Every time I think about a locked diff in real life I cringe. That just HAS to be hard on things, all the way up the driveline really. The XFR setups with locked diffs make me wince (virtual mechanical sympathy I guess) when I pull of the pit garage... trying to turn slowly, wheels chirping in protest...

I doubt it would be practical and not very reliable to use IRL on a regular basis.

Quote from Ball Bearing Turbo :

Every time I think about a locked diff in real life I cringe. That just HAS to be hard on things, all the way up the driveline really. The XFR setups with locked diffs make me wince (virtual mechanical sympathy I guess) when I pull of the pit garage... trying to turn slowly, wheels chirping in protest...

I doubt it would be practical and not very reliable to use IRL on a regular basis.

i have a mate who drifts with his 200sx and he has a locked rear driff, and he says its a bit "twangy" when driving around roundabouts (its his only car and he delivers chinese food in it PMSL)

big 19" wheels and a locked diff, classic combo LMAO

I do remember reading about folks who race FWD cars who use locked diffs. I remember reading about a Mini racer who welded the diffs on this forum.

Okay, here's the original post:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=305139#post305139

Quote from Glenn67 :

My old man used to race a mini at several speedways (often on hard dry clay with rubber laid down so not unlike asphalt), and used to win regularly against much more powerful cars.

He told me that the modifications he had done were: weld the diff (so locked diff) rear antisway bar and increased camber by modifying the suspension. So somewhat similar to the fast setups in LFS

He used to win simply because he was able to keep the power down longer and get on it earlier than his RWD competitors, again alot like LFS is now In more wet conditions on the track the RWD cars gave him alot tougher competition but on a drying track he was unstopable even with what seemed like large unfair handicaps

dirt racing is rather different, because the tires will be spinning anyway and so what is important is laid the power down hard, the unpredictability of the surface will confuse most of the diffs and render them useless.

Quote from JTbo :

In theory Torsen is best for track, but I believe there is some downsides of it that I have not heard (one I know is that it requires some grip to work).

From what I've read, with Torsens, only a percentage of the torque that is able to be applied to the slipping wheel, can be sent to power the non-slipping wheel.

So suppose my car has a 25% Torsen LSD, the Left Wheel is on dry road, and the Right Wheel is on snow. If I can only apply 100# of torque to the Left wheel before it starts slipping, then only 25# of torque will power the right wheel (25% x 100). So it does require some grip, because of the Left Wheel was at zero, then 25% x 0 is still 0, and you're left with an open diff.

I don't drive hard enough on the track to notice my Torsen, but drifting through the snow, it works beautifully.

also, the torsen behaves like an open diff when one wheel is in the air (hard cornering, kerbs..), so grip is definately needed for a torsen diff to work properly, since you can't preload it