give Boris a break

["Jouko Haapanen" <joukoh@vtoy.fi>]

I am too busy trying to fill Finland with Audis (imagine someone paying USD
8000  extra to get a Torsen diff in their new car), both FWD and quattro to
even read all the postings of this Torsen thread...

This thread started in Feb (if I recall correctly) and that was around the
time of our annual quattro Winter Driving School here.  Next year I'll sit
down with Hannu Mikkola for a little longer to find out more, BUT he has
raced Torsen equipped S1 on a couple of occasions.  Check archives for my
post - post-driving school report, as I can't remeber which ones - maybe
San Remo was one.  In that report, if I recall correctly, I mention that
Hannu found the Torsen car advantageous on low friction surfaces but Walter
Rohrl did not like it at all.  Hence Walter raced it once and Hannu a few
times.
Hannu was from day one of the quattro rally project to the end of it a part
of a development group along with people from psgr car production,
marketing, Audi Sport etc.  Piech was a part of this group as well.  One
reason for the Torsen trial in the rally car might have been, as with
almost all new experiments with Audi Sport's rally cars, was as a testbed
for possible future use in production cars.  This policy was quite
different of any of the other factory teams then or today.  Audi Sport was
the only true factory team, whereas others were financed by a mfg and used
did all development themselves.  This policy hindered Audi's succes in WRC,
as Piech wanted to test items not ready for production, letalone racing. 
Hannu accepted this as a part of the package, but said that in his opinion
Audi would have dominated given free hands to develop the car as race car
only.

This thread has been interesting, but I don't like the nasties I'm starting
to see.  BTW, I'll be in Ingolstadt in a day or so to test drive the new S4
(and hopefully the TT as well) on the Audi test track, and time permitting
on some other roads.  Maybe I should dig up some folks from the drivetrain
group and ask for their opinions...

This ongoing thread reminds me of a time when I worked at Generous Motors
and we had a new product development program -  an AWD Pontiac 6000 STE ! 
The car sucked (hey, I was an Audi man even then) and the heated
discussions re: four wheel drive vs front wheel drive vs. rear wheel drive
continued ad infinitum.  I finally got out of it by the way of a transfer
to some god-awful emissions group.  Still a relief you see, as there was no
del key to press to shut those guys up in the office/car/plane/bar etc. 
Aren't computers nice?

Jouko Haapanen
Mech Eng cum Audi Dealer in Finland
sold my 240hp Abt A4...no confirmation on S4 production  :^(
driving my Carrera (let's not start a thread on those) and my wife's A3
(one shabby open diff)



----------
> From: QSHIPQ <QSHIPQ@aol.com>
> To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject: Confessions of a Noble
> Date: 5. toukokuuta 1998 19:52
> 
> Phil writes:
> >I'm certainly not aware of Audi rallying the Torsen to any degree, but
> >then rally cars usually run on loose surfaces with the centre diffs
> >either absent or locked.  Torsen does not kill grannies, but it doesn't
> >win competitive events either.  It's an all-weather, all conditions
> >compromise device, and in motor sport there is no need for compromises.
> --
> HOT DOG!!!  Getting close to bringing another to the dark side...  I'm
> thinking that maybe you are getting the hang of this Phil.  
> 
> :)
> 
> Scott