Nothing loose at all. The cars were equipped with gearboxes that allowed them to be shifted into gear without a foot on the brake pedal. More follows:
Ummm, for our uninformed Finnish friend, these *were* all automatics. 'Unintended acceleration' *never occurred* in manual gearbox cars. The reason is simple. People were putting their foot on the wrong pedal (the accelerator instead of the brake). When they shifted into a gear from Park (usually, to Reverse) or from Neutral (Reverse or Drive), they were startled by the sudden acceleration and pressed the pedal harder to *stop* when they were actually still on the wrong pedal. Then, they'd crash. Now, VW/Audi gearboxes (as well as most cars in the US) have an interlock that prevents the gearbox from being shifted from Park without having the brake pedal depressed at the same time.
The reason it affected Audi the most is also simple. Audi's pedals were placed closer together than any other car on the US market, so this driver error was most likely to occur. The second most closely spaced pedals were in Mercedes. Want to guess which manufacturer had the second highest ratio of 'unintended acceleration' complaints?
This much is true. Spreading the acceleration forces out among all four contact patches definitely does allow for a slightly quicker launch. My old 4000 Quattro could launch at 0.88g while a similarly-sized but 2WD BMW 325is could only manage 0.67g on comparable (R compound) tires. The advantage quickly evaporated in light of his 167(?) hp vs. my 110 ...
Yeah; on those rare occasions when I see a 'Vette venturing out in the Wisconsin snow, I have no trouble 'dusting' it off with a Quattro.
Maybe you misunderstood. This is now a *competitive event* among the 'ricers'.
-- C.R. Krieger Been there; slid that.