TORSEN CENTER - OPEN FRONT!!

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <34FBE314.E91D2AD2@novagate.com> Sargent Schutt writes:

> So what if you're not? What does that have to do with the operation of Torsen?
> I'm just giving you the repeatable test everyone was clamoring for. Right off
> the bat, you are avoiding the physics and mechanics of what's going on. Is this
> a tacit concession?

Well, it's not a repeatable test for me, because in the situation you describe 
an ur-quattro with a TORSEN will understeer, not oversteer.  So I couldn't 
recreate the situation, even if I _had_ got my car back - which I haven't.

> I don't completely agree with your thoughts on "faster" - I prefer to carry
> more speed longer - then get back on it. "Sow in, fast out" is not faster than
> "fast in, fast out" if the latter is executed properly. But that is neither
> here nor there to the operation of Torsen.

The optimum, with my car, is to hit the apex at optimum speed at the instant 
that boost comes back on.  At this point, you have every characteristic of the 
car available - power, brakes and an ever-increasing (past the apex) steering 
capacity.  Yes, you tend to slide sideways if you put a little too much power 
on, and you have to open the steering out if you have to brake.  The principle 
directional control in this state is the accelerator.  I do this in my own car 
_all_ the time, and I did it three times on the weekend before last in Tony 
Hill's car with him sitting alongside me.

> Torsen is fine for those who neither know how or desire to know how to
> orchestrate a controlled power-on slide in slippery conditions. Such as the
> 'average driver' for whom Audi designed the car.

Sorry.  I powerslide _all_ the time.  Never a twitch.  

-- 
 Phil Payne
 UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club