RE: Porsche spin-out (with Alfa content)

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- Brian Shorey <bshorey@domain.elided> wrote:
> 
> The handling 'flaw' I described had to do with
> lifting the throttle in a corner, 

That's not a handling flaw, it's a character flaw. :-)

Actually, there's a great description of the unique
driving technique required of swing-axle cars in, I
think, Denis Jenkinson's "The Racing Driver," in which
he talks about Stirling Moss' initial drive in the
Mercedes-Benz 300SLR.  Now, the 300SLR had its engine
in front (all 285 bhp of it, good for more than 170
mph in the early 1950s), but it also had swing-axle
rear suspension like the 356 Porsche and many prewar
racing Alfas -- I wonder in fact whether it might be
possible to make the case that the 300SLR used a
swing-axle rear *because* of the success of the prewar
Alfas, but I don't know enough about Mercedes
competition history to know when they introduced their
swing-axle racing cars.  The counterpart to John
Hertzman for Daimler-Benz history (or prewar Grand
Prix in general) is cordially invited to fill me in;
I'd love to know more.

I won't attempt to do justice to Jenks' writeup, nor
to the illustrations that he provided, but basically
it took a driver of Moss' caliber to use the
swing-axle suspension to get just *enough* oversteer
to put the car in a fast four-wheel drift, without
inducing so *much* oversteer that the car spun.  After
driving the car much faster than any of the other
drivers of the day had been able to take it through
the same set of corners, Moss came out to chat with
Alfred Neubauer, head of the M-B racing program, and
they exchanged a surprisingly matter-of-fact
conversation about the car's handling dynamics, in
which Neubauer said in effect, "We knew that once we
got a good enough driver, he would be able to use our
car as the engineers originally designed it."  Moss
eventually won the 1955 Mille Miglia in that car (with
Denis Jenkinson navigating for him) at a speed that
was never bettered till the race was ended after two
more years, the first and (I believe) only time a
non-Italian car won that most Italian of races.

It is worth adding that the Road and Track review of
the "new and improved" 300SL roadster of about 1961,
which had major revisions to the rear-axle geometry,
ended up by saying that the improvements now let the
experienced driver choose where he wanted to leave the
road backwards. :-) 

> As for going in a straight line, jump on the
> throttle in *any* vehicle with
> a reasonable amount of torque and HP 

Or little enough grip, which may have influenced the
escapades reported from rain-soaked highway 280.  When
I came in after my first torrential-rainstorm session
in SCCA driver's school in 1991, my heart still
pounding from trying to keep the back of my E
Production MGB behind the front, my driving instructor
-- who drove TransAm cars competitively during the
season -- told me, "Well, now you know what it's like
to drive a 600-hp car in the dry."  Only by dint of a
rare combination of the assiduous application of
expert coaching with abject, sphincter-clenching
cowardice was I able to bring that car in, time after
time, without mud in the taillights.

> Seriously, early 911's were the worst in this area,
> IIRC one of the first things Porsche did in the 
> early years was to start adding weight to the
> front. 

Indeed.  The 911 was two steps forward, one step
backward compared to the 356: more power and less rear
suspension geometry change than the 356 (a genuine
IRS, with two u-joints in each halfshaft, replaced the
swing axle), but also more weight at the rear due to
the 6-cylinder engine.  When it turned out that there
was no observable correlation between the ability to
make easy monthly payments on Zuffenhausen's finest
and the ability to continue unflinchingly on one's
committed cornering line, Porsche began systematically
modifying the cars to make them easier for the average
license-holder to keep aimed in a more or less forward
direction.

The first such steps were, as you correctly recall,
the addition of ballast to the nose of the car,
somewhat offsetting the weight of the rear-mounted
engine.  In about 1968, the wheelbase was lengthened
and the rear suspension geometry changed as well, both
changes aimed at reducing lift-throttle oversteer. 
I've lost track of what other changes have been
introduced over the decades, but the modifications
have been systematic and continuous.

> If my Porsche driving friends can be
> trusted,

Never trust anyone driving a Porsche with more than
four spark plugs, Brian. :-)  (Tessie excepted, of
course... assuming she ever actually DRIVES that
thing!  I keep seeing pictures of it in the garage...)

> my understanding is
> that the problem has gotten a *lot* better in more
> recent years.

Just as with Alfa Romeos, M.G.s, and for all I know
Allis-Chalmer tractors, the debate among Porschephiles
over which was the last "real" Porsche is as endless
as it is pointless.  There are those who make an
almost reasonable, or at least very seductive,
argument that the problem is the homogenization of
automobiles, moving towards increased sales and away
from a pure engineering and design philosophy; from
this perspective, the problem might be said to have
become a lot worse in recent years.  Be that as it
may, I understand the latest 993-series cars have
handling that is barely distinguishable from a
front-engined car, in nearly all conditions.  

Given the enormous performance envelopes of the modern
cars, this is almost certainly a good thing -- it's
one thing for me to go play on country roads with my
41-year-old coupe and feel the lively balance and
responsiveness that comes from a light car with just
*enough* power, and another thing altogether to drive
a car that can hit 100 mph in seconds and nearly
double that before it runs out of oomph.  "Wischening"
my little 356 (the classic description of driving an
early Porsche, from the German verb "wischen," meaning
"to wipe") is a lot of good, heart-pounding fun at
40-50 mph; I *know* I don't have the skill to try it,
right out of the box, at three times that speed.  

But a lot of people DON'T know that about
themselves... and at such speeds, the lesson can
easily be fatal.

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
.
Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage
http://sports.yahoo.com/

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