Re: Rollerskate car handling

[Eric L Ellis <elf16v@juno.com>]

THANK YOU NEAL! I saw a 16v Scirocco with this "look" and behind the
wheel...err almost in front of it actually, a little boy playing "race
car driver". He must have thought he was on a bike 'cause he leaned into
the turns!?! (almost fell out of the car during lefts) I pulled up next
to him and began laughing and pointing. He got pissed and asked if I
wanted to go? I stopped laughing...as much...and proceeded to tell him
that if he wanted to race ME, he needed to put those wheels back under
his car. I swear I saw steam come from his ears. The light went green,
and I saw him briefly in my mirrors but he slowly faded from
sight...never to be seen to this day! Can't we all just get a brain? I
realize that my story is one that takes place on a straight road, but I
would have GLADLY raced him on a twisty one and the results would have
been the same! Bold? I don't give a damn!

-Eric
Good, bad....I'm the guy with the gun! And my wheels stay under my car
and on the ground! Except for the inside rear!


On Tue, 21 Mar 2000 02:41:27 -0500 (EST) sixteen.volt@gte.net writes:
> I think that the point of the posts was specifically in regard to 
> asthetics. The majority of the cars which purposely look this way do 
> so with no regard to performance. The key to remember is that the 
> car was designed with a certain track width in mind. Increasing the 
> track width by itself doesn't really do much of anything to the 
> road-holding ability of the car, except to widen the roll center of 
> the car, which can actually decrease handling ability. The cars 
> (such as the Trans-Am car you mention) utilize the wider fender 
> flares so that they can fit a wider tire, which has a larger contact 
> patch with the road and therefore much more grip. It isn't about the 
> width of the car...it's about the ability to use wider tires. Most 
> of the "skateboard crowd" uses the same, if not narrower, tire size! 
> The suspension on these race cars has also been re-tuned to take 
> this slightly wider track width into account.
> 
> This is, of course all in addition to the argument that the 
> skateboard look is DANGEROUS! Not only do you have problems with 
> rocks being thrown at high velocities, but fenders are designed 
> specifically to keep bare tires from touching each other. Ever see 
> what happens when two F1 or Indy cars touch tires? One of them will 
> be launched 5ft into the air, guaranteed, and probably come down on 
> something other than its wheels!
> 
> Neal
> 88 16v
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of Ben Channard
> > Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 7:30 PM
> > To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > Subject: Rollerskate car handling
> > 
> > 
> > 	I've seen a lot of posts disparaging cars with their tires 
> 
> > sticking out way 
> > past the fenders.  Aesthetics aside, can't this help the car 
> > handle better?  
> > Isn't a wider track generally more stable, just like in those 
> > Pontiac ads?  
> > The only drawback I recall about having the tires sticking out is 
> > that wheel 
> > bearing life goes down, but if that's it then I'm sure that would 
> > be worth 
> > it for some of the performance crowd.
> > 	The infamous Trans-Am(?) mk.1 Scirocco appears to have 
> this 
> > set up.  
> > Visually remove the fender flares and you get yer basic 
> > "pimped-out-rocco."  
> > I don't know if the racer had a non-stock suspension or not but if 
> anyone 
> > knows or can comment, please share.  Thx, benton-----
> 
> 
>


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