RE: audi sport mythology

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

wrt audi in super touring fwd, please bear in mind that, in none of
these are we talking about a fully-fledged "factory" effort, as this
has, as we know, been prioritised for the sports car/le mans effort due
to debut next year.

wrt the audi (abt) effort in germany, definitely mid-pack i'd say.
although they have been unlucky.  the uk effort under the auspices of
audi sport uk, looks more promising with yvan muller looking quite good,
while not a definite front-runner. 2nd last week-end in the wet, and a
4th and 5th the fortnight before.  bintcliffe certainly isn't as good,
but then he hasn't had as much experience with the fwd car as muller has
(from last year's french series).

it is interesting to me, and a useful point against the "purists" that
the longitudinal engined fwd a4's can be so good.  while it is
acknowledged that quattro was a very good compensation for the
north-south engine layout, with fwd, it would seem to only produce a
penalty.  clearly not.

it also serves to illustrate that come race day, there are many, many
small advantages that can be gained in the mystical world of setup.

hell, i might even be prepared to bet on a panoz gt1 victory within the
next year ;-)

it also serves to illustrate the old maxim about weight in race cars.
while with equal weight the quattro would walk it over the rwd and fwd
cars, clearly this is nullified (as it must be) with increasing weight.
the only moot point is at what weight.  same with the rwd cars.

also with all the posturing/theorising about race-day setups and
configurations, we'll never know the full story.  the king article has
the "ring of authenticity", but then phil can clearly testify to
different setups than king acknowledges.  and we have other articles
which talk about different setups again....  therefore, at least to my
mind, it is reasonable to assume that he is withholding information as
it is his *duty* to do so, so that he can maintain competitive
advantage.  after all, we normal punters wouldn't know the difference,
so that makes no difference, and his competitiors just might be mislead.

wrt the comment (wish) about audi and the wrc.  i very very much doubt
that we will ever see audi back in rallying.  those days are gone.  what
you will see is the (already debut'ed) seat wrc car which, if it is
anything like the fwd cars i saw on the nz rally last month, will be a
very good factory effort.  that, and the continued vw golf formula 2
effort has got to keep us rally fans happy.  for audi, you'll need to
develop a taste for sports cars and perhaps (after 2000) for formula 1.

dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 12:26:50 EDT
> From: MSV96@aol.com
> Subject: Re: More on Spools (kinda long)
> 
> In a message dated 98-08-22 02:47:37 EDT, you write:
> 
[snip]

> Mike Veglia
> 87 5kcstq (purchased for "quattro option" price times 2)