How to Roll a GTI (Serious Question)

Because of your low center of gravity, your danger of roll over is pretty much nil. You will slide before you roll. You could, of course, slide into a curb, and that might be enough to send you over. If you feel the front end lose traction, raise your foot off the gas. Should transfer enough weight forward to regain traction. If not, tap the brake pedal lightly. On the other hand, if the rear goes out, and you have room to maneuver, point the wheels where you want to go and hit the gas. Should transfer weight back and give the rear wheels the traction they need. Of course, this is for racing, when you want to maintain speed and just get through the turn. Different mindset from day-to-day driving, when you probably just want to stop the car as soon as possible.

I just bought an 85 GTi (someone transplanted a diesel into it, i don't know why) for 100 bucks. Because the rust is so bad, when too many problems arise I will be fielding the car. One of my goals is to roll it. I plan to take it way too fast in an open area and build up a curb of sorts that i could slide it into. I think my best bet is one of those concrete bumpers in parking lots, with holes in the top for planting them with rebar. I should be able to salvage the engine, and hopefully transmission, from the wreck.

Of course, I will be wearing a seat belt and my full-face motorcycle helmet.

It's very difficult to roll one... even an SUV on a proper road is extremely difficult to roll... The tire grip will give out and slide before a rolling action takes place. Most vehicle rollovers are due to impacts... If 1/2 your car slid into soft dirt and dug in, or you hit a curb (or and SUV hitting a low slung car) then it could roll. Make sure your tires only come in contact with the road and you should be fine, you *probably* won't be corndering that hard on roads with such bad rutting (and the ruts tend to follow corners).

Keep cornering speeds somewhat sane - you're on public roads, remember that. Autocrossing is cheap (and if I could afford to modify my car to suit this form of racing, I would... maybe next year :-) ).

I love apex carving as well, VW's will let you know when it's too much... listen for tire squeal, and you'll feel the rear end start to slide out just a little.... I used to be pretty nuts with my old 1991 Golf - with its

175/75 R13 tires - man, that car could corner harder then my 1999.5 Golf with 195/65 R15 tires!... A friend was following me one day home from the movies, I took an intersection at around 90kph (no bashing me... I was 17 at the time, i've learned to not drive like that in public anymore.... we were ALL 17 once and we all did stupid stuff... I never did really crazy stuff in traffic or around other drivers) and got the rear tire to do the VW lift!!! He said it was just nuts seeing a tire just tuck up into the car as it careened thru a corner.

All VWs do this. First thing I did when I got my diesel rabbit running was took it to a parking lot and took turns with my friend driving/watching the tire lift. It does it pretty early. After the tires squeal, but well before you think the rear will slide. I hear Porches lift the inside front tire.

I've seen pictures... and have probably done it a few more times... but I haven't seen my own car do it, and he thought it was wild.

All VW's with the torsionbeam rear axle do this. The new Mk5 Golf suspension is fully independent and shouldn't do this anymore. But the Mk5 GTI does lift its inner rear wheel when cornering fast, but this is due to the stiff anti-roll bar at the rear suspension.

Remco

Soft shoulder, powersliding into it with the wheel hard over, and it will flip when the wheels bite into the grass. I'd even bet you could do it with speeds as low as 40MPH in the right conditions.

Tractions is a myth. There's always something slipping. The questions is what, how much, and what it'll do when it suddenly changes.

Don't get me wrong... I have a '04 GTI with ESP and I love what it does. I live in RI and we don't have straight roads. I've had a few instances where I was worried, but not overwhelmingly so. (And I drive it hard.)

But remember... Traction is a myth. You're car is a series of concessions to make it driveable in most conditions. Be aware when you're outside of that envelope, and modify your habits accordingly. Two feet of snow would turn that GTI into an E-ticket ride.

The easiest answer it to take a professional driving course.