Re: Wheel rate v. spring rate (was 17" wheels on an Ur-Q)...

[JustaxPHX@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/22/99 1:47:58 AM US Mountain Standard Time, quk@isham-
research.demon.co.uk writes:

>There's an interview with Hans-Juergen Sauer from the original team in the
1997 UK magazine that explains how the 8" >wheels came to be on the car.

I've read the interview and it explains only how they got to be put into
production, not how they found their way on the car by the racing team.  I
don't know much about the FIA's homologation game (here in the U.S., we
generally ignore the big yellow book!) but it seems to me that the original
design team *must* have planned on using them at some point since it isn't
possible to optimize the suspension geometry for *both* wheel/tire combos.

I guess what I'm saying is that it strikes me as somewhat odd that the
definitive version of a car designed around a 6x15 wheel could successfully
end up on 8x15s without a major redesign.  If in fact it was truly designed
around a 6x15 wheel, then this suggests to me that there is a substantial
improvement to be had by rethinking Audi's original design.  Hmmm, another
project ... just what I need.  ;^)