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BTCC centre differential riddle
In message <Pine.SOL.3.91.961014152630.25400A-100000@apollo> "Graydon D. Stuckey" writes:
> On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Phil Payne wrote:
>
> > One comment from our visit to the BTCC team today - the A4Qs driven by Biela
> > and Bintcliffe have no centre differentials.
> I'll bet they have some kinda mechanism which varies the tork transfer
> between the front and rear axles. I'll bet its electronic, and
> controlled by the computer.
We think we got a clue. One of the engineers gave us a prop shaft to hold -
it's carbon fibre and weighs perhaps 7 or 8 pounds.
Both of the winning championship cars were on view. Biela's car was fully
built and ready to roll - Bintcliffe's was stripped and about 10% rebuilt.
The telemetry provision is prodigious. What appeared to be a combined
multiplexor/digitisor had two 60-way plugs - the car has a massive wiring
system, with sensors on everything that moves and some things that don't.
There are two telemetry reception stations - one per car - in one of the
trailers. They can combine "maps" of each driver's performance, so they can
very rapidly compare late vs. early braking corner by corner.
The sheer, staggering _smallness_ and _cleanliness_ was amazing. The whole
facility is custom-built for two cars and six mechanics. No bigger than an
ordinary domestic house. The transporters are easily F1-standard - beautiful
jobs.
--
Phil Payne
phil@sievers.com
Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club