Deutsch

With advanced traction control systems in Rear and Front wheel drive cars these days, is there a real need for full time all wheel drive??? Most of these systems provide similar stability in unfavorable climate conditions that up until recentley have been thought to only be manageable w/ AWD.

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Audi4Life

yes you are right...but there is one hing you are forgetting....Quattro not only has great traction,grip,safety....but a lot of audiis heritage is based of the quattro and to get rid of it means that the audi is not a proper audi...

Deutsch

I appreciate your diplomatic response. I agree w/ you whole-heartedly. As a matter of fact I remember reading the now two months old issue of EVO where they did an interview w/ the program manager for the R8, they bought up the idea of a track day special w/ light weight technology. The program manager stated that in order to make such a car that would probably entail the deletion of Quattro and RWD in it's stead in order to meet qualifications, he said this would defeat the brands image in motorsport as well as a company. He ended that part of the dialog w/ the suggestion that there will indeed be such a car, but done the Audi way.

MikeJ

The biggest difference between an AWD car and a 2WD car in 'unfavorable' climates in normal traffic is in acceleration, especially standing starts. Roughly speaking, double the driving wheels means double the forward motion - in slippery conditions, if you drive an AWD you can leave any 2WD car (far) behind at the traffic lights without even trying. Whether that is a real need or not depends on your perspective, but AWD sure makes life easier in the winter.

Deutsch

In the winter it has an advantage. Otherwise you might say it's jut an added expense, but I guess that really all depends. I think it could prove to be a real benefit in the future as drive systems become more advanced. A lightweight AWD system wouldn't hurt either.

Choleric

You can have all the gadgets you want but when it comes down to it there is no replacement for fourwheel drive, I speak from experience.

Tumbo

I can co-sign that. Nothing..absolutely nothing can match the AWD in some conditions.

Mirage77

Quite a snowstorm you have there Jeff, and BTW is that a Volvo S40 in your second pic?

AWD offers advantages in some situations or circumstances, but most of the time RWD or FWD does the job fine IMO.

Deutsch

I forgot but now I remember; A year or so ago I test drove a B7 S4, the sales guy was uber enthusiastic about Audi's (showed us his slightly modified B6 S4 afterwards w/ custom exhaust). He told me to push it while going down hill (the down hill part didn't register in his head, he later chastised me for having done so, LoL), so I was going probably about 50mph on a downhill curve, now I'm no driving expert though I'd like to think of myself as being a fairly good driver for my age group, but Quattro made me look really good; the car understeered like crazy but had amazing grip that probably would have never been possible otherwise without Quattro. Funny memory indeed, but a good one.

PC Valkyrie

For sure, there is an advantage for AWD cars in the wet/snow, AND in the dry from a performance point of view, when compared to RWD or FWD cars with electronic traction control.

Electronic traction control works by applying the brakes to a drive wheel which is spinning excessively compared to the other drive wheel, such that the open differential transfers power to the other drive wheel, which presumably has more traction. Alternatively, engine power can be cut if the braking is not adequate. Whenever this happens, the car slows down or can't accelerate as fast. Worse case scenario is if BOTH drive wheels have no traction, then the car shuts down, as the electronic traction control system just cuts engine power completely and the drive wheels don't even move and you stand still even though you may be flooring the accelerator. (this is why most cars have a button to disable the traction control, so you can at least induce old fashion wheel spin to try to get some forward momentum in such a scenario).

In an quattro AWD car, the torsen (torque sensing) centre differential will automatically transfer more power to the drive axle which has more traction, without the need for any electronic braking/interference to cut engine power. That's why AWD cars have such an advantage getting started in slippery conditions. Being able to divert power to any of the 4 wheels means there is much less chance of excessivly spinning any of the drive wheels, compared to a RWD or FWD car. Even in the dry, launching a high powered car is much easier than a RWD car because there is less chance any of the drive wheels will spin excessively (which means the car just leaps and goes right away).

For the same reasons, there is an advantage for AWD cars when it comes to accelerating out of a turn (like on a track). Because of the natural weight transfer to the outside wheels, an AWD car can still depend on 2 outside wheels to accelerate out, while a RWD or FWD car can only depend on the single outside wheel to get any sort of power down to accelerate out of a corner.

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