Re: abs

[Zsolt Kovacs <zsolt@telusplanet.net>]

Sounds like you had a good and lucky learning experience. I will deffinitely take
your advice when I'm driving in bad conditions. Let me know how the test results go
when you repeat it with your centre diff locked. I know I will experiment once it's
cold enough and I found a place for some fun driving.

Mike Mulholland wrote:

> zsolt, i moved to the niagara area from vernon bc in the spring and from
> march to april 98 made three trips vernon-toronto- return. my problem arose
> on the first trip around rogers pass. i had just been exhilerated by the
> cars handling on the twisty downhill section when i hit a hard turn which
> should not have been a problem....however the sand trucks had been out and
> there were inches of loose sand before, after and in the turn....initially
> the car understeered terribly, so i turned in harder....as soon as i did
> this the rear end was parallel to the direction of the car and wanted to
> lead...applying power and turning to compensate for the skid only took me
> closer to the edge of the road and disaster . the better option was to spin
> so i turned so as to help the spin and stopped in my lane only with the rear
> end towards the ditch and the front on the centre line. i put her into first
> and drove into my lane and continued while trying to figure out what i had
> done wrong....i asked the list and was told...lock the centre diff for _fun_
> driving, be geared correctly to apply decent power when needed ( i was
> overgeared for the situation)...and when in trouble apply power and steer
> into the direction you want to go. i was too shaken by the experience to try
> reproducing it last winter ...but this winter i'm ready to learn. oh yes,
> use winter tires and they must all be the same brand and model and must have
> similar wear.
>
> hth
>
> mike
> 86 5kcdtq
>
> At 08:29 AM 11/17/92 -0700, you wrote:
> >Thanx again mike. I'm in Edmonton, and it does get pretty bad here time to
> time.
> >Our road conditions varry from a lot of ice and snow in 30 below celsius to
> only
> >having ice at intersections. When that's the case I still believe that abs is
> >the answer, however I agree with you 100% that the quattro is different
> from any
> >other car and I'm going to have to learn it. Actually now that you
> mentioned the
> >wheel swap "the front and rear of the car_really_ wanted to swap places.." I
> >remember reading an article when the firs quattro came out, and they were
> >testing it. The article said that they could not make the car slid, but when it
> >happend there was nothing to do. When exactly is the quattro getting out of
> >control? is it during turning on slippery surfaces when pushed hard?
> >
> >Mike Mulholland wrote:
> >
> >> zsolt, where do you live?
> >>         without the centre diff locked, my experience when the traction
> >> limitations of the car were exceeded, was that the front and rear of the car
> >> _really_ wanted to swap places....and did. it actually felt as though the
> >> rear wheels were turning in opposite directions. the resultant spin happened
> >> within a second or less...turning into the spin just directed me towards a
> >> cliff edge so i just sat back and enjoyed the spin...then changed my
> >> underwear :>( . i was advised that if i had kept the centre diff locked and
> >> applied full power i could have probably driven out of the situation. i am
> >> not a novice driver. in more than 40 years of driving vehicles as varied as
> >> an mci motor coach, a lada and jag xk 140s and lotus super 7...i have never
> >> before spun a car. when i lived in northern quebec the seven months of snow,
> >> and wide open spaces gave lots of room to play and practice...non of the
> >> learning applied to the audi quattro's handling characteristics in a skid or
> >> slide...so do as you are advised. btw, many of the listers felt that abs was
> >> of no benefit in ice snow or loose gravel.there are also many rallying
> >> experts here who don't even have a centre diff.....those who do, lock them
> >> when driving under extreme conditions. learn from the list experience so you
> >> don't have re-invent your own experience with a new car needed or worse.
> >>
> >> hth
> >> mike
> >> 86 5kcdtq
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >