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[racing] "handling feel"



You should get sway  bars!!!
The car will drive like a slot car with them.
I raced my 81 last week with a set up like yours
(no sway bars, just upper and lower stress on the car).
The car is not that safe set up like that for extreem driving.
I must say that driving down the 405 you will think the car is O.K.
with out sway bars but on a twisty road you will want them.
My 87 has big bars and  it drives great. You just got to get sway bars.
Drive a car with them and you will know why you need them.
Call Potterman and order a set. Just do it.

Doug
87 16v silver Scirocco "GTX"
81 8v  red Scirocco "S"

Message text written by Benton Yoshida
>
Hey all:

        I have trouble communicating with my car.  Besides the sound of
tires squealing and body roll, the only input that I think I have is coming
from the steering wheel.  I think the only thing that I've felt is of the
front end feeling "light" on a slippery surface--i.e. the wheel seems loose
and steering effort does down.  I honestly don't know if I've felt
understeer in my car under normal conditions.  I realize that these things
are best learned autocrossing but for a number of reasons I don't foresee
that in my crystal ball.
        I'm always amazed when folks write that they took a teaspoon of
windshield washer fluid out of the reservoir and transformed the car's
handling from diabolic to heavenly.  I added upper and lower stress bars to
my '81 and I'm not sure if I really felt a difference.  (btw, they were
some off-brand bars--basically a piece of metal with bolt holes.)  Perhaps
turn in (my understanding: the immediacy between movement of the steering
wheel and the change in direction of the car) was slightly improved but
maybe I hallucinated  it to justify the afternoon that I blew putting the
bars on.  What cues are you guys/gals tuning into to determine whether the
car is under/oversteering and when to apply correction?  Can you really
feel the car's rotation apart from that due to steering?  How do you know
that the frame is flexing?  Are you really feeling flex or just
interpreting squeaks and rattles as flex?  People mention inputs from the
seat but I don't feel much, as if I had a big shot of novocaine in my butt
(or is that just fat?)
        Having grown up in SoCal and being a strict urban nightcrawler, I
have no experience with snow, gravel, or ice, just pure asphalt,
occasionally wet.  Is this a deficiency in my driver education?  This is
partly why I'm hesitant about adding sway bars.  Why add them if they're
only going to make the car heavier and the wallet lighter?
        I'd appreciated any inputs besides the chorus of, "go autoX!"
Thanks, benton-----
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