Re: Luis Marques' driving...

[Luis Marques <marques@rtis.ray.com>]

Eric Fluhr wrote:
> Mike Williams writes:
> >Hey eric, did i read you right? 80mph?  It seems impossible for that
> >to happen.  Can you tell me a little more about the car that did it? 
> 
> I guess I need to clarify that a bit...maybe Jason and Luis can jump
> in here.  Bear in mind that these guys are not watching the speedo
> when driving, so the speedo numbers are estimates from glancing at it
> during the run.
> 
> The slalom course consists of 7 cones spaced 100ft apart (thanks
> Rick).  Jason said he was topping out at 80mph.  Jason's car is a '97
> A4 1.8tq with Addco front & rear sway bars and BFG R1's (225/50?) on
> the 5-spoke A4 16x7 rims.
> 
> Luis topped out in the low 70mph range, perhaps up to 75mph.  He
> drives an '87 4Kq with H&R springs and Boge Turbo Gas shocks, and was
> running Dunlop SP8000 195/55 tires on the stock 14x6 4Kq wheels (or
> were those runs with the 15x7 rims & Yoko AVS tires?).  The two runs I
> watched weren't pretty, and the car looked like it wanted to swap ends
> around just about every cone, but he made it past all 7 cones each
> time.
> 
> Luis & Jason, feel free to chime in here if I have anything wrong.

OK, twist my arm...  I do believe the cones were spaced at 100ft.  My car ('87
4kcsq) had 195/55-14 Dunlop SP8000's on the stock 14x6 rims.  A controlled run
would be at about 65 mph.  I think I went as fast as 70 mph, but was beginning
to loose control.  The reason being that the car was basically drifting (or
sliding - no torsen talk necessary on this gen-I quattro system) from side to
side between the cones.  I guess that coupled with the excessive body roll would
give the impression that the car was about to 'swap ends', but was actually
quite predictable.  The tricky part was timing the steering wheel inputs so that
the car would have the appropriate attitude going thru the cones.  There was a
measurable lag form the time I made a change to when the car reacted.  Perhaps
those differential equation courses I took in college are usefull for something
after all ;) 

Given that Jason had some good sway bars and R1's on his A4, I do believe he was
capable of going at least 75 mph.

-Luis Marques