A little birdie told me wagons are popular around here

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 03/16/2018 at 10:19 • Filed to: Interesting cars at work

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This A6 wagon usually parks in the same less-busy section of the parking lot at my office as I do. Here it is covered in a thick layer of road salt. Even though this winter had very little snow by Madison standards, we got the usual (or more) amount of road salt. Shit is nasty.

Maxima Speed > Textured Soy Protein 03/16/2018 at 10:30

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Sorry dude. They told you wrong. We’re into crossover cabriolet’s .

functionoverfashion > Textured Soy Protein 03/16/2018 at 10:37

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Holy front overhang, Batman!

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > Maxima Speed 03/16/2018 at 10:38

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I absolutely... lust... over this car. Just...look at it....I just love the way it....um.... The color.

Spanfeller is a twat > functionoverfashion 03/16/2018 at 10:42

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Yeah, it’s almost like a kardashian, aint it?

Wagonlife740 > Textured Soy Protein 03/16/2018 at 11:05

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My wagon drives through Madison often. Madison is totally more wagon friendly than it’s surrounding cities and entire state. Just not quite as wagon friendly as Vermont and Maine.

Textured Soy Protein > functionoverfashion 03/16/2018 at 11:05

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Welcome to the world of Audi longitudinal transaxle drivetrains.

Audis with longitudinally mounted engines use a transaxle to power the front wheels.

The part on the left is where the engine bolts up, and that circle on the side is where the front axle goes. The whole engine is hung out in front of the front axle. Thus, the overhang.

On newer platforms, Audi has managed to move the front axle somewhat farther forward, but there’s still the overhang.

Honda/Acura actually used this same idea to make longitudinal fwd cars, with no connection to the rear wheels. Also the transaxle extends forward underneath the engine so the axles are directly underneath it and the engine isn’t hung way forward like Audi.

The result of which is this loveliness:

Other longitudinally mounted awd/4wd systems use a transfer case mounted aft of the transmission that sends power to the front wheels with a driveshaft connected to a front differential. For example here’s BMW’s setup but this is pretty typical:

This layout lets the engine sit in the usual rwd location.

functionoverfashion > Spanfeller is a twat 03/16/2018 at 11:10

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functionoverfashion > Textured Soy Protein 03/16/2018 at 11:12

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Wow, that is a thorough response! I was going to say, my awd E46 has the front wheels right up near the bumper, just like the rwd version! I like their system because, while I’m sure it’s inferior in traction to Quattro, it does just fine and also is better for low-speed shenanigans because rear bias.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > functionoverfashion 03/16/2018 at 11:59

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Indeed. I had a 50/50 split AWD system in my Galant. Not exactly like Audi’s because it was still FWD based. The XDrive will kick the rear end out much much easier, and understeers off power a lot less.

functionoverfashion > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 03/16/2018 at 19:54

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I’ve gone sliding in every kind of awd/4wd system I’ve ever encountered. Audi, Subaru, Volvo, BMW, and good ol’ 4WD trucks both Ford and GMC. But nothing makes getting sideways so easy as a rear-biased AWD that still pulls a bit from the front when needed. Straight RWD gets sideways easier, but is much harder to keep from going 180, or just to maintain speed. I find that my right foot is my ticket out of most things I get myself into, in the BMW system. Just add MOAR POWAH and you’ll be fine. Most of the time.