A funny thing happened... (warning- Torsen content)

["Matt Rooke" <mrooke@fcpa.fujitsu.com>]

The street in front of my house is pretty steep, and the driveway angles sharply upward from there.  The street in front
is littered with gouges from unthinking truck drivers, taxis, and even friends who don't listen.   The trick is to turn
in at an angle in order to avoid dragging the exhaust or other bodily parts.
So last night I had parked the car (91cq, torsen, rear diff lock only) on the street, then later moved it into the
garage.  This meant I approached the driveway from the uphill side, rather than the usual downhill side.   The
transition going this way is much more abrupt (from downhill to uphill rather than uphill angle 1 to uphill angle 2).
As I turned up the driveway, the car stopped dead.  It was suspended by 2 opposite corners (the wheels, not the body!!),
the other 2 corners were pretty much dangling in the air.  More gas- more noise, no motion.  The 2 suspended wheels were
spinning away.  Couldn't back up either, I was basically stuck in a hole.
Hit the rear diff lock and climbed up to the garage, accompanied by the smell of smoking clutch and the sound of
screeching  tires.
Started me thinking.  The center Torsen will provide torque to the end of the car it thinks has traction.  In my case,
both ends had virtually no traction, the Torsen basically split the torque equally.  Both front and rear diffs acted as
the species does, that is, spinning the wheel with no traction and going nowhere.
Now if you get stuck and only have 1 wheel with traction, better hope it is a rear.  No diff lock in front on this era
of quattro!

Matt Rooke
'91cq