At a recent trackday I told a mate that the Striker I was driving for the first time was really forgiving and easy to catch and adjust.
He said it was probably due to me not having an LSD.
Is that correct? This would seem to suggest that LSD cars are boring! But donuts are possible!
Has anyone changed to an LSD and regreted it? What are the differences?

ps I know the theory, and I am talking for a track car with little road use.

Cheers Gents

I should add that I am changing the Striker to busa turbo and have a waiting freelander diff and quaife ATB.
So my options are Freelander, Freelander ATB LSD, or Sierra.

The additional worry is that at another Llandow day there was a Caterham turbo busa car and the owner said the freelander diff LSD was not suitable, and went on about wet plates and things but I had already glazed over!

quote:

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Originally posted by bitsilly
This would seem to suggest that LSD cars are boring! But donuts are possible!
Cheers Gents

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if you know how LSDs work then thats good
in my bmw e30, it had an open diff which was fine, just a road car, no big power ofr anything, no complaints
my e36 is a 2.8 with a lsd, and when i first got it, had terrible tyres on it, what this essentially meant was that when it was raining, and one wheel lost grip, all the power went to the other wheel, which also spun up and lost grip, which meant no grip at all on the back.

great on a race/track car for dry use, not needed on a road car or when its wet

I had a V12 XJS with powerlock diff, it banged in, throwing you about.

I then got a 4.0l XJS with viscous LSD, this was fantastic.

I now have an XK8 with traction control, if you turn it off the car just lights up either rear wheel.

If I had the choice in the XK8 I would lose the traction control and shove in a viscous LSD, TC is cheaper to manufacture.

My BEC has a tired Sierra LSD, on the track you can feel the back starting to go as you reach the limit, a tad more and it steps out (first time it happened in earnest I hit the armco, got the hang of it now) following DJtom with an open diff you see the inside wheel spin up as he applies power.

My humble blade engine will spin up my nice grippy YOKO 048's in first in the dry on acceleration 1st gear, when wet all the way up to 4th, so with Busa power without you will definately struggle.

I suspect what he meant by wet plates etc is that it comes in harshly, aka jag powerlock, plated diff. The viscous just builds up smoothly so is a better bet in my experience.

Go rallying and harsh is good as you get the arse out, what is the ATB designed for? If its for off roading a freelander the cheap way is to just weld the diff and slide freestyle on the bends. You need to discuss the preloads etc with your supplier and tune to the cars weight and use if possible.

Regards Mark

[Edited on 24/4/09 by mark chandler]

given what i said above, i'd still get a LSD in the truck, and given a lot of reading up, the quaife atb would be my lsd of choice now.

I have a Sierra LSD on mine and I've had no problems with it.

With an open diff, if you lose traction with 1 rear wheel then its game over until you hit some grippy road or you back off the throttle. The 3 remaining wheels tend to keep you pointing in a straight line.

With a viscous coupling LSD, if you spin 1 rear wheel, the other wheel keeps pushing you along so you maintain some drive. If the road is slippery or you're very heavy with the power you can spin both rear wheels. That can give tail slides or doughnuts. I've never had a problem with this kind of thing either on the road or the track. That said, I don't push the car 100% on the road and the bike engine isn't too torquey either and its too much torque for your grip that gives you wheel spin.