God, family, country and QUATTRO (long)

["Matt & Jenai" <matjen@xsite.net>]

Hey brother, welcome back.  I'll give you a call today to pester you about
work on my car.  In the meantime here is proof of my elephant-like memory.
Better not quote me any prices in the future :)  I didn't have the
heart/balls to post this up for fear of being thrown off the list or having
MSW's butt buddy Mike Veglia punch me out!  Good thing MIchael Sheridan
Williams wasn't driving one of those "crappy" BMWs.  He likely would of
ended up through the armco and in a ravine dead because we all know how safe
4kqs are and how much better they handle when half the body is pushed up
into armco.  In fact, I think he owes Audi and quattro a big thanks for
saving his life.  He surely would be dead in any other car!

On 12/21/97 Michael Sheridan Williams (MSW)writes:
Matt & Jenai decided to speak these words:
>ut let's be honest - the quattro system shines only in poor conditions and
>poor conditions are not the time to drive aggressively, etc.
I would have to disagree here.  I assume that you have driven agressively
on maybe a windy road, or taken a high speed lane change quickly..
I have driven several different cars, and in the real world, be it on
icy, snowy, slick, wet or even dry roads, i would take my little 4kQ over
almost any of them.  Only when acceleration becomes your top priority
would i have to say go for an American car....they are cheap, and some
are pretty fast.  But I myself decided to put handling over acceleration
and top speed...And i am sure that many do here as well...
I vote for quattro shining in all conditions...


On 12/22/97 MSW writes these confident, biased, and flat out wrong words::
Matt & Jenai decided to speak these words:
>What cars you are comparing your 4KQ to?
I have driven a Coupe GT, 911 C4, Mustang GT, 325eS and iS, 85 735i with
a 5 speed, 2800CS with sport package...and a couple crappy little cars...>
>I think this thread has been discussed before.  IMHO the quattro system
>operates as something of a band-aid on most of the Audis.  In other words,
>it makes the cars more secure and stable up to a certain point
(particularly
>given the 60/40 balance on the type 44 bodies).  Quattro does not entirely
>make up for low power and weight shifting which many of our cars
suffer>from.
I disagree, have you ever driven a Coupe GT?  That car will outhandle
many other cars on the road.  Yes it does have a fair amount of
understeer, but only when you dont drive it correctly.  I have gone very,
very fast in my old coupe around some turns that would be a challenge for
some bimmers that you love so much.  And my Q has very little understeer,
and again, only when i do something wrong, usually it is perfectly
neutral, or even slight oversteer.  And with the center diff locked, i
can do things in turns that would make a rear wheel drive owner quiver in
his boots...Like give it full throttle, or sharp steering inputs, and it
is a hell of a lot easier to recover than a rear wheel drive car.  I once
spun out my dads 735 (mentioned above) in the wet,i almost recovered, but
the thing is a bitch to control sometimes, and it actually makes me
nervous on the freways when i take a lane change or turn, i feel like the
car is going to lose traction in the rear all the time...nothing like my
Q where it encourages me to take those lane changes alot more quickly
than i should...
And you must remember that past the limit an all wheel drive car will
almost always be more secure and stable.  A very knowledgealbe auto guy
that i know once said "If you lose traction or control in a car, you
better hope that you are a professional driver, or you better have all
wheel drive, or you are screwed..."  (or somthing to that effect)...

However things took a turn for the worse when on 2/15/98 MSW writes:
I was in the fast lane with a group of cars, going the same speed as
everyone
else....apparently there was alot more water on the road than i
thought...well,
someone from the lane next to me decided to get in front of me, but they
were
going significantly slower than i was...So i put on the brakes very
slightly,
andi guess that was enough to do it somehow...the tail drifted out (btw i
had my
center diff locked), i tried to recover,but there was someone in the lane
right
next to me, i kept it from spinning, but cause i was in 5th gear, i didnt
have
enough torque to bring it back in line, so i started to go onto the left
shoulder...i kept trying to recover before i hit the guard rail, but there
was
alot of mud suddenly, so i ended up hitting the rail with about a 10 or 15
degree angle...it didnt hit too hard, maybe i was doing 50 mph by that
point...
I play by the rules and dont speed, dont change lanes, and this happens,
i cant win..