Would an LSD help in the snow

[Rooty]

no

[cottonfoo]

DickyC said:

Looking at the dials he was only going at walking pace which was probably a good thing.

Which is probably best, since the driver's seat seems to be empty

[Blue Meanie]

flemke said:

Blue Meanie said:

Well, we get 10 feet of snow a year where I am...

Lake Ontario?
Btw, Syracuse to NYC, you were going >3000 mph for a couple of hundred miles. Well done.

Yeah, I have a turbo, and some exhaust parts, and the seats were folded flat! Yeah, I'm up just south of Lake Ontario, (in Baldwinsville), so get dumped on with lake effect snow.

[NoelWatson]

Blue Meanie said:

so get dumped on with lake effect snow.

Weather is a fascinating thing - wasn't aware of this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake-effect_snow

[LunarOne]

Waking up this thread from the dead as I have some evidence to add. Last winter I had a Porsche Boxster S without an LSD and it was hairy in the snow and ice. That car was written off after winter passed (due to idiot taxi driver, not weather related) and I replaced it with another very similar Boxster S (both 6-speed manual). However, the new car has Porsche Torque Vectoring which is basically a computer controlled mechanically locking limited slip differential with other trickery to provide torque vectoring, I believe to eliminate understeer. Both cars had Pirelli P-Zero summer tyres. The newer car with LSD is significantly more controllable in the snow and ice we've just had in the UK.

I have another car which I use as my commuting car. That one (manual 330Ci) actually has proper winter tyres on but no LSD. The rear tyres are so worn that the Porsche on summer tyres proved to be a much better bet in the snow than the BMW on winters, and I suspect that this has everything to do with the LSD. It's that much better than the one that didn't have the LSD, as you can just feel when slippage is taking place and whether it's one or both rear wheels. With the LSD I never felt just one wheel slipping the power away, and with both rears turning there was always enough traction to make controlled progress, even up hills where FWD cars were getting stuck.