Torsen experience at winter driving school

["Peter K. Blaser" <blaser@ultranet.com>]

I attended one of Tim O'Neil's winter driving schools in Franconia, NH in Feb '98.  This particular session had 3 teams of SCCA pro rally drivers and it essentially degenerated in the afternoon to an all out time trial run.

I had been having trouble all day with understeer on my S6 MTM modified wagon.  Finally, one of the rally drivers who had driven torsen audi's before volunteered to show me how to get around the course.  He immediately performed the maneuver which is being discussed at length as "spider bite" on the list.  He was able to control it quite nicely once he got over the fact that this station wagon was well over 270 hp.

By exploiting this 'bug' he turned in two of the fastest laps of the day.  Once I learned the technique, I was much faster through the course and managed to take 'air' (jump the car) at a few points on the course.  Jumping was a bad idea.  Both the top of my head as well as my suspension didn't appreciate it.

The point is that what is a "bug" to one person may be a "feature" to another.  A good driver knows how to exploit all a car has to offer without having to characterize it as "good" or "bad".

NOW STOP TALKING AND START DRIVING!