RE: 325ix vs. Quattro

[Mark Nelson <mnelson@brls.com>]

Mike-

I completely agree that going to a completely custom drivetrain, as in
the Mitsubishis, is an extremely expensive proposition.  However, I
think that when you have a manufacturer that is paying for everything,
(i.e. Hyundai in Buffum's case), then spending that much money for
proven components is not really an issue.  

As far as the ix is concerned, it apparently wasn't good enough for BMW
to justify building more of these cars, or even extend AWD as an option
in their other models.  Anyway, this issue could skew into a hole other
tangent, that is probably more appropriate for the Bimmer list <g>.

BTW I also agree that the C4/C4S/'96+ Turbo is undoubtedly the best high
performance AWD car in the US, or perhaps I should say of all high
performance cars in the US in general.

Best Regards,

Mark Nelson

BTW I look forward to meeting you at a rally in the near future.  I am
going to be at the Wild West Rally in Olympia, Washington a week from
this Friday, are you going to be there?  It looks like it will be a good
rally, since both Choinere and Sprongl will be running, and they are
tied for first in points, having both won their divisional rallies,
should make for a great rally!  My dad and I were thinking about running
our Mazda 323GTX Turbo AWD rally car, but logistics ruled otherwise, oh
well.  We are planning on running Rim of the World in May, and hopefully
a couple of divisionals before then, but we'll see.  Are you planning to
be at Rim of the World?  Anybody else going to be at either of these
events?

>>Subaru Legacy wagon has nothing in common with Impretsa WRX. WRX is sold 
>>to public in Japan for $45KUS. True it doesn't have $65K XTrack 
>>trasmission of WRX cars but it (like Mitsu Evo4 ) has active center diff.
>>I also feel that dropping IX from US market has nothing to do with how 
>>good or bad it was. Other AWD cars came and went and lived on in other 
>>parts of the world. As far as I am conserned C4 is the only high perf. 
>>AWD car on US market. We never see any homologation specials from 
>>Subaru,Nissan, Mitsu, Ford.
>>I have not seen Tiboron yet. When I see it I will be running far behinde 
>>it at STPR. 
>>None of previous Libra Hundai cars had WRC drivetrains. These were 
>>Mitsubishi transmissions and engines built by private shops in England 
>>for rally specifications for much less than WRC stuff from Rallyart.I 
>>would be very surprised if Tiboron had XTrack transmission with new 
>>active front and center diffs. A setup like that costs no less than 
>>$75KUS for trans alone. Private shops in England will build close ratio 
>>dog box for much less. Several others use them in this contry as well.
>>
>>Mike Z