re: Dead Duds - sorry, but this just isn't physics...

[pjrose@servtech.com (Phil & Judy Rose)]

Phil Payne said:

>Where are the magazine articles?  It's ten years since the first Torsen
>ur-quattros rolled out of Neckarsulm - I don't know exactly when the
>first Type 44s with centre Torsens came out, but it was around the same
>time.
>
>No recalls.  No warning notices.  No deaths.  Seriously - if there was
>some aspect of the car that caused it to behave in a manner that Joe
>Average couldn't cope with, Nader and/or "Sixty Minutes" and/or Stern
>would have pilloried Audi _YEARS_ ago.

No deaths? What's that? No people have been killed in Torsen-equipped Audi
quattros?  You know better. But anyway, (1) the dead usually don't complain
about their car's handling, and (2) the undead--but wounded
(psychologically or otherwise)--who perhaps have gone off the road with
Torsen's help by and large don't have a _clue_ as to the workings of their
center diff. Or even know that they've got one. As proposed by Scott, any
Torsen-bite mishaps are likely to occur when a car is being driven at least
somewhat aggressively on a slippery surface, and that situation will
usually put an end to any inquiry about mechanical factors. And _if_ a
wrecked quattro is analysed carefully (forensically, that is) after an
accident, examination of the differential will show: (a) it's a Torsen and
(b) it's working perfectly. In any case, it would take someone with a great
deal of Torsen driving plus automotive engineering background to be able to
put together the kind of scenario that Scott has described.

Perhaps what you're implying (with respect to " no deaths") is that the
overall death/accident rate for torsen quattros is not unusually high. It
actually may in fact be relatively _low_, since many other factors
(including the positive aspects of quattro handling and Audi design) could
far outway possible contributions of the hypothesized spider bite to Audi
accident rates. So, without taking a position one way or the other on
torsen bite, I'd say the lack of recalls, warnings, or finger-pointing
media is not especially surprising.

Phil Rose

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