[V8] Torsen Vs ?

[Dave Saad]

The road to Bogus Basin (local ski area) is 16 miles of hairpins and steep grades.  The car most often in the ditch is a subaru.  It is obvious these things don't handle as well as Paul Hogan says they do. Most of the problem though is that the owners always have studs all around and think they are invincible. Next on the list is japanese pickups - with toyota at the top of the list.  Same MO and same result.  I have yet to buy a snow tire and have never had a problem getting up the hill.  More important, getting down is even easier.  With the manual transmission, I just put it in 2nd and hardly touch the brakes.  Speed is the real key hear though - most people just go too fast for the conditions.

You are right about the torsen, the purely mechanical system is always doing the right thing, all the time.  I have yet to see any computerized system that works better - especially on the downhill.

I usually drive the Explorer up there and it has the automatic 4WD - which I like a lot, but it is very slow to engage and on the downhill it never seems to realize the situation is as dire as it is. The button to lock the center diff is right by my hand though so on every icy corner I just lock it in, then take it back out again.  I actually like that since I know for sure what the drivetrain is doing.

dave

btw, the "best" vehicle I know of is my friends suburban with nice new studs all around.  That thing never slips as long as you drive within sane limits.  It has some sort of auto 4wd system but he never touches it.  It is always in auto mode.


On Jan 16, 2012, at 10:24 PM, toml99 at todomundo.com wrote:

> Well, I've been doing some research about other 4wd systems as my girlfriend against my blessing just bought an 08 Subaru Impreza 2.5I hatchback.  It was about the money, not the car, so I'm not a Subaru basher and am still pissed.   Anyway, I had to find out what "Symetrical All Wheel Drive" was and blah,blah,blah.  So, we got snow yesterday, and today was the test.  While the car drove around great on it's Bridgestone Potenza's, and even tested it on some steep hills, the ABS was really touchy, and it wanted to take over constantly.  The car was so light, that any gas got all 4 wheels spinning on the wet slush over glare ice but it was really slick.
> I took the Lago car up to the ski area yesterday to burn some fuel thru it with the new filter/lack of movement the last 4 years, and it was a blast.  Car drove flawlessly but still slid a bit here and there.  I swapped the Michelin Ice-x tires/rims off of that today onto the 5-speed and think it was the first time I put the snow's on the 5-speed(just drove on the Dunlop M+S road tires thru the winter and it drove fine) and it was a big difference from the Lago car.  The center Torsen on the 5-speed really does make a noticeable difference since I drove the Lago car around the block just before changing the tires and all this AWD stuff was on my mind.  Having absolutely no other experience driving any AWD, she drove the Lago car with the Dunlop road tires on it around the block, and she agreed that it was better in the snow than the 08 Subaru, and the brakes were much better(UFO for who cares).   Auto or Manual......it still kicks ass on more complicated systems, and the comfort and interior of the V8 is......well..... you all know what I'm talking about.  Tom
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