VW ID.4 Revealed - Reservations Open

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Quoth DDG:
Never rolled it once, but not for trying.

First auto accident was in the '69 Bug the night before the beginning of my senior year of high school. Rolled it out into a farm field. My friend and I climbed up out of the vehicle to exit the drivers side, and we pushed it uphill back onto the wheels. Pushing it downhill would have been easier, but it would have rolled over the undamaged portion of the vehicle. We put the spare tire on to replace the one that was peeled off its bead.

Probably spent $80 in parts to replace the damaged stuff including a side window, running board and fenders.

[freebeard]

My first accident involving a Beetle was when I slid my 1946 Ford (on ice) into the back of a Beetle at ~5mph.

It didn't scratch the chrome on my bumper guard, but the Beetle folded the rear bumper, pulling the brackets sideways through the fenders and shoving the tail-pipes up into the muffler. Swore I'd never own one.

Two years later I got the 1958 convertible. While I was in The Nam my brother [RIP] was driving it in the snow in Portland. They turned up what they thought was a street, but it was a railroad track. Allegedly, there was a train coming. They piled out and the four of them lifted it off the tracks.

[Hersbird]

I'll race ya'll around town after a big snowstorm in my Grand Caravan and we'll just see.

With a FWD car you definitely can bias the weight on the drive wheels and have no abnormal handling effects. All this 50/50 is great if you running a road course, but around town you stop, go, and turn 90 degree corners. Anything running on the edge of handling is driving like a fool. That said, this is what makes a Subaru so popular up north. You can drive like a fool and it's very forgiving and at least you aren't carrying 3 tons of weight around when you slam into the side of that other family's car.

So does the ID4 have rear weight bias?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I'll race ya'll around town after a big snowstorm in my Grand Caravan and we'll just see.

With a FWD car you definitely can bias the weight on the drive wheels and have no abnormal handling effects. All this 50/50 is great if you running a road course, but around town you stop, go, and turn 90 degree corners. Anything running on the edge of handling is driving like a fool. That said, this is what makes a Subaru so popular up north. You can drive like a fool and it's very forgiving and at least you aren't carrying 3 tons of weight around when you slam into the side of that other family's car.

So does the ID4 have rear weight bias?

Have you driven a modern RWD car with dialed-in traction/stability control in the snow to the limit?

The main factors for snow performance in order are tires, AWD, and clearance. A neutrally balanced car will perform well as RWD.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I'll race ya'll around town after a big snowstorm in my Grand Caravan and we'll just see.

With a FWD car you definitely can bias the weight on the drive wheels and have no abnormal handling effects. All this 50/50 is great if you running a road course, but around town you stop, go, and turn 90 degree corners. Anything running on the edge of handling is driving like a fool. That said, this is what makes a Subaru so popular up north. You can drive like a fool and it's very forgiving and at least you aren't carrying 3 tons of weight around when you slam into the side of that other family's car.

So does the ID4 have rear weight bias?

Better handling is always better even if you don't use it every day. It is about safety and the better a car handles the more you have in reserve.

My commute to work is not all stop and go and 90 degree turns. It also has some steep sections that are hard to climb in a FWD car even with snow tires.

The weight bias of the ID.4 has not been disclosed. The ID.3 is 50/50. Considering the ID.4 has a larger rear overhang I would expect it to carry more weight on the rear wheels but time will tell.

Another benefit of RWD that I didn't think of but that is mentioned in a lot of the ID.3 reviews is the turning radius. Without a motor in front the wheels can turn farther giving a better turning radius. The ID.3 has a turning circle of 10.2 meters. That is less than the much smaller VW Polo that only manages 10.6 meters.

Just one of the fun hairpin turns on my commute:

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Have you driven a modern RWD car with dialed-in traction/stability control in the snow to the limit?

The main factors for snow performance in order are tires, AWD, and clearance. A neutrally balanced car will perform well as RWD.

The BMW 430i Convertible I had on a recent-ish business trip did great in a freak snowstorm that dropped 6 inches of snow the Charlotte area of NC.

If anything the stability control is too good. I tried to relieve my young in an empty snow covered parking lot but I couldn't figure out how to turn off the stability control. The car would spin the wheels just fine but once the back end came out about 45 degrees the stability control say NO MORE and killed the fun. No snowy donuts or drifting for me.

Snowy parking lots were part of my driver education. My father would take me out in the morning after a snow storm and make me practice controlling skids and slides until it was second nature.

[JSH]

Some more ID.4 news.

VW will build it in 3 plants. Production has started in Zwickau, Germany; pre-production builds have started in Anting, China; and production is scheduled for Chattanooga, TN next year.

[freebeard]

I learned on gravel, worked my way up to a 14,000GVW box van.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by JSH

Another benefit of RWD that I didn't think of but that is mentioned in a lot of the ID.3 reviews is the turning radius.

I'm pretty sure my full size truck turns tighter than my Acura. That thing turns like a bus. There's zero U turns I can complete without it becoming a 3-point turn.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by skyking

Cold Balls 2017

Thanks for adding that.

fake split rat and a 1302
Real oval prolly the oldest one there
60ft dragstrip with manual semaphore