Yesh

Its funny what emergency situations do to you. I've told always told people new to quattro to always give some gas to get traction out of the system. With that said here is what happened yesterday:

It was raining really crazy here in Mass. and I thought I'll check out quattro but in a controlled way. I take this on-ramp which I haven't taken before (mistake one) and looked in the rear view to make sure nobody was following. Then I started taking the ramp at a good pace, as I neared the final bend I realized I was going a little too fast and let go of the gas to slow down (mistake two). Thats it, I lost all traction and started swerving. I counter steered once and ended-up over-steering and had to steer the other way to finally get the car under control...phew!
And I drove away from that spot as though nothing happened but now if I think about it I feel real lucky to have gotten away unhurt. The funny part is as I was driving away, within the next mile or so there was a golf that had gone off-road and cops had arrived.

Just wondering how many of us can actually step on the gas when losing traction.

RKA

because you know just how to feather the gas and steering to get you out of that mess (or continue enjoying the fun...depending on how you look at things). If you haven't learned, your instinct for self preservation (which doesn't yet know any better) says "get the hell off the gas!".

Yesh

in parking lots (in snow), trying to skid and gain control. But I was just trying to stress the point that when in a panic, it can be a totally different ball game (pun intended :-)

Bill S

Acceleration shifts weight back, which helps when rear wheels are losing traction (oversteer), but hurts when front wheels are skidding (understeer).

Quattro can only shift power between wheels. It can't create traction. But weight shift does increase or reduce traction, and you must use that to your advantage.

I think you experienced oversteer on the ramp when you let off the gas during the turn (bad idea) and shifted weight off the rear wheels. In that case, giving a little gas and countersteering was the right move.