(LAC) Forgive me father, for I am about to sin

[Taka Mizutani]

On 2/26/07, Roy Wendell <erwendell at mac.com> wrote:
>
> The Haldex is not a differential. It's a coupling as in it couples and
> uncouples the rear wheels to the rest of the drivetrain. While it is by
> all accounts extremely quick acting it is still a fwd car with a rear
> drive add on just like the TT/R32. I have seen some very fast TTs at
> the autocross and I remember one of the automotive magazine wags raving
> about how the Haldex in the TT with its electronic active controls
> allowed him to go stupid fast in the rain. On the other hand its only
> as good as its programming and I've heard lots of horror stories from
> people driving the various electronic locking differentials (like
> Subaru DCCD) or electronic coupling systems in low traction situations.
> In the end I suppose it's a question of semantics but the Volvo system,
> like all the Haldex or other coupling schemes, can't really be called
> AWD nor drive the same. Oh, and it's not diffs as in plural. The front
> and rear axle of the Volvo, to the best of my knowledge, has open
> mechanical diffs.


Horror stories about DCCD? What horror stories? DCCD works very well,
IME. DCCD does not overheat and fail, leaving you with a FWD car without
any warning. Volvo Haldex, when tracked, will eventually overheat and
completely
fail, leaving you with a FWD car, sometimes at the worst possible moment.

Having Haldex fail w/o warning at the track could be disastrous. Of course,
tracking a V70R is really unusual. But STis don't have AWD failure unless
you're
an idiot who drag races the car and does 7k rpm clutch drops and
powershifts.


> So there's at least a little Audi in
> > its soul,
>
> Not at all. Ford is more like it. Sort of.


There is really no Ford influence in the P2 chassis Volvos! It's actually
totally the opposite-
the 500/Taurus and Freestyle are based on the Volvo platform.

That's not the case with every Volvo, though- the S40/V50 is based on the
Mazda 3/ euro Focus
platform.

Taka