i’m planning some more upgrades to my 07 exige S pretty soon. last year i installed nitron/eibach suspension and AP big disks.
planning to to the christopher neil 260 upgrade pretty soon and there are a few other things i’m thinking about.
one of which is a diff. the car already has a habit of spinning and even lifting the inside rear on tight corners, and on really wet track days it can be borderline undriveable in the twisty sections.
anyone here got a quaife ATB or similar ? i’m getting conflicting opinions on them and unfortunately don’t have the oppotrunity to drive a car with one before making the call.
Yes I have the quaife …
Fitted over a year ago and no problems…
Ohlins on the car , similar I suppose to your Nitrons…
I too have the Chris Neils upgrade (made 277 on their local dyno)
There will always be a differing opinion about diffs on here … Due I think to Lotus’s reluctance historically to fit them (You’ll hear …“good chassis don’t need em” … yada yada yada … try telling that to F1 car designers !) although recently Lotus seem to be changing their mind on this …(260 cup)…
The quaife is bulletproof and maintenance free , unlike plated alternatives that need adjusting…
Driving ??? for sure you can have fun when you want to (donuts)…one other benefit is a veeerrry smooth break in traction when it occurs , …no more violent hopping of the wheel when grip limit is reached… Thats got to be good for the drivetrain…
Final point is that : without T/C…“AND” with more power “AND” with a diff the car is much more demanding to drive … when it steps out you’ll need to be quick !!
If it’s lifting a wheel that easily then I’d suggest looking at the suspension set-up as it sounds like it’s wrong, either too soft springs or not enough rebound travel on the damper.
I only ever found 1 corner on a UK circuit where I could get an inside wheel to lift and that was on a very tight hairpin at Bedford.
I tend to follow the Lotus line that if the car is set-up properly for what you are doing then you don’t need an LSD, all the diff does is paper over the cracks.
I’m adding a torsen LSD to mine when JSR change the gearbox, I will report back my findings later on, but I was struggling at Spa last year on exits out of some of the tighter 3rd gear corners and it wasn’t due to wheel lift. Modulating the throttle does remove it, but this is not how I was taught to drive on track, if you are going to apply the throttle apply it to the floor. Time will tell if I like it or hate it but I have had LSDs on cars before so I’m sure it will be fine.
[quote=jfk]Driving ??? for sure you can have fun when you want to (donuts)…one other benefit is a veeerrry smooth break in traction when it occurs , …no more violent hopping of the wheel when grip limit is reached… Thats got to be good for the drivetrain…
Final point is that : without T/C…“AND” with more power “AND” with a diff the car is much more demanding to drive … when it steps out you’ll need to be quick !![/quote]
I just elected not to go for a LSD on a 200bhp Honda conversion (probably would have done if more bhp), on the grounds that it’s very rarely needed and I’d just end up trying to use/lean on it which could cause unnecessary trouble.
What do you mean by more demanding? I can’t balance your comments on “veeerrry smooth break in traction” with “when it steps out you’ll need to be quick!!”
thanks for the inputs - i should have known this would provoke some contrary opinions
that’s what i want most. even now the breakaway is very sudden and recovery is not smooth, especially in the wet or if the track is greasy. that nice smooth recovery like what you have on the vid is exactly what i’d like to have available.
i had been thinking of doing everything together : the clutch is shunting a lot recently so was thinking of changing that also and uprgrading to maybe the lotus one. is a lightweight flywheel really noticeable when you go to 260bhp or more ? i wouldn’t have guessed it was.
i will get the setup checked again first. previously i had the lotus ohlins setup and i find the nitrons with their recommendaed rating of eibach springs to be a huge improvement.
See now that would concern me - if you are struggling in 3rd gear corners at Spa I’d suggest your suspension setup needs looking at rather than you needing an LSD.
Wheel lifting off the floor is 100% suspension setup related, a diff aint gonna keep your tyres in contact with the road. However when they are in contact with the road an ATB type diff will distrribute the torque to the wheel with the greatest amount of traction.
An open diff wont do that. I know Randy and Schuffam always said that “if your suspension is setup OK you don’t need a diff” I used to chuckle to myself when I was racing and came out of the last chicane at Snetterton, with Scuffers spinning an inside rear wheel and me simply driving past him.
