Hydratrack?

[davidn]

Is this standard on 4.5's and what does it actually do?
Cheers
David

[joospeed]

it's standard and it does nothing. it's by far the worst thing on the 4.5 cerbera, and I've changed a few for the std friction type diff for serious drivers.

[Julian64]

I think the idea was to make a diff which focussed output wrt to power rather than speed.

[Luckyone]

joospeed said:

it's standard and it does nothing. it's by far the worst thing on the 4.5 cerbera, and I've changed a few for the std friction type diff for serious drivers.

That's for sure, can't do proper donuts

(Although that's not a serious reason )

But to TVR seem to be fitting them to all their new cars, all the ones I've seen have them. Is it some attempt to try & keep the cars on the road without traction control

I was told by TVR that it only locks solid when doing over 70 MPH, it can't be very safe for a driver not used to having LSD to find they have it when changing lanes on a damp motorway...

[GreenV8S]

Luckyone said:

Is it some attempt to try & keep the cars on the road without traction control

The V8S has a viscous diff as standard. This isn't Hydratrack but works on the same principle. I hated it. It was almost like driving an open diff, as you accelerate out of a corner it would grip and grip and grip, and then one of two things would suddenly happen: either the inside wheel would spin and the car would stop accelerating and start understeering, or both back wheels would spin and the car would lurch into wild oversteer. Sometimes it would swap from one to the other as the car went over bumps. It was utter, utter . Mind you, in some ways it made the car feel as if it was more powerful, because it would sit there pointlessly smoking the inside wheel under quite mild acceleration.

A proper friction diff starts to break away earlier as you apply the throttle, but gives you more notice and does it more gradually. It's all a lot more predictable, and IMO that's critical.

[PHØENIX]

joospeed said:

it's standard and it does nothing. it's by far the worst thing on the 4.5 cerbera, and I've changed a few for the std friction type diff for serious drivers.

Joolz, I would from a technical view say you're spot on.

But this 'hydratrack' pull my rear end back in line one time, and saved me and my passenger from bouncing off the oncoming lane over the side down a 7 foot drop ditch!.... I know it wasnt me, I just held the wheel and my life flashed by, I was in second doing something like 7000 rpm.... (my foot was heavy at the time, I very quickly learned to make it light)

[Julian64]

[quote=PHØENIX]

joospeed said:

it's standard and it does nothing. it's by far the worst thing on the 4.5 cerbera, and I've changed a few for the std friction type diff for serious drivers.

Joolz, I would from a technical view say you're spot on.

But this 'hydratrack' pull my rear end back in line one time, and saved me and my passenger from bouncing off the oncoming lane over the side down a 7 foot drop ditch!.... I know it wasnt me, I just held the wheel and my life flashed by, I was in second doing something like 7000 rpm.... (my foot was heavy at the time, I very quickly learned to make it light)[/quote]


Are you two married?

[dannylt]

PHOENIX said:

joospeed said: : : Joolz, I would from a technical view say you're spot on.

Phew! I'm glad we have some technical peer review going on here...

PHOENIX said:

But this 'hydratrack' pull my rear end back in line one time, and saved me and my passenger from bouncing off the oncoming lane over the side down a 7 foot drop ditch!.... I know it wasnt me, I just held the wheel and my life flashed by, I was in second doing something like 7000 rpm.... (my foot was heavy at the time, I very quickly learned to make it light)

...and how you can ascribe this to Hydratrak in particular I don't know! Hardly scientific IMHO.