I have an 05 MCS with LSD. I love it. I wasn't sure what difference it made until I drove an 04 without LSD up the same stretch of switchbacks I had just driven my car. WOW. I had to watch the throttle inputs in the '04 so that I didn't spin the inside wheel on every tight corner. The same road with the more powerful 05 with closer ratios and spinning the inside wheel was not a issue at all. I don't think tires had much to do with it either as I still have the Pirelli run flats and the 04 was running goodyear runflats.

An earlier post mentioned that on cars with LSD the DSC is set such that it is less intrusive. I can vouch for the fact that it is not very intrusive, though it can be anoying sometimes in the snow. It has never gone off on a dry road even with spirited driving. On ice it tends to kick on just when I am about to get control back.....Well, at least I think I am about to .

 

Jeff, I was speaking in more general terms about what the LSD does, but your point is well taken. Someone else already gave the GKN link, but we still don't really know the details of how this thing works. Anyone?

Of course the wheel-off-the-ground situation is simply the limiting case. As much of an issue is the transitional state when the inside wheel is so lightly loaded that it spins while still in contact with the road, robbing the other wheel of driving torque. Both torque-sensing and clutch-pack LSD's will do their job in that case.

Yep.

Neil
05 MCS - Mystery GKN LSD
96 M3 - Clutch-pack LSD

 

Correction: Lower, not closer. Spacing is actually wider between 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Relative to the later box, the 02-04 transmission has closer ratios, strictly speaking.

 

A quick glance at the ratios and I stand corrected, good call

 

No worries. Just trying to keep the info real...

My sense is that a good set up would be the closer-ratio pre-05 box with lowered final drive ratio, via smaller OD wheel/tire and/or some of these: