RE: Bites of dead horses, last post for me

["Dave Eaton" <Dave.Eaton@clear.net.nz>]

remember that there is a 100% torque bias with a locked centre (effectively
the same as no centre differential at all).  that is you can have 0% torque
to the front, or 100% to the front, or anthing in between.  ditto with the
back.

there is no way of "controlling it".  it just happens.

quite frankly, according to the drivers, the sport quattro (the precursor to
the s1) was an absolute pig.  it was based around a centre locker, or
nothing, and was extremely twitcy.

the s1 was a considerable improvement and no-one is really sure why.
certainly a lot of effort was put into weight distribution.  you need to
remember that a locked centre will exacerbate weight distribution by
splitting torque according to the weight distribution in a static case
(straight line, no acceleration).  certainly a locked centre would make the
sport quattro a worse handler (more understeer).  remedying the weight
distribution would make it better.  and an active centre diff would make it
better again.

hth,
dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q
'88 mb 2.3-16


-----Original Message-----

Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 03:45:18 -0400
From: "Peter Berrevoets" <peterb@mysysltd.com>
Subject: RE: FW: Bites of dead horses, last post for me

Well that sucks doesn't it? But in your response I detect an acknowledgement
of the existence of the aforementioned problem? :-)

By what mechanism is the torque bias adjusted with no center diff? Is this
purely a fixed function of the transmission? I recall (vaguely) that some of
these race cars had a thumb wheel on the shifter for adjusting the bias (or
was that an electric clutch?)  If that is the case was the transmission a
race only part?

Is this the reason for Audi going on to the haldex system and its computer
control - the unpredictable nature of the torsen when at the limits of
performance?