Steve, you made some interesting points in your previous post concerning traction and FWD,RWD, or AWD. I saw the picture of the road where Trifona 'lost it'. It seems like a relatively smooth sweeper. Do you believe that Trifona may have let off the gas (hence disengaging the Quat) or braked in the middle of the turn, thereby unsettling the car causing it to lose traction?<br> <br>I've yet to attend a quattro school, I'm still fascinated by and learning about quattro. My salesman had had me step on the gas on an exit ramp with a advisory posted speed of 20 or 30mph. As we came up on the turn I started to brake as we were doing 55-60. He told me to just step on the gas. After some quick back n forth discussion, I did it. The car felt like a cat going around that corner, I assume that was quattro doing its job, it also sold me on quattro.<p>Trifona, (BTW, is that your real name?) do you remember exactly what you did right before the wipe out? Ok, you gotta be honest! <p>I'm just wondering that if you had maintained at least some pressure on the accelerator (this of course is assuming you didnt), if the quattro could have pulled you through the turn. If you did maintain constant pressure, I suppose that the turn was sharper than I saw in the pic. and the tires just lost grip?

NT

See Dubya...<p>I have done about 12 track days in my A4...20-25 minute runs...4 to 5 times per day. The thing that I have noticed is that if you are powering the way thru the corner, power on, you can usually get the quattro to pull you out of many things...all four tires are spining, and going somewhat sideways. (course workers are sometimes befuddled by this fact) If you apex a turn TOO soon, and panic by letting off the gas or braking..the tail of the car gets light...the front heavy...therefore the car front end bites well and turns....the back has no bite..and if you have your steering wheel turned...the rear end WILL swing out. Sometimes abruptly...sometime very slowly and you can correct for it. (Have you ever watched Nascar or Indy racing and someone is exiting a turn and all of sudden the car is spinning out of control....this is sometimes what happens to these guys...the guys that exit the turn without spinning and get REAL close to the wall are usually the guys that are gutting it out and hoping the car turns it time)<p>While at the track I have caught this experience several times, and even when it was raining (StanJ was in the car with me when this rain experience happened). It is so cool to feel the car loosing traction, making slight changes in steering, braking, throttle, to correct these actions before they get out of hand.<p>When I spun I was on a smooth track surface..no debris...no moisture...just asphalt. It actually looks like Trifona's surface was concrete, and as such should normally have a little bit better bite in these situations. I can only speculate, since I was not in the car, or driving it, or even watching it from the side of the road, but it just seems that Trifona unbalanced the car, and lost control in a turn. He now is an active member of the spin club, of which I am a member as well.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM

Well, maybe not the worst, but bad. That is what happened to me at Sears Point at the NorCal/SoCal event. Going about 60 or 70 thru the esses (turn 8a for those who know), and had a bad line, and lifted my foot off the gas to burn some speed. Well, I totally unbalanced the car, suddenly the weight was mostly on the front tires, and the rear tires just lifted up and I did a 450 degree spin down the track... Luckily I kept going straight thru this, because the track isn't very wide at that point. But I learned the big thing is never mess with the balance of the car while turning if you are at high speeds. The change is just too unpredictable.

In January, coming off on I-95 near Boston, entered a cloverleaf and hit the gas. And got over confident, felt the rear coming off and coming from a FWD, took my foot off the gas and started to brake and correct. Got me into worse trouble, I was able to keep the car going straight but started to bounce off the curbs. No damage to the wheels or allignment. But scared the devil out of me.<br>Suddenly found that everything I knew how to do with a FWD I couldn't do with an AWD car. Later found out reading in a Mag that if the rear feels loose, punch the gas peddle and trust the car. That does not feel comfortable with me. <br>But now, whenever I start to hear the tires screech, I let up slowly off the gas, don't want to get into that situation again. Have not had the time to find out how far I can go with it.<br>

Of course at that moment I didn't really think so, we were busy not piling into you as you were dancing across the track :-)<p>I also was chicken and let off the gas in another turn and it turned out to be nasty but I caught it just in time. <p>My advice: just don't talk on the 2-way radio when driving on ice, quattro or not...<p>- Stan<br>

Steve caught the spin well in the rain in Thunderhill. In Pahrump I was driving Steve's car (because mine didn't make it to the track) and wasn't used to his slicks, so in one turn I got going a bit sideways (these suckers don't announce that they'll let lose), but this time stayed on it and the car caught itself just fine.<p>The only two times in my life when I exited the road was on snow / ice, because of not paying attention (Pahrump) or for being an idiot and braking when I shouldn't have (Golf GT Syncro).<p>- Stan<br>

Gradual transitions are always better.