Looking at fitting one, and can't find any feedback from people who are using them for my use, can anyone help?(Will be in an Mk Indy R).

On track I prefer a smooth driving style out of corners and just want a diff which controls/feathers the inside wheel, which I guess the ATB would be good for. But, I also have access to a lot of taxi ways for drifting practise - what is the ATB like when both wheels are lit under power - this would be more suited to plated diff I would have thought?

I'd also like the diff to work well with a variety of passenger loads/ track conditions, which again, ATB sounds good for. My biggest worry though is the ATB diff playing with my required steering inputs from apex to corner exit, but then I also wouldn't want a plate diff to lock on corner exit when I don't want it to, and upset the car.

I have no experience of these ATB things - only KAAZ diffs in skylines, so would really appreciate advice from those who have used either or indeed, both!

I am looking at a plate diff set with a low lock up, £725.00 exchange.

Ive got quiafe atb, ZF plated and ford oem viscous.
Quaife is all things to all men, difficult to beat with your range of needs. Its so vice free, you wont really notice its there, other than the fact that the car will accelerate rather than just spin up one wheel.
In a light car, the quaife is fine for drifting. With a clutch kick or even just boot full of loud pedal, both tyres will spin up anyway. The transition out of the slide may be less on-off than your KAAZ but even thats debatable.
Ifbthe car was solely a track car and possibly on full slicks, then a properley set up plate diff could potentially lap quicker in the dry. In the wet, the quaife is easier to drive.
The only time i can honestly say ive felt a downside with an atb is on 10" wide hillclimb slicks in the dry with 280+hp. When launching very hard, the atb biasing left to right rapidly which gives a sort of cyclic 'shimmy'. Hardly a fault, but there nonetheless. On the plate and even the viscous, you getvthe feel of more drive off the line, but its possible to light the tyres up and go slower whereas the atb doesnt let you do that as easily.

So in conclusion, get the atb and its as easy and safe to drive in the wet on the road as an open, real pussycat and yet will give you the drive in 90% of track race conditiosn ghat the best llate setup diff would.
Oh and the quaifes have a lifetime warranty--whats not to like!

Had an ATB in my MK2 escort. Only twice did I really feel that the diff didn't do what I wanted and both times it was the road and not the diff or driver. Adverse cambered road on one and diesel on roandabout the other.

I personally found "drifting" relatively easy and controllable. It was mainly used for auto-testing. If you really don't like the ATB you could still sell it for reasonably good money.

I have one in my kit (albeit in a love axle), and I have to say I love it - the only downside I have found from moving away from an open diff, is you need to be on your toes when going for a spirited drive. With the old open diff, it sort of acted like a traction control system - spinning up the inside wheel. Now it tends to spin up both/steps out the back end. Great fun if you are expecting it, but slightly scarier if you are not...! It certainly has no problem doing big drifts either (I am the limit - not the diff!)!

Ok thanks guys, I'll give the quaife a go and report back. Filmed from behind by a VX this was us at bedford in the Indy by the way...you can see our drive out of corners among other things could have been better - but started to get a lot more out of the car after 3 mins, albeit with my 94kg brother as passenger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy_WYR5LB6Y&feature=related

Too many variables, not just the car, but also what you expect from it (road/race/slicks/etc/etc)

I've used open, viscous (Sierra), Torsen (ATB) and Tran-X plate on various '7's, all underpowered mopeds.

Far too many caveats, but essentially: I loved the viscous as a general purpose all rounder, road, track, wet, dry. ATB in the wet (track) was not good when riding the kerbs or hard on uneven surfaces, good otherwise., great road differential. Plate was *fantastic* (race/track), with ramp angle tuning, with residual power on understeer always there. I wouldn't use a plate daily on the road, various reasons.

I had one in a 2 litre 16v Nova and then in a 300bhp Turbo'd Vectra, and it was soooooo good, you could feel it shuffling the power accross the axle through corners, nice and smooth, no snatch. The vec had the power to break traction on both wheels at once, so wasn't quite as astounding but still excellent

The Nova was one of the fastest things down a back road I've been in (I'd seam welded the shell and had tarmac rally suspention on it, so it stuck well) But the diff made that car, no question.

I realise I'm talking front drive so its not exactly what you're asking, but in my mind, if it can sort out reasonably high powered front drive cars to such an extent, it's got to be worth looking at for rear.

Well, I went for the ATB and just got back from a dry day at Donington GP. What a difference.

All I can say is that the differential really suits the independent rear of the Indy. With the open diff you reach the limit of what power you can put down fairly quickly, and you feel like you can't really use throttle to adjust the cornering line properly. The ATB though has transformed the car, at the limit without power you can just start feathering the throttle and feel the diff start to work, then the car squats down and feels like it can take another 5mph apex speed.

At corner exits I also without issue just kept adding more and more power from earlier and earlier each corner until I was even able to accelerate through Craner curves, and get full power down at the apex of the right through the esses, almost felt similar to an evo through there. Just so impressed with it, and can't recommend it enough to any Indy being tracked. Thanks for the recommendations, the way it works is so impressive and very smooth.

Should have posted my comments before, never spotted the post.

When I had my first Caterham it had an Ital axle, the only option at the time was the Quaiffe ATB diff. Bought a used one off a friend of a friend, brilliant, no noise, in normal driving you were unaware it was fitted. I was sprinting and hillclimbing at the time and my times improved at all venues.

When I built my second Caterham I used the Sierra diff and the de-dion rear end. The Caterham price for a brand new ZF slipper was so good it was the only sensible option. Out of the box the new car was faster than the old one using the same engine and gearbox but how much (if any) of that improvement was down to the ZF diff I have no idea, the new car was very different to the old one suspension wise. The car was brilliant in the dry but could be tricky in the wet, never had that with the old car. I quickly found that the diff needed shimming a couple of times a year, as the clutch wear took effect you could tell (especially on slow to medium speed corners) that it was not as effective as it should be and my times were not good. Luckily a mate was able to do the necessary work cheap but it was still a pain.

When another mate said he was looking for a good ZF so that he could have 2 identical diffs for his race car I quickly sold him mine and bought a Quaiffe. Strait out of the box I was faster and the car was noticeably quieter. In the wet it was just as drivable as the old car, much better than the ZF in that respect.

The Quaiffe was fitted in 1999 and I did 4 seasons of competing with it. Its still in the cat 14 years later, never been out, never been touched.

Based on personal experience its the Quaiffe every time for me.