Spun the A6 last weekend

[Benzene]

Alright, so driving home from NYC on Monday (2/17/03) during the blizzard of '03 wasn't the wisest thing to do but I had to be back at work Tuesday AM. Was happy that I had the security of quattro and nice heated seats to make the otherwise unbearable trip somehow doable in that weather.

Driving down NJ Turnpike at about 45 miles per hour, speed limit was 35 (oops did i say that out loud?) but the roads were clearing. For much of the way there was a 2-3" layer of packed snow and the car handled beautifully it was the icey frozen slush area that got me into trouble.

Coming off of some frozen snow patches and onto the frozen slushy area i decided to let off the throttle to gradually slow myself not knowing what kinda traction i could expect. sure enough the car begins to slide right almost perfectly laterally and then the back end begins to slip around the right side. at this point i knew i was spinning and that additional throttle might just make it worse since i was getting no traction to begin with. Told my girlfriend to hold on tightly and i slowly applied brake pressure to no avail. We spun a full 360 degrees and plowed sideways into a rather soft but tall snow bank on the right hand side of the road. Thank god the snow bank was there, else we would have ended up in the ditch and perhaps even rolled.

No damage to the car (the ego is another story) but we were significantly stuck and had to be pulled out with a tow truck (tow truck dinged my rear bumper though in the process, Argh!)

Bottom line is that quattro gives a sometimes false sense of security and that no matter what you drive the weather always holds the upper hand. i hope you are all staying safe and driving wisely and if you find yoursevles in this same situation i hope you are all equally as lucky.

[no.radar]

[Potomac-Greg]

I'm a NY-raised driver with plenty of experience in the snow. I just overcooked a turn and plowed up a curb.

[BobT(nolonger)A6]

Getting off the throttle while in a turn under low-traction conditions is the only way I've been able to induce a slide with this car.

I think you would have been better off staying *on* the throttle a bit.

Maybe some of the folks here who've been to a school can enlighten both of us?

[rally]

[carbonLORD]

But seriously, when I'm not drifting into every turn, I do have had the ocasional slippage in slush and snow. Quattro is best in rain IMO. First time I drove in snow, I slipped into a pot hole and had to replace a wineglass wheel.

[April]

It doesn't take much, but you should at least be tickling the gas pedal (my pardons if you where). However, if there is no traction, there is no traction - QTR can't do a thing. Freezing slush is by far the worst thing to hydroplane on:-(

[QCRAZY]

...NOT to do. When sliding sideways don't apply the brakes. It's tempting but completely the wrong thing to do.

It's not uncommon for new quattro owners to get in trouble in corners and at stops. quattro is so easy to get going that you often "forget" how fast you are going.

[Maxster4.2]

It gets back straight. On the other hand when all four wheel get on Ice and you start going sideways, just hang on and pray for the best.

[rally]

when you lose traction at a steady speed you CAN get the car to track straight once again.

The cars natural tendency is to follow the front wheels (direction of travel) when equal force is being applied to both ends of the car. In other words if the back end slides out and you let off you can recover if the rear end encounters resistence when it slides out.

This theory works better on snow than ice!

I have tons of winning rally experience in sliding the back end of the car out to slow the car down. The sideways resistance is an asset if used to your advantage. The trick is to find the balance needed to slow the car back to the speed that control is obtained.

On the other hand if you want maximum traction and the ability to steer the car you must use the throttle.

In a situation where traction is lost and I don't need to slow down I would apply a generous amount of throttle to snap the car back into the line of travel. If I need to slow the car down and recover traction at the same time I use the throttle and the brakes at the same time.

I would gently apply the brakes and at the same time apply a decent amount of throttle to load the diffs and use them as brakes.

This effectively locks all four wheels into the braking system and I have maximum traction and control while slowing down.


Once traction and control are regained I slowly release the brake until the speed is comfortable for conditions.

The drive by wire throttle system (no gas when brakes applied) in our Audis can be defeated in this manner. There is a brief delay while the system resets and allows brake and gas input.

Traction on ice in the method of regaining control I have described is severly limited by your tires. The best tires available will give you outstanding traction on ice.

Find a slippery parking lot where you won't hit anything and try this method out. It works to perfection. Take one of the winter driving courses the Audi CLub sponsors.

I didn't make this stuff up, I had the fortune of one-on-one training by a couple of the greatest rally drivers on the planet and I have boxes and boxes of trophies to back their methods up.

Sorry for the length of my ramblings