one car vs another.. Did you find a differnce?

[Eric18T]

I am curious if anyone find it easier or more difficult to drive one car vs another. The reason i ask, as my last jetta (01) and my wifes golf (02) seem a lot easier to drive aggressivly than my A4 (04).  It seems like my A4 needs more input and seems to excentuate (sp) any mistakes i make.  

Does anyone else ever come accross this before? I think i am going to take the HPDE this spring, and i have done BMWCCA classes and Tim Oneil school before but it seems like the A4 is really, really picky. Am i just dreaming this or do other people notice things like this?

[gragravar]

definately notice this.

for me the audi is easier to drive fast.  I have taken the allroad and the 330i to second creek.  everything tells me the 330 should be faster.  It has better balance, better brakes, stiffer suspension, but my lap times tell a different story.  I think I am more confident in the allroad - it is my daily driver, while the 330 is the wife's.  

being used to the awd rather than rwd set up makes a difference, as does the difference between a turbo and non-turbo car (particularly around shift technique and when to apply power).

bottom line is that I believe experience matters.  the more you get to know a car the more confident you will be. Driving school should help that along for you.

[BHase]

I agree that the difference is in the experience.  I've been fortunate enough in the past to have had two A4s available to me at one time: one a 2.8 manual, the other a 1.8T Tiptronic.  The 2.8 was and still is my daily driver, and I don't feel as comfortable in any other car, not even in other A4s. I think you can go beyond the type of car to the specifics like, as said, type of drive, as well as engine, etc.  So many differences!

[jayryan]

Yeah, it's definately easier to drive the Jetta more aggresively than the Xterra...

On a serious note, cars are so much different...driving that Kia was like crap compared to the Jetta

[Eric18T]

i am not sure why, but i think my jetta and i know my golf is a lot easier to drive than my A4. maybe it is just the extra weight of my fat asses A4. Or maybe it is just how the car is setup.

[kraut-sled]

Well let see...Last week I drove the following cars, all in the same day.

Stage 3 S4
Stage 3 A4 1.8t
Porsche Boxter S
M5
my Passat (stage 300.000 BTW)

All the cars are very different, and react different too.  Despite 3 of the 5 being turbocharged, and VAG products.  Honestly I was most confident in my car, I know it and I have perfected (well IMHO) how to drive it.  The M5 is the most diffacullt for me to drive, because it is NA, RWD, and heavy.  But it is a great car.

Long story short - to know what your car is going to do you have to push it to it's limit (in a safe environment like a track).  Then you can learn how to get it to do what you want it to, and what it simply will not do.

This only makes to closing of all the local tracks, a greater loss.  I will be going to a track at some point this summer, I too, still have lots to learn.

[BHase]

Not to threadjack, but speaking of tracks, where ARE we going to go from now on? Pueblo?