Re: TORSEN at the envelope

[Dave Eaton <dave.eaton@minedu.govt.nz>]

yes, i too usually make the most of every opportunity to take a car
to the limits and beyond to understand it's behaviour and to learn
to recognise danger signs.  the way i figure, it may save my life
some day.  i had a ball yesterday with the s2 on a large grass field
practicing "j" turns over a figure "8" circuit (after suggesting that
my girlfriend vacate the passenger seat that is :-)).

wrt torsen, the thread had sort of died but your mail made me think that i'd
just make it clear that in my experience the presence of a torsen centre
diff does not prevent or eliminate the ability of the vehicle to execute 
4-wheel drifts as some have suggested.  don't forget that with the
torsen you always have a minimum of 25% power to the least tractive
axle...

both my audi's love 4 wheel drifts and are perfectly predictable
under these conditions.  i usually do this sort of thing when the road is
wet and traffic minimal and i have no passengers. the exit of a wet
round-about is ideal (as phil has suggested i think). the same thing is
perfectable possible on gravel and is a real buzz.  however both audi's
on gravel with their wide tyres can get a bit of a handfull.  when they oversteer
they tend to do so fast and you need to catch them early to avoid using up a
lot of road bringing them under control (mind you not as bad as an m3 under
the same conditions)...

the only thing to remember is to get the application of power right.  too early
and understeer is the name of the game....

-dave
'93 s2
'90 ur-q

..>From: Eric Renneisen <renneie@hlthsrc.com>
..>Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 14:07:52 -0500
..>
..>Well, ever since all of that talk about Torsen vs. non-Torsen I have been 
..>wanting to test out my Torsen Coupe in an empty parking lot.  I have owned 
..>my beloved Fraulein for about 9 months now but hadn't pushed her hard 
..>enough to find her limit.  It was raining yesterday, and I had just finished 
..>cleaning out the entire interior (no more potential projectiles!), so I 
..>decided that the time was right for a little fun.
..>
..>Some here have described the Torsen Q's as unpredictable when pushed to 
..>the edge, and I was curious to see (feel) what they mean.  The first thing I 
..>noticed was that the edge was not easy to get to!  I had to get quite a bit of 
..>speed and yank hard on the wheel to break anything loose.  Of course, I'm 
..>using my previous understeer-a-plenty 4KS FWD as a reference.  My main 
..>problem was body roll.  I was really _less_ concerned about sliding into a 
..>light pole than flipping her over!  After a few runs, I started to get a feel 
..>for her.  At higher speeds I could induce oversteer with some creative 
..>weight shifting; at lower speeds and tighter turns she understeered.
..>
..>I now understand the unpredictability comments, though I think more 
..>experience and a larger parking lot will help me figure her out.  My first 
..>concern is getting the suspension improved (let me know when you've got 
..>one, Eric F.).  I'm reasonably sure its still got all original parts at 105K! 
..>Enough rambling, just my .02.
..>
..>A word of caution:  Don't do this at a large hardware place.  I used Home 
..>Depot's lot and came home with a nice shiny screw embedded in my tire!
..>