Anyone heard anything about this unit? There was a brief blurb on Grassroots Motorsports about it:

http://www.grmotorsports.com/minicoopers.html

 

Perhaps it is a Torsen-Gleason differential, which always shifts power to the wheel with the most traction. TGs use worm gears. Check out this white paper.

 

Um, i dont have time to read that whole paper, and wouldn't understand it if i did. What are worm gears? How does it differ from the Quaife? Another high-quality LSD is a welcome addition to the market. The only reason I haven't gone the quaife route so far is price, and hopefully competition will help in that arena...

 

Here you go, in layman's terms from "howstuffworks.com"....

the "torsen diff" page...

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential8.htm

i am not well versed on the nitty-gritty details about diffs... but i know this is what is used in VW/Audi Gmbh's cars equipped with their "legendary" Quattro and 4motion systems. instead of using this to connect better power to the front two wheels that the Quaifes do, Veedub and Audi use this to transfer power between all four wheels. better technology? dunno. easier to use in 4-wheel applications? dunno. but there has to be some reason they choose this over the quaife... price may be it, who knows?

unless we have someone on the inside in the ranks of VW AG, we might not know. but i assure you there is a good reason.

(*edit: after some research, i found torsen to be the diff listed on many 4x4 systems out there, most notably the HUMMER. so it would be safe to assume that the torsen is more appropriate in 4-wheel applications?*)
_________________

 

Thanks for the link. I still dont get how it differs from the Quaife though.

Here's some info on the worm gears Worm Gears

 

I dont think its a matter of one design being more oriented to a particuliar drive type or not. Zexel markets primarily to oems (they're owned by Bosch) and Quiaffe markets to the aftermarket. I used to work for a company that supplied parts to Zexel and its a top notch unit (and so were our parts :smile.

--
Cheese

 

thanks for the insight!

one more mystery solved.....

-ABT-

 

Cheese,

Did you make the blue things or the orange things?

It will be good to see Torsen get into the market. Maybe Peloquin will do the same?



Currently, only VW's:

http://thescirocco.com/peloquin.html

 

that is definitely one advantage VW has over mini.... we have wayyyyy more products out there for our cars... but that is obviously due to the vw's being
around a lot longer and selling a lot more units.

but, as andy mentioned, hopefully we'll see some spillage from that market
into the mini market.

the peloquins were popular with some of the hardcore draggers in the vw
community.