No Subject

[audidudi@mindspring.com (Jeffrey J. Goggin)]

>I believe you to be backwards.  Jeff G actually said he filmed this scenario.

I cruised the archives this morning and since my name was mentioned...

>As you overcook a corner, you will find that the rears are hanging out, and
>the slip angle is so much that the rears slow, they are plowing sideways, not
>forward, more so than the fronts, since you have them on the inside of the
>turn and steering toward the drift.  So the rear axle is spinning slower than
>the front, on a torsen car, more torque will be transmitted to those slower
>spinning wheels.  Let off the gas, the torsen will now transmit less torque to
>the rear axle (since letting off the gas is decreasing torque by definition)
>hunting back to a 50/50 split, which results in understeer, or if you went too
>far already, the back end unloads, and you just got a spin from lift throttle
>oversteer.

This, in a nutshell, is what I believe to be happening ... however, until I
saw a videotape of my 200q at full lock around a 90-degree corner on an
autocross course, my thinking was very similar to Dave Eaton's.  Since my
car uses 5-spoke Compomotive wheels, it's very easy to count their
revolutions, especially if you run the tape frame-by-frame ... only when I
realized that the rear wheels aren't ALWAYS turning faster than the fronts
when the car is sliding was I finally able to reconcile theory with
practice.  (Note: since this was perhaps a 100' radius turn, the effects are
probably exaggerated compared to what happens on the street or a road course...)

For what it's worth, I also have some videotape of my Ur-Q spinning on an
autocross course that I'll put up on my web site shortly ... doesn't have a
torsen center diff, of course, but it's amusing nonetheless.  :^)

  
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