RE: rwd vs awd braking

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

no, this is not strictly correct....

on corner entry for a quattro, the torsen diff will proportion torque to the
front meaning that the rears have less drive torque to worry about, leaving
more traction (friction circle) for the brakes to use.

a rwd cannot, of course, do this and will use a proportioning valve to bias
more braking effort to the front.

however, clearly the quattro will have better braking at the rear, and less
tendancy to snap oversteer on corner entry.

the newer computer-controlled centre diffs will actively proportion torque
forward on braking to achieve the same effect...

this is not the same as braking performance though, which obviously has to
do with the specs of the respective braking systems.  what it does say
though, is that for the same setup, the quattro will outbrake the rwd.
imho, this was one of the significant advantages of the btcc and gtcc audi
quattros in the 1996 championship year.  they were clearly the class of the
field under brakes, despite their higher weight...

dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q

> CLIFFORD ILKAY wrote:
> 
> If Quattros stop faster than BMWs or anything else, it has nothing to do
> with being all wheel drive. In other words, all things being equal, an all
> wheel drive car will not stop any faster than a two wheel drive car. There
> may be some negligible amount of engine braking on the other two extra
> driven wheels in a quattro but I would think that would be negated by the
> extra weight of the quattro pieces. Force = mass x acceleration squared,
> even for quattros.