In the Market for an A4Q

[quk@sievers.com (Phil Payne)]

In message <c=US%a=_%p=msft%l=RED-16-MSG-961001184446Z-59094@mail2.microsoft.com> Michael Lekas writes:

> Second, and more importantly, is handling. The reason we're considering
> an AWD is because our Integra has a habit of slipping out from under us
> in wet conditions. I've read the posts, and all are agreed that handling
> is vastly improved over a FWD with the Quattro system. Why then are the
> roadholding (sometimes referred to as lateral acceleration)
> specifications typically below the average car?

Always remember the quattro formula:

   4 times nothing is exactly the same as 2 times nothing.

If you drive at the limit in wet or icy conditions, you'll simply find that if 
you _do_ lose it, you'll hit the vegetation that much faster than in any other 
car.  I drive an ur-quattro, and if anything it's _less_ safe in average wet 
conditions than my Audi 80 was - largely because the hugely wide tyres are much 
more prone to aquaplaning.

What the quattro system gives you is a much more surprise-free transition 
through the phases of controllability into a slide.  You can pull off sudden 
maneouvres in a quattro that would be unthinkable in any other car - in 
three years, I've swerved out of two situations that would have been certain 
accidents (one serious) in any other car.

The problem with lateral acceleration numbers is that they are single numbers.  
What you need to look at is the graph, especially what happens to the figure 
once the car starts to slide and how easy/hard it is to get back to the maximum 
figure.  With a quattro, the amazing thing is the degree of independence 
between the accelerator/brake and how you're steering the car - on other cars, 
you have to be very careful with one if you get into trouble with the other.
 
--
 Phil Payne
 phil@sievers.com
 Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club