude system had no trouble beating
the bummer.

i think they probably pushed the limits of traction with rwd and 50/50
weight distribution, but a nose heavy fwd car or a Q has an inherent
advantage that doesn't require as much trickery/pokery to get good
winter traction.

as for the jeep, it is possible that the fat tires are a disadvantage
and that without a rear diff lock or LSD, under extreme conditions
the jeep can get stuck with only one front and one rear wheel losing
grip completely.

here's how i would concoct one scenario:  left side on snow, right side on
ice.  the right side will spin away all the drive, leaving nothing for the
left.  with the bimmer, you also lose the right side, but because of the
TC, you have drive to the left and with careful modulation of power, can
prevent spin and thus will not get stuck.

but it's really quite a stretch to imply that 2wd w/ TC can outperform
4wd *in general*.

but the big wildcard in all this "testing" are tires.  this winter
i found that my v8 with worn dunlops could not climb my steep
driveway, while my neighbor's dodge caravan with new goodyear
all seasons could.  not even TC on this thing.  of course the
moment i slapped on my killer snow tires, it killed off everything
on the road.. only until then, though.


eliot