markbradford

Today was my first experience with Quattro in snow. The car never ceases to amaze me. We got a lot of snow last night, changing to about 1 degree (Celcius) slushy crap this morning. The drive to class was a blast, right from pushing through the plowage at the end of the driveway to the unplowed parking lot at school. For reasons unknown the area closest to the doors at school was unplowed, with about seven or eight inches of disgusting crap on the ground. No cars were anywhere near it, but I just casually drove straight through it all and cruised right up the the doors. I love it; didn't even get my pant legs wet.

After class I went for a run in another unplowed parking lot to get a handle on the handling characterisics of the car in the snow. OUTSTANDING - controlled four wheel drifts were a snap, coming on and off throttle through a turn leads to predictible behaviour, etc, etc, etc.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee,
Mark
99.5 1.8TQMS, APR

PS - It's still snowing; wheeeeeeeee! I feel like a kid in a candy store.

7an

Still waiting for snow in WI. What tires do you have?

FrancisK

me too! changing snow tires for a month! No snow in WI this Nov!?!

7an

Nothing in south-east WI anyway. Record warm/dry fall. Insane.

DavidP

.

7an

I have a 99.5 1.8TQM. What do you drive? I wonder how many people from the Milwaukee area are on this board. The thought of starting a club or arranging some rides has hit me more than once.

RickM

Unless he too has quattro, of course. :-)

Rick

Ray

I'm up in Central Wisconsin, in Wausau. This is my first winter with my 99.5 A4 1.8TQA Avant, and I'm curious how the car will handle. I sold my Nissan Pathfinder this year for the Audi, and so far I've been thrilled. Ray

markbradford

Pirelli Winter 210 Asyms, 225/50/16 on sport rims - went wide for dry road performance

Phil A

It's in the shop because I too was trying out the quattro, for only the second time in the snow. I was coming around a left hand corner at the end of a street near my place the morning after "3-4" of snow. The corner of the street had been under construction for several weeks, and I knew that because I use that street every day. Well there was a 10 ' section of road that was not yet repaved, and ice must have formed in this depression in the road--they use salt/sand mix on the roads here. I was going a little faster than normal, having fun trying to test the limits of the quattro/tires, and everything was fine until suddenly the coefficient of friction must have dropped to near zero. I slid sideways square in to the curb, marking up both passenger side wheels. So hard that for a second or two I thought I might get a flat ! Well it's a day later and still no flat, but the lip of both the 5-spoke factory wheels are gouged. The right rear now makes a nasty noise that sounds like the rear hub is pooched. I hope thats all it is, and not any of the suspension bits. Also I have the CDERR 1 message listed in the FAQ. Fortunately I have warranty coverage still, so that last item will be fixed free of charge (I hope). And I am sure I will need an 4-wheel alignment too.
Please follow Mark's example and do your winter handling tests somewhere safe where you can't hit anything including curbs ! Learn from a guy who should have known better. =o(