Hi all,

I have a question to ask about the quattro system, and why it is so beneficial, so i thought this would be a great place to pose such a question.

I realize that have power routed to all 4 wheels certainly allows quicker accelleration over normal 2 wheel drive vehicles. However, does quattro provide any benefit when cornering? I would think that lateral (cornering) forces are dictated by the sizeof the contact patch with the ground (i.e. your tires), and that a 4 wheel drive system would not increase traction at all. It would also not provide any advantage when braking, since all 4 wheels are being braked at the same time anyway. It seems the only (real) benefit is during accelleration?

Am i missing the boat here? Can someone explain this to me?

its all about the traction 4x4 do it better but only useful if you have the need like snow/mud/offroading, front wheel drive drags the car - rear wheel pushes it - 4x4 drags and pushes

Mhmm to expand on what dave said, when your going around a turn and your rear end slips in a normal rwd vehicle you lost traction, speed, and stability....same principle happens with fwd when you lose traction.....quattro can help keep you stable through the turns, which will lead to faster cornering ability......... quattro doesn't help with braking, however audis stability control and ABS braking does help alot.

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vnv727 your right but quattro does help with brakeing,kinda, when you let off the gas in a quattro its pretty much the same as hitting the brakes, when it mid turn you can let off the gas, this will in turn be like hitting the brakes and causing a weight shift to the front, when this happens the car will generally understeer, get back on the gas alittle and you can easily and safely exit the turn or gas it completly and possible get the back end loose a bit, this is known as steering with the throttle.

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An audi without quattro is just a VW

err well your partially right, steering with the throttle also applies to RWD vehicles and inducing oversteer by applying more throttle to re adjust the line through the turn

as far as quattro acting as a brake, there is more drivetrain loss and more resistance so yes the effect of "engine braking" will be more profound, this however does not help you maintain traction while braking...that was my point

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Do cars equipped with Quattro have LSD? Any AWD car should have three differentials, correct? (front axle, rear axle, and driveshaft diff. between front and rear axles) Would each differential have LSD? I think this is the way the Evo's AWD is set up.

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Turbochargers whistle while they work, superchargers whine while they screw.

It helps every where, AWD cars are more stable, and help a lot in cornering, you can get on the gas quicker & harder thus making the car faster. With AWD if you lift a tire or loose traction on one wheel, you still have 3 putting the power down. It's also much harder to spin & peal out with AWD.

The downsides are more weight, lower MPG, more complexity.

I would NEVER buy an Audi that is now Quattro!

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If you PM me waning help, PayPal $5 to evoiiim3@yahoo.com first!

2005 Lighting Yellow Lancer EVO 8
2000 Audi S4 Imola Yellow
1997 Porsche 911 C4S, Black

Quattro is one of the reason why Audi is known around the world.

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TwoThousandOnePointFive BFive

quattro is the main reason its known around teh world.

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An audi without quattro is just a VW

Only one potential downside that I can see, and that's the fact that all those differentials, drive axles, etc, all consume power that is generated by the engine. It seems that the typical rule of thumb for comparison purposes is that a 2wd vehicle will consume less flywheel hp than an awd vehicle due to having fewer moving/rotating parts there to be moved/rotated, so in a 2wd car you're likely to have more of that engine power make it to the wheels than in the awd car. Where would that matter? Acceleration from a roll - when racing, the quattro's advantage is that it allows a stronger holeshot with a good driver, and the car has a good chance to jump out in front. On-the-roll racing will be more of a weak point with awd, as its traction advantage is negated, and it's eating more of its flywheel hp than the 2wd car would, and is thus putting less hp to the wheels where it's needed. Other than that, awd to me seems superior, and I've certainly become a believer in it, whether from a performance standpoint or just foul-weather confidence - overall, the disadvantage that I just talked about is more than compensated for by the competence in other areas that awd gives the car.

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99 2.8QM

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