Quote:
Originally Posted by ovekvam
If you go back on the throttle in a corner with a RWD car, one of three things will happen:
- Weight shifts to the back, no wheelspin, car starts to push wider while accelerating.
- Weight shifts to the back, inside wheelspin, car pushes even wider. Poor acceleration.
- Both rear wheels spin. Car makes a smoking powerslide.
With a real, mechanical LSD, the middle thing is not likely to happen, so you select between the two other options by how hard you hit the throttle, and how powerful engine you bought.
With an open differential, the middle option is very likely, and very annoying. That is where the ediff comes into play. Just as the inside wheel starts spinning, the car reacts with the brake on that wheel only. This creates an unbalanced force distribution on the rear tyres. Due to laws of physics, this causes a yaw torque on the car, trying to rotate the car into the corner. Very conveniently, this cancels out the understeer that would otherwise happen in this situation.
If you are used to driving with an open differential, you will be surprised by how early you can go hard on the throttle without going wide. It stays fairly balanced and shoots out of the corner with pretty good traction. If you have enough power, you can even make the transition to a powerslide if you want.
Compared to a real, mechanical LSD, it is slightly less smooth and predictable. It does its thing in a more delayed and digital way. You have to learn to trust the system instead of driving by feel. Just step on it and let the car work the magic. Be ready to compensate with the steering.
The same thing goes for braking. The car has some awesome yaw control systems when you apply the ABS. You can brake late and deeply into corners without spinning out of control. Once again, just keep the foot down hard, and make corrections with the steering wheel, and the car will go exactly where you want it to. If you are used to older cars, the technology has really made huge steps here. Completely new racing lines (early apex into slow sections) are now possible on race tracks due to this.
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Superb and very helpful explanation - thanks!