AL_B said:
Spot on Southpaw66.
Personally, I have never had the bottle to try the rumoured 4wd technique of "powering through the understeer", i.e. keep your foot-in or give more throttle, power should be sent rearwards and thus cancel out the understeer.
AL
Did it a lot on my 1.8TQ with no ESP only EDL. The first time had a very twichy **** (not the car) and afterwards loved it.
My recommendations to learn quattro driving...
Find a few usual places you know of, roundabouts and the like to repeadedly learn what will happen when you push the car. If you do choose the road (your call on this one) make sure no one is about (hence the roundabout as an example) and make sure you can clearly see the rest of the road and not impact anyone else.
You probably have haldex so if it gets hairy take your foot off the accelerator then re apply it and the car does sort itself out (shifts the power forwards same as a FWD car and scrubs off speed).
If you have torsen !!don't do this!! else you will be in the hedge/wall/verge*
*delete as approprate (as this pushes the car wide like a RWD)
Keep ESP ON for the first few times, this way you can learn how the car tries to stop you doing something potentially stupid, then repeat but with ESP off to learn how the power shifts through the use of EDL only which is still used when ESP is not active.
I learnt on a non ESP car and the lessons were invaluable so when ESP arrived on my last S3 I hardly ever saw it come on under quite quick driving.
I'd recommend running in the wet and dry to realise how the car car cope with almost the same speeds in most situations.
Do remember if you get it wrong, quattros dont brake very well when going sideways!
I'd recommend approaching the roundabout first time to line up the quattro as if you were to push a RWD car round it but at normal speeds, turn in and once into the apex, power down as you might when pushing a RWD car to go wide out of a corner except you wont power slide out, you will sling shot out.
Once you have done this a few times you can then line yourself up between the FWD and RWD positioning to enter the roundabout for the RWD but progressively apply more and more power in the corner until ESP reigns you in.
The next thing to do is to learn you can carry more speed through the corner around 8-10 MPH when entering in and maintain the most of the speed through the roundabout as some of the speed is scrubbed off by the cornering forces, for this just keep even power applied through the corner, you may see ESP kick in part way round the corner if you are going in to fast or on a too tight approach angle.
Afterwards its a question of mixing the two skills to get the fastest speed and momentum into, round and out of the roundabout.
Afterwards turn ESP off !!!don't be as ***** as before!!! and repeat to see how EDL shifts power without the brakes being kicked in/engine retarded to stablise the car.
Once happy, try the same in the wet, although i don't recommend ESP off unless you are a Audi test driver as I don't fancy my new S3 in a hedge in the wet, neither I'm sure do you fancy your quattro!!
The only other note i'd say is check the tyre pressures as i found on my last A3 and S3 (both quattro) that a 1-2 PSI loss on one tyre throws out the driving experience a lot, so much so I check my tyre pressure once a week if not more and have the tyre pressure warning fitted on my new S3 because of it.
The other point is NEVER mix different manufacturer tyrpes on any of the 4 driven wheels at any time as this can throw the whole cars hendling out even more then a 1-2 PSI drop in one tyre. I had this through a Kwikfit fitter
and nearly ended up in a bollard sideways in the pouring rain at fairly low speeds (under 30 MPH).
Thats the best I can offer from speaking to a couple of Audi techncians about how quattro worked and their comments to me on how to learn what it is doing.
Hope it helps.
