Re: Boating with an S4

["Avram Dorfman" <dorfman@est.org>]

I have several comments regarding this long thread:

As for the question about "why couldn't he just lock his differential and
drive away" followed by the response "No, Torsen center diff - his front
wheels must already have been spinning..." The answer came from a thread I
started back in May. Don't remember who supplied then answer, but it is
essentially this: Torsens distribute x% of *torque* to the gripping axle. If
the rear wheels are spinning free in mud, then they are requiring zero
torque to do so. x% of zero is zero, so that's how much torque goes to the
front axle to help out. Remember - just b/c the engine *can* put out 200+
lb-ft of torque doesn't mean that it is. A torsen needs some resistance to
work with. So, the trick he might have been able to use is... Put the
emergency brake on, thus providing resistance to the rear wheels, x% (what
is the bias ratio on a 95 S4 - 33%?) of that power would go to the front.

As for this suggestion that it's wrong to tow with a "sports car", this
opinion is unfair. It has been clearly demonstrated that many audis do allow
towing. It is absurd to suggest that you shouldn't tow with Audi's fantastic
AWD systems. Just because some idiot screwed up & wrecked a beautiful car
doesn't mean I should fork over cash, insurance $$, and an extra parking
space for a hick-up truck and leave *my* beautiful car at home while I go to
the coast for a weekend. (Sorry, that was a typo - I meant "pick-up" truck)

I've had a trailer hitch on my Honda del sol VTEC for 4 years, and I'd do it
again in a heartbeat. My manual explicitly says "no towing." All that means
to me is 1) it didn't occur to them that someone would want to tow a paltry
170 lb. Laser 2 and 2) I have to compensate for their lack of vision and
planning with extra care and planning of my own. My del sol goes 125 mph
that I know of, but of course not with a trailer. But when I go to the
Chesapeake for a summer weekend, and take my laser with me for some water
fun, I wouldn't think of leaving the del sol behind and sacrificing some
road fun at the same time.

I'll tell you all right now, when my S4bt gets here (September they say), it
will bloody well have a trailer hitch on it, within the week I'll bet. So,
what some of you are presumably telling me is that I should cancel my S4
order, and get an A4 and a used hick-up truck for the same amount of money.
(damn - the "p" key and the "h" key are really close to each other...)

Think really hard about this - How may people on this list, faced with a
choice between "A4+truck" vs. "S4 biturbo", wouldn't get the S4?

Now if you really *must* haul stuff *in* a flatbed regularly, then I guess
you don't really have a choice. I'd be willing to bet that my S4 and I, plus
an occasional trip to U-haul for maybe $40 won't get stumped once in the
200,000+ mile life that this car will have.

I remember when I was younger and a car like this was well out of my reach.
It used to piss me off that snot-nosed rich kids would buzz around in these
beautiful machines that they couldn't appreciate to save their lives, and
couldn't afford w/out daddy's help any easier. I knew a kid in college that
*in one year* (1988) *totaled* an M3, as Saab 900 turbo convertible, and an
BMW 750i. At the time, I was lucky I had a Renault Alliance automatic w/
100k+ mi waiting for me at home. So believe me, I share your pain.

But one of these kids having a trailer hitch on an S4 doesn't make the hitch
wrong. It's still the snotty kid that's the problem.

-Avram