RE: spider bites - oh, no, not again!

["Dave Eaton" <Dave.Eaton@clear.net.nz>]

this is a pretty good summary imo.  bear in mind that this is however an
*un* controllable phenomonum that people are talking about.  it is an easy
(and prescribed) course to take your quattro to a large wet carpark and play
(or a muddy field or whatever).  here you can induce all manner of different
cornering "attitudes" depending upon how you set up the car.  this is not
what people are describing as the "spider bite".  what i understand from
what they are saying is that this occurs in an unpredictable and
uncontrollable manner when *not* driving at the limit.

understeer and then oversteer and back again in a corner is not in itself an
issue.  not ideal but also not unusual.  anyone who has leared to drive on
gravel roads will know the feeling of sawing at the well and just
exacerbating the original condition.  btdt on rwd and fwd cars.  in fact,
when talking to colin mcrae last year he was complaining of his subaru doing
this in the very wet conditions that year.  i've also heard eddie irvine
complain about his ferrari in these terms....

perhaps we should look at what the what the torsen *does*.

this is to effectively and efficiently limit the understeer which is
inevitable when cornering with a locked or open centre diff (as in the
genertaion 1 quattro).  in this configuration understeer is inevitable, even
more so when the diff is locked.  the torsen negates this effect by sending
torque rearwards, meaning less torque to the front.  this diminishes the
understeer.  as people who have driven wr (non torsen) then mb or rr
(torsen) ur-quattros will attest.  the torsen also allows faster cornering
than an open centre differential, and works effectively with abs systems.

appreciate the input mike...

dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q
'88 mb 2.3-16

-----Original Message-----

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 12:37:34
From: Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>
Subject: spider bites - oh, no, not again!

[snip]
What I *think* I'm hearing is that certain of our cars, when equipped with
certain drive train components, and when pushed hard around corners
SOMETIMES exhibit a phenomenon as follows: First, it understeers, then it
oversteers, then it understeers again.
[snip]