Re: torsens in factory racing quattros

["Lawson, Dave" <dlawson@ball.com>]

ml ,
>
     It appears from what has been posted, that the Torsen system
provided in
street vehicles is different from what is on the race vehicles.  Torque
split
seems to be fixed in the race cars, but not on the street cars.  From
one of
Scott's quotes it appears that the non-fixed version was not popular
with the
drivers (S1 apparently) and there was a changed to a fixed torque split.
This
is consistent with Elliot's quotes where Torsen is specifically called
out,
but then so is a fixed split (apparently changed from 50/50 to 60/40).
>
You basically miss the point, a torsen by design is a "torque sensing"
differential which distributes torque to the axle where it sees a slower
rotation. By design it is not capable of a static(unchanging) fixed
split (unless it was set for
50/50). It is designed with a limit as to how much it can change which
in the audi street cars is 78/22 and 22/78. So if you chose to believe
that they had a 60/40(or pick any set of numbers) fixed split in a
center differential, I would put money on a couple pitchers of beer that
it sure wasn't a torsen. 

Yesterday I posted up info on the 1988 T//A drivetrain from some factory
marketing brochure. It had ORs listed with the torsen thrown in. You
know that torsen was mentioned because some marketing type said it would
look better if parts on the race car match those used on the street car.
BTW the rear diff on the street cars was listed as semiautomatic. The
description includes a wide range of possibilities, one of which was
implemented.
-
Dave Lawson