I've rolled an '86 GL, and I frequently drive my vans like a madman. Comes from when I was jumping from the Corrado to Vanagon and back every other day, found myself driving them the same way, but the Van is more fun, rear wheel drive and whatnot. On a serious note, with proper C rated tires you got to get a Van hanging WAY, WAY out before you will do anything and you will swear to god from the tremendous body lean (though less on Vanagons than Buses, and less on a post '87 with lowered suspension) that you have already rolled LONG before you hit the limit. Things that can change this though, understeer/oversteer tendancy is drastically effected by front tire pressure, and an imbalance of front pressure (say letting one fall to the mid 20's while the other is up where it belongs) can cause terrifying handling characteristics. An imbalance of load ratings front to rear can cause similar grief. But generally you will back off long before you come anywhere near rolling. The exception (mine when I was a bit younger) never ever let off the throttle in a turn on a patch of glare ice (or I guess slick gravel, etc.) You are driving a fair equivalent handling wise of a 911, with a whole lot less power, but with a higher CG and even worse weight distribution, and that back end will come round on you monstrously under such conditions as Porsche had to explain (trailing throttle oversteer) in '65? and again in '76?. Of course you might recover unless you are unlucky enough to catch a rear wheel on a drain culvert in the median, then over you go. But the van handles a roll quite well, even 2.5 rolls from about 50 mph. John janderson@iolinc.net |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.