Petri

I just came back from Audi Quattro Winter Driving school here in Finland and I have to say that I had the time of my life! We spent one full day driving turbo quattro A3's and A4's on very slippery snowy and icy roads and on a test track built on a frozen lake. Our instructors were all professional rally drivers. Here's a very brief summary of what we did (and hopefully learned):

1. Three hours of theory about how to control your car in different situations and how to avoid accidents. We were also taught how all these fancy ESP's, ASR's etc. work and how they should be used effectively. Also lots of important information about tires and driving conditions in general.

2. Four hours of driving. Each participant got to drive A3 and A4 quattros and FWD's with and without ESP's. We practiced different techniques of how to accelerate, brake, avoid objects on the road (lots of practices with cones), take slow and fast corners and just how to drive very fast on ice and narrow roads (FUN!!!)

It became very soon clear that on snow and ice ESP is totally amazing! Very often it gets you out of the situations where you most probably would wreck your car without the ESP. It's of course essential to realize that ESP can't do much to prevent an accident if there's too much speed to begin with but it certainly helps to control the car in many difficult situations. However, I actually managed to destroy one A4 front bumper when I took one corner just a bit too fast (55 mph) and after that all I could do was wait and look how the snow/icebank closed in...

I suspect that extremely experienced drivers may want to turn the ESP off but for most drivers (including myself) and especially in normal winter traffic it is very useful. I have to admit that ESP takes away some of the fun of driving a quattro Audi but fortunately you can always switch it on or off.

I found this driving school to be very useful. It certainly didn't turn me into a pro rally driver but now I know how to control my soon-to-arrive TT quattro in winter conditions and I know what to do and what not to do with my car.

I was very impressed with what pro drivers can do with a quattro Audi. Among other things we did a superbly controlled 720-degree spin at 60 mph and drove VERY fast on a frighteningly narrow icy road.

If you have a chance of attending such an event don't miss it at any cost! Too bad there wasn't a single TT available for testing...

Petri

James J Dempsey

Since you drove both A3 and A4 quattros, can you comment on the differences between the torsen-based A4 quattro system and the A3's quattro system (which I suspect is the same Haldex as in the TT)?

Was one better or even different feeling than the other?

Thanks,

--Jim--

John P.

nt

Petri

I didn't notice any difference between Torsen and Haldex. Haldex was definitely fast enough. I know that some people suspect that there is a delay before it engages the rear wheels but I couldn't detect any delays and the A3 felt quattro all the time.

One thing I noticed though was that the A3 was a lot more agile and faster than the A4 but this is to be expected since it is a bit lighter and shorter. My friend commented that the A4 felt sloppy after the A3. A3 Quattro would be my choice but I think I'm a bit biased since I currently drive a chipped A3 Turbo. One big difference between my A3 and the Quattro version was that the gear stick movements were a lot more precise and shorter in Quattro version. That I enjoyed very much. I hope that the TT gearbox is at least as good. And yes, I'm one of those who buy a car even without driving it first :-)

Petri

Jeff M

I think people are too quick to compare Haldex to a plain old V.C.

evan

PROPOSAL: We can compare AWD all we want, but lets not say 'Real Vs. Not Real'.

Petri

I agree. Haldex is very real indeed. In fact it felt totally unreal after a FWD car :-)

Royce Howland

I mentioned on this forum a few days ago that our recent snow-fall here in Calgary would be a wonderful time to be driving my 225Q, except that I won't have it until July or later. Monday of this week I talked to my dealer rep, and he said "I've got this great Audi press kit, come on down and I'll give you one for your collection." I said "great" and so my wife and I headed over there after work.

As luck would have it, he mentioned that had just put snow tires (Pilots) on their dealer demo silver 180Q after a previous driver curbed it at speed and scratched the hell out of the left side alloys. He threw me the keys, and my wife and I went for a spin. (Yes, it was a very romantic way to spend Valentine's! :~)

I've driven four-wheel drive vehicles before, although they were Subaru's, not Audi's, so I had some idea what to expect. Even so, I was impressed. Following ~20cm of snow-fall in the previous few days, with precious little of it removed by Calgary city services so that it's nice a packed all over now, this car still felt absolutely solid. No noticeable Haldex power-transfer lags at all. We were driving in the city, in pretty much full dark conditions, so we weren't going nuts. But nothing at all in the handling made the vehicle feel loose or sliding around. We did some fast starts, panic stops, threw it around corners, and plowed through drifts. With the snow tires, we were glued to the road in all cases except one where my wife managed to get the back to come around going around a particularly slippery flat corner while punching the gas.

It was a blast. On a straight pull-away, the TT simply left everything as a fading rear-view image, while cornering felt so good it was almost scary -- this is too solid! I'm even more convinced now that the TTQ is going to be a nearly perfect car for Calgary driving conditions, year-round. Having said that, I'm also convinced that learning the car's limits in all conditions, including some real instruction, is also going to be a top priority. To avoid becoming a statistic, one can't assume the car will compensate for driver ignorance.

Driving home from the dealer in our '98 Passat (FWD), with all-season tires, I was in fear of my life as I had not been before driving the TT. But that's another story. :~)

Royce