Limited Slip Diffs?

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jcochrane
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Location: Surrey-Kent borders and wherever good driving roads are.

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby jcochrane » Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:12 pm

Thanks Alasdair. Budget doesn’t reach to a BMW but something a bit more modest but still fun to drive for an elderly person.

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ChristianAB
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Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby ChristianAB » Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:13 pm

Be aware that when driving on snow/ice, LSD might be useful...although that's less of an issue here than it is on the continent

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jont-
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Location: Herefordshire

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby jont- » Sat Nov 18, 2017 2:25 pm

MX5? In which case StressedDave is probably the person to ask.

My other thought is that most of my comments apply to RWD cars. I've had two moderately powerful FWD cars (Clio 197, M100 Elan), neither of which had an LSD and neither of which had problems with torque steer. But the Lotus had a very clever suspension design, and the Clio didn't have much torque. Maybe with modern turbos and lots of low RPM torque an LSD on a FWD car would be more useful?

I had a very surreal experience driving a Clio Cup (race car) in wet conditions at bedford where terminal understeer was fixed by /adding/ power. But I think that had some sort of very clever trick diff.

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jcochrane
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Location: Surrey-Kent borders and wherever good driving roads are.

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby jcochrane » Sat Nov 18, 2017 3:08 pm

Not an MX5. Something with more creature comforts, even heated seats.....well it’s my age that’s what I say. I have driven at least one fwd lsd some years ago and did not like it, too squermy. It was a few years ago now so things might have improved.
Last edited by jcochrane on Sat Nov 18, 2017 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Strangely Brown
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Location: Sussex

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby Strangely Brown » Sat Nov 18, 2017 3:10 pm

John, If you would like to play in an MX5 with LSD... and heated seats... give me a shout. We can go out in mine.

waremark
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Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby waremark » Sat Nov 18, 2017 10:54 pm

I have acquired a half share of a Renaultsport Megane Cup S which is front wheel drive with a mechanical LSD. What I perceive is that when you accelerate hard in a curved path the line holds or even tightens, whereas without the LSD I would expect to wait longer before accelerating in order to avoid understeer. But I am not very sensitive to the cornering attributes of cars and would enjoy allowing my friends to find out for themselves. There is a little but only a little torque steer when using all the power (275 bhp) in a straight line.

Pyrolol
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Location: San Francisco

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby Pyrolol » Sat Nov 18, 2017 11:42 pm

My (limited) experience has been that I've driven 2 front wheel drive cars that had no issue that I could see accelerating hard or of tighter corners; I believe one had an LSD and the other didn't. Both had high end tires though, far more capable (in good conditions) than those that would come on the average car.

Point being I suspect it's hard to buy an LSD equipped front wheel drive car without high performance tires (ps cups etc), which makes it much harder to distinguish the effects of the LSD, if fitted.

waremark
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Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby waremark » Sun Nov 19, 2017 12:12 am

Pyrolol wrote:My (limited) experience has been that I've driven 2 front wheel drive cars that had no issue that I could see accelerating hard or of tighter corners; I believe one had an LSD and the other didn't. Both had high end tires though, far more capable (in good conditions) than those that would come on the average car.

How powerful were those cars? I guess that anything equipped with an LSD was relatively high powered.

sussex2
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Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby sussex2 » Sun Nov 19, 2017 8:59 am

jcochrane wrote:Not an MX5. Something with more creature comforts, even heated seats.....well it’s my age that’s what I say. I have driven at least one fwd lsd some years ago and did not like it, too squermy. It was a few years ago now so things might have improved.


Some MX5s have heated seats, air conditioning and many other creature comforts; at least from the MK2 up.
I can't see the point of the seats as the heater itself will melt your shoes after 2 minutes :)

Pyrolol
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Location: San Francisco

Re: Limited Slip Diffs?

Postby Pyrolol » Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:03 pm

waremark wrote:How powerful were those cars? I guess that anything equipped with an LSD was relatively high powered.

200+, both cup chassis renaultsports.


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