Re: Dynosaurus Rx

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

> I understand what you are saying, however, Scott and I were debating
> whether one could show an advantage of AWD over RWD/FWD on dry
> pavement.  I say to do that on must have _one_ car that can be modified
> to be all three.  If you cannot do that then there is no valid
> comparison between them. 
> 
I guess I don't agree that to demonstrate the advantage of one over the other 
you need a single vehicle.  The automobile is a system and as such its dynamics
are affected by the drive system.  Compare a FWD car to a RWD car ... RWD cars
don't need to compensate for torque steer effects of FWD cars.  Would you handi-
cap the validity of your test by using a standard RWD front suspension on your
test mule?  I think that the more valid test would be to use all the tweaks 
you can find to optimize each configuration and test those.  Things that 
should be maintained constant as much as possible are overall weight distribu-
tion outside of the drive train and aerodynamic characteristics, tires, braking 
systems and engine horsepower.  I don't know how you would test all configura-
tions with a single test, but it seems to me that you could do a good test by 
using two similar models of a car that is available in FWD and AWD versions 
(Audi, Mitsubishi, Porsche, etc.).

IMHO the test was performed many times last year in the EC and down under ...
as it was so many years ago here in the states.  The dominance of AWD in the
touring car championships over FWD and RWD rivals soundly answers the question 
for me.  

It is too bad to hear that V8 owners have been leaving the list because they 
feel that their car is "so different."  I know when I look at the fiche I see
a lot of similarities [BTW I picked up a copy of the A8Q fiche @ Carlsen the 
other day :].  I appreciated hearing about the issues that the V8Q owners 
posted ... as that is one car that I wouldn't mind owning.  We've also seen 
members in the PNW region leave the list because of the "excessive BW" as well.
The fact of the matter is that there are folks with 4ks, 5ks, 80s, 90s, Coupe
GTs, quattro coupes, V8Qs, A4s, A6s, S4s, S6s even quantum syncros on this list.  
Each of us finds things that are of more or less interest to them depending on 
our own interests.  Yes, there are times I wish I could have a single urQ list,
but I am convinced that overall it would be a general loss in available infor-
mation as there are people that might not choose to subscribe to an urQ list 
that might have crucial information for me on the quattro list ...

Saddened again by another thread ...
Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)