From: eliot@stalfos.engr.washington.edu (eliot)
Subject: Re: Sport Sedans (was Re: Corrado SLC or 325is?)
Organization: clearer than blir
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 00:16:37 GMT

In article <1992Oct16.223226.12683@qiclab.scn.rain.com> al@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Alan Peterman) writes:
>Well I disagree that "specs" are the way to select a sports sedan.  There
>is the overall balance and driver feel that tells you it is (or isn't)
>a "sport" vehicle.  For me, the specs help give an idea, but the driving
>feel is the true test.  

I agree 100% with this.. too many people buy according to numbers and
that is too sad.

>Frankly, this is why I suspect the Corrado would
>not please me as much as the 325 - I really dislike FWD cars "feel" and it
>is pretty unavoidable since the steering IS hooked up to the powered axle.

I've driven the Corrado a fair bit.  The nasty fwd effects are only
felt when accelerating hard or if the road is wet.  it doesn't really
prevent me from attacking a corner at insane speeds and still come out
with a big grin.  I'll grant you that it is a disadvantage, but by fwd
standards, the corrado is as good as they get and the torque steer
effects are not serious enough to stop me from buying one, which i
did. for $10K less, i think i would put up with it.  for the price of
the corrado vr6, one could only get a 318is.  as far as i am concerned
the vr6 engine more than makes up for the bimmer's rear drive chassis
or any of its other advantages.

>My wife had a Prelude, and now has an Integra - she finds the "feel" of
>the my 325 to be much more conducive to positive control, and I have to
>agree. 

sorry to say this, but the integra is one of the worst handling cars
that is available on the market today.  mushy, feel-less steering,
severely underdamped chassis and terminal understeer even at snail
speeds.  in short, a total disaster and a complete contradiction to
its sporty marketing.  one should not use the shortcomings of the
integra to criticise fwd in general.  the integra is a good example of
abysmal chassis engineering and not at all an illustration of the
fundamental drawbacks of the fwd layout in general.  of course the
325i will take the integra to the cleaners.  you are talking about an
excellent rear drive chassis vs.  a very bad fwd one.  if you want a
better comparison of fwd vs. rwd, you should be comparing the 325i to
either the infiniti g20, the corrado or the late peugeot 405.

>But a couple of weeks ago as we watched the Audi
>ahead of us spin off the wet road and negotiated the same corner at a bit
>higher speed (we were gaining on them) the balanced handling of the BMW
>felt awfully good.  

hey, i'll take an audi quattro on a wet road anyday!  it will eat any
rear drive car alive, including bmw.  :-) :-) even q45s move aside
when the road gets wet.  ever watch a wet german touring car race?  a
complete walkover when that happens.

>Luckily the Audi folks were unhurt (though the same
>can't be said for their car), and I suspect some of their problem was due
>to poor driving skills.  

could be bad tires, poor skills.  i don't think that one could
conclude very much about driving wheels layouts from seeing someone
crash while one did not.  on the other hand, watching the audis clean
up the competition on a wet track is quite a bit more convincing.  :-) 



eliot


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