Stoney

Andre mentioned the cornering technique that he found was faster on the track. It matches my feeling from hard driving... that you are better off getting on the throttle early in a corner. I find that driving in Tip mode helps tremendously. I brake approaching the turn, then get on the gas well before the apex. This seems to provide more grip and better dynamics than being on the brake.

Andre's quote:

<i>"Although some at the track did not agree with my theory on how to drive a Quattro car, it turned out to the quickest way. Braking hard before the corner while the wheels are straight, accelerating at the beginning of the corner (at different rates in accordance with the sharpness of the corner), sometimes event flooring it then, and adjust the throttle to compensate the understeer (typo was oversteer) coming out of the corner, was indeed the best way to handle both the S6 and the S3. I did try braking hard before the corner and keeping my foot on the brake pedal, but mildly in the beginning of corner, that resulted in the car wanting to go straight. Ditto with no acceleration (and no braking in the corner, but braking before the corner, of course) before the apex. So as far as I am concerned, Quattro cars must be driven like Quattro car, not two wheel drive cars."
</i><ul><li><a href="http://www.audioimports.com/cars/S6S3Track/S6S3Track.htm">http://www.audioimports.com/cars/S6S3Track/S6S3Track.htm</a</li></ul>

Ming 2.7T

An example is turn 7 at Spring Mountain(Pahrump). From outta turn 5 you head downhill and reach ~100mph going into turn 6 taking turn 6 at ~100mph (a guess at the mph, all I know is that I am in 4th gear after hard accelerating so thats about 90-100mph.
Now for turn 7 you hit the brakes fairly hard in the brake zone, then release the brakes turn in and are instantly starting to give it some throttle(this is in tip mode)before the apex,and right about the apex you should almost be at full boost and accelerating hard from the apex till track out.
If you can left foot brake, it gets even better, since you dont lose any time when the foot lifts from the brake to roll onto the gas.
WIth our cars a late apex seems to work best since we can be at full boost at apex and carry that speed all the way down the straight.
I know what you mean by decelerating but I think on the track you either want to be on the brake or on the gas, never coasting. One reason to use the brake to slow you down is that with the brake you can wait longer before you slow down for the turn in. If you downshift and dont brake you are taking a hair longer to get to the turn in point. You are not taking advantage of higher speed for a shade longer. Plus on the track you wont decelerate enough to have a good start in the turn, you will enter fast, plow some scrubbing off speed, and exit a hair slower and will carry a slower speed in the straight. Better to give up a 1/2 car length at the start of the turn by going in controlled, than overcooking it and scrubbing speed at the end and gaining that 1/2 car length and even more because at the end of the striaght you were 5 mph faster for a longer period of time. Kinda hard to describe this by typing , sorry.
ANother thing that can be done is, as you are coming off the brakes, start turning the wheel to where you need to hit the apex. By turning the wheel while the brakes are still a little bit on, you unweight the rear and its starts to rotate alittle helping you line up the car, then start getting on the gas causing the weight to shift to the rear tires, giving them traction again and wham you are on line and at full power even a tad before the apex and you can even feel a nice 4 wheel drift to track out sometimes.<ul><li><a href="http://www.digitalfields.com/ming/mingpahrump.mpg">http://www.digitalfields.com/ming/mingpahrump.mpg</a</li></ul>

TheBrit

Reviewers don't know how to drive quattro, but invariably do know how to drive RWD, so love BMWs and often slam quattro as being uninvolving to drive agressively. I've driven enough quattros (at least 14 different quattros IIRC) to know better.

I agree with you Stoney (and Andre) about the need to get on the gas before hitting the apex of a corner. I usually brake heavily just before the corner and hit the gas at the same time as starting to turn the wheel. Experience tells you how much gas you can give depending upon the tightness of the turn and the road conditions, but throttle balance is entirely possible if you misjudge it. Tip mode is much better for this because on full auto it waits until you have gone past the apex and the lateral G forces are subsiding before changing gear, much better to be in the gear you need to pull out of the apex before you hit it.

As for <i>why</i> this should be so, think about how quattro works: it distributes torque to where there is most traction. In a corner, the amount of travel each wheel must take is different, what quattro does is ensure that no wheel wastes torque by scrubbing or spinning, so more of the torque the engine produces is getting laid down. This means you get can acheive maximum acceleration much earlier in the apex of the turn so get a better speed through the turn. If you aren't producing enough torque, there's not enough to distribute, so get on the gas and let quattro do what it's designed to do!

There is another small potential advantage to keeping the gas on throughout a turn, especially where the turn is loose enough for you to maintain speed through it. When you accelerate in a 2WD car, the rotation of the wheels on the ground has an equal and opposite reation (thank you Newton) which manifests itself as a lifting of the axle relative to the ground. As quattro distributes torque more to the outside front wheel in a turn (because it's got the furthest distance to travel), that means this "torque lift" is more pronounced there, just where the suspension is going to come under most compression due to the lateral forces. The torque lift distribution keeps the car flatter and reduces roll in a corner, <i>if you are on the gas</i>.

Don't believe it? Try this <b>(at your own risk of course!)</b>: Find a nice long, wide, empty stretch of road. Build up a reasonable but controllable speed, say 70-80 mph or perhaps just a bit over. Now let off the gas completely and <b>gently</b> weave from lane to lane, increasing the tightness of the weaving as far as you are happy with, and observe the amount of roll at the front outside edge of each swerve. Get back on the gas and get back to your test speed. Now repeat the gentle swerving, but put a little bit more gas on, just enough to counteract the speed loss through the swerving. Notice any less roll and dive? Now repeat while giving enough gas to slowly increase your speed. Notice how the roll and dive are far less pronunced? Now let off the gas and repeat the first set of swerves. Seems like a lot of roll all of a sudden, doesn't it?

<b>NB: Always drive within your (and you car's limits). If you are not sure of either, play it safe and drive sensibly.</b> I don't want to ruin anyone's Audi, or weekend...

TheBrit

So I just know what gets me home quickest!

I'm sure track driving is a slightly different kettle of fish to hammering a twisty country road, and when people start talking about four wheel drift, I start thinking of how far and few between aluminium body repairers are...

;-)

Ming 2.7T

<ul><li><a href="http://www.digitalfields.com/ming/short%20clip%20ming.mpg">http://www.digitalfields.com/ming/short%20clip%20ming.mpg</a</li></ul>

srosie

Two foot driving helps. The ability to understand the confidence of the q takes time. I was amazed how timid I was sometimes coming from my M3. In that car too much speed was a little dicey. With the Audi a touch of gas creates a better line. The car wants to understeer without the throttle it seems. There's a 60 degree banked left turn on ramp I take every morning and when there's no cars (almost everyday) I can get allot of speed into the turn and when the car starts to drift(yes, tires yelping) I just nail the throttle and voila. Clovers are another example. In tip and the right speed I can rip a clover where rwd folks are a little timid. No reason to use the break where in other cars you're thinking about that break allot. Am I on to something?

Potomac-Greg

Gotta be a reason why 4WD gets penalized in most race classes.

rally

It's an AWD thing...brake before the corner and accelerate smoothly to full throttle by the exit.

Stoney

<i>With the Audi a touch of gas creates a better line. The car wants to understeer without the throttle it seems.</i>

Yes, I find that too. But, at least looking simplistically, one would expect traction in the front to suffer from acceleration, increasing understeer. So, it must be some factor other than weight that affects understeer in this case.....

Stoney

She said to lift off, or use brakes, to get the tail loose.

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