Re: Freznel lenses

[QSHIPQ@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-08-26 20:12:34 EDT, you write:

<< no not true.  you seem to have some difficulty with this, but i guess
> you don't have the information.  happy to oblige.  press release from
 >audi (30th january)...
 
> "The Audi marque is set for another good showing in the German Super
 >Touring Cup 1998. The four rings will be represented by a strong trio
> comprising Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Christian Abt. Because of the
> company's withdrawal from works racing in the Super Touring Cup - a
 >result of the ban on the quattro drive - the Kempten-based ABT
> Sportsline team will be taking on responsibility for the appearance of
> the three Audi A4s, which will be using Michelin tyres. 
 
> "The ABT team will receive technical support at the track from the
> French ROC team, which has co-operated on development with Audi for many
> years. ROC took on the task of further developing the Audi A4 some time
> ago. Technical co-operation with Michelin, the new tyre partner, is well
> under way. 

Dave, again, fully fledged a vague term.  I believe that you are speaking of
Neckarsalm race production has ceased and gone to ROC, and as Phil pointed
out, it certainly couldn't go to Audi Sport UK (or Italia for that matter).
When Audi pays the bills, in my opinion, it's fully fledged.  Where and who
"produces" the car really doesn't matter.  If the ABT team is like the UK, and
Italia Teams before it, just a formality in terms of the "claim".  I think
it's pretty interesting any claims of a withdrawl of a "works" team, when they
have really not had a "works" team, per their own definition.  I suppose the
new Audi strategy gives them one degree of separation on all claims.  Pay my
race bills, all of them, I'll call it (or not) whatever you want.  No question
in my mind Audi has "withdrawn" from little, if anything.   When Audi Sport
UK, Italia, ROC all close their doors, Audi has "withdrawn".  The rest is nice
press releases.

 >errrrrr,
 >1) dunlop have not been providing tyres for audi this year.  michelin
 >are...
My mistake.  Agreed.
 
 >2) biela is not racing in the btcc this year, bintcliffe and muller are.
> biela is buried in germany and is looking very ordinary.  the abt
 >brothers are kicking his arse in the abt-prep'ed cars.  perhaps he's
 >just not a fwd guy...
Let's see what happens to the awd platform shall we?  
 
 >3) whatever king acknowledges as the *dis*advantages of the a4, he's not
> too forthcoming about the *ad*vantages of the same car.  which are
> clearly there.  king in "pr" mode so to speak.  as expected.
Not in the articles I'm reading.  He's honest and forthcoming as to specific
differences between the fwd and the quattro handling, turn for turn, at
specific tracks, in specific weather, in general chassis terms, and in
specific chassis terms.  And there are MANY advantages to the fwd car he
points out, even compared to the quattro A4.  His "concern" was the ability of
the fwd car to compete with the known disadvantage of driveline configuration.
His concerns are someone asuaged by the race results...  For now.   Let's
watch the rulings on the awd platform shall we?   

 
> and so you are in agreement with me?  you take 200 lines to agree that
 >audi are likely to pull out of class 2 racing, rather than invest in a
 >new chassis, now that their focus is on sports car?
Hold on Davey.  No I'm not agreeing with the above.  Audi will likely pull TCC
due to a baseline philosophy of awd and fwd being the winner and a seller of
production cars.  If Audi is to move to E/W orientation for fwd, that would
require a retool of production based cars as well (though I suppose one could
argue that since quattro is really VC awd, a few E/W A4's are still A4s).  The
focus is the sports car, true, but even without that being the focus, would
Audi invest in the new chassis?  No. The wonderful thing about Audis fwd and
awd systems is, they are one in the same, 1500USD for quattro vs fwd in fact.
Redesign the fwd chassis?  Ok, then either the awd chassis is redesigned too,
or the price of quattro vs fwd goes up.  In this scenario, fwd would be more
expensive.  I don't make the jump "now that their focus is on sports car".
That's just what Neckarsalm is focusing on.  It's the goal of that facility to
develop the newest and the latest.  Once that's done, so is it's job.  When
you have data logged all your tracks in both awd and fwd trim for years, you
hardly need Neckarsalm anymore.  The new sports car will likely follow the
same strategy. 
 
> sigh....
 Be patient, I'm just an idiot.

> yeah right, focus is a good word.  know what it means?
Sure, appreciate the question.  Further niceties like the above, Sir Eaton,
should be directed privately.  All the minuitae of the fwd Audi Sport has now
been thoroughly hashed.  I'm back to looking at awd chassis dynamics while
turning, with O and U quotes from B&B and King himself.  The documentation of
my bite phenomenon is now confirmed by the TCC car boys.  Now how do we
explain these comments in reference to your two chassis Dave?  Specifically,
we could focus on a plethora of posts, including you classic "no hander".

Please feel free to focus me *privately* on that subject anytime you are
ready.  Athough technically we really haven't been discussin T*rsens at all in
this TCC subject.


Scott Justusson
QSHIPQ@aol.com
'87 5ktqwRS2
'84 Urq