RE: hands-on recap

[Eaton Dave <dave.eaton@minedu.govt.nz>]

once again, and my final attempt at this...

1) the people who state that the bite happen talk of an sudden u-o-u-o-u
which causes uncontrollable vehicle dynamics.  you try to correct, and
to no avail.  steering control in ineffective.

2) the people what state that this effect happen say long and loud that
i should come to steamboat and see it manifest itself in a low cf
environement, which is where it happens more readily.

well, excuse me if i'm not ready to spend $1,000's of dollars to do
that, but i thought that putting my ur-q on a flat grass field on street
tyres in competition to other differently equipped awd vehicles would at
least replicate steamboat where the tyres/spikes would seem to provide
similar levels of grip.

i did that, made my observations on vehicle behaviour, posted 3rd
fastest time of 20 cars on the first course, and 6-8th fastest on the
2nd course.

i also took the opportunity to deliberately provoke my car in 2nd gear
turns with combinations of throttle, braking, lift and steering.

at *no* time did my vehicle exhibit any untoward behaviour.

at *no* time what the vehicle subject to any unexpected dynamics which
required sudden steering correction.

this is clearly not enough for some people who have no experience of the
vehicles we're talking about, but some half-baked theories, and personal
grudge, and who would rather sling a few barbs to show how clever they
are.

these same people have jumped on the "no hands" cornering manouevers to
discredit the whole exercise.  and conveniently for them, ignore the
facts.  3rd best time 1st course, 6-8th best time 2nd course.  both
times with hands *on* the wheel.  now the point has been made ad nauseam
that when the bite happens, you're a passenger and even a skilled [sic]
driver like scott can't do anything about it.

mmmmm......

matt, sargeant, scott, jeff - how the hell could i possibly get 3rd
fastest times (and beat specifically equipped cars), if the bite exists?
any ideas, or just more hot air?

dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q
> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 07:32:06 -0500
> From: "Matt & Jenai" <matjen@xsite.net>
> Subject: Correlation b/w no hands and torsen?
> 
[snip]
> A variety of posts follow and today Greg and Phil get upset about the
tone
> of the posts and wonder why others are questioning or ridiculing the
> "truth."  If you read the posts I don't think anyone is questing that
what
> Dave says happened actually happened.  Its the conclusions Dave draws
(see
> above) which people are questioning.  If we use a little analytical
> reasoning  - what does turning a car on grass and then taking your
hands off
> the wheel add insight into the operation of the torsen?  It doesn't.
The
> outcome described by Dave would be the same in my old 82 Accord or 77
> Rabbit.  So what.  It seems to me Dave has proven that Audis don't
self
> correct.  So what.
> 
> The fact remains that the torsen in the 20v Urq is the same in the
type 44
> chassis.  there have been many reports of bite on this list about that
> torsen in the "newer" chassis.  Saying the torsen doesn't bite in "my"
car
> over and over does not add anything to the analysis.
> 
> My .02
> Matt Pfeffer