can you donut an s3???

[1animal1]

depends what you mean by normal..... id doubt the car was built to powerslide as the S3 has no track car characteristics without changing a lot of stuff first...even then i wouldnt use it as a track car....

powersliding is bound to be more stressful than normal driving as you'd expect it to be..... and a wide powerslide would in my mind be a halfway house between normal driving and donuts.... neither is good for the car

 

[jcb]

in addition to what i have said....i have heard rumours of haldex diffs winding up....

its only held together by jelly. not sure how it could wind up.
and if the wheels are slipping you can't be winding up anything anyway

 

[ian52]

it will be getting it started that will cause the most stress the same as just launching the car from a standing start.in the wet it wont be that bad but in the dry it will be pushing the gearbox/clutch pretty hard.

 

[1animal1]

jcb..i didnt understand that either as clutch system assumes it impossible..... everything else seems to make sense though

 

[Westy]

The bottom line is that the Quattro system was designed to keep the car in a straight line. Haldex uses 4 seperate wheel speed sensors and steering sensors to detect which way you are trying to go and will try to correct the car to go the way you're pointing it. If you're trying to donut, the haldex will be working overtime to try and get you going in a straight line.

Anyone who has owned a 4 wheel drive car before will also know that it is not wise to dump the clutch regularly from standstill (eg. on traffic light drag race) as this puts a lot of stress on the 4 wheel drive system.

So yeah donut away to your hearts content but personally I would expect it to shorten the life of your 4 wheel drive system if done regularly. If you want to do regular donuts and slides get yourself a BMW.

 

[jcb]

ah, well there lies the problem.

dumping your clutch breaks transmissions.

you shouldn't have to dump anything to get it into a drift, slide or donut.

you just need lots of pooooowweeeerrrr!!

 

[Westy]

I only mentioned dumping the clutch because of the stress it puts on the haldex where its trying to spin all 4 wheels to get you moving from standstill. I would expect a donut would cause the front and back wheels to fight against each other to get the car to go in a straight line again.

I asked Ross-Tech last month if there was any way to log the haldex data using VAGCOM so that I could see exactly when and where the haldex is working. They are still working on the data file I gave them but hopefully they'll have something that I can test with. I can then go and donut on grass and log the haldex activity to see what its trying to do.

 

[1animal1]

JCB i cant see why you cant understand the forces that are being used here..... its really not that complicated.... dump or no dump, if you have a 4wd car and try and donut it, you will be highly increasing your chances of a breakage....its common sense....then when you look at the facts of how these 4wd systems work it just clarify's the theory.....

 

[1animal1]

unless you really want to beleive theres no issue in which case crack on..... ignore us and try it out

 

[S3 HODGE]

I did one donut in my S3 when i first got it and it was'nt exactly fun, Thought it was a waste of time actuly TBH. If you treat your car with respect it will give you back with respect....
And if it did'nt mess up your gearbox it would cost you on 4 tyres, clutch and whatever esle you manage to break wast doing it in the longterm.