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LSD effects

To: MGS <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: LSD effects
From: Eric <eric@erickson.on.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 03:40:43 +1030
Guys,

You are really going to have to pardon my ignorance here (you always
have done in the past :-)

I have never driven a 'B - and especially MY 'B - with a limited slip
diff (usually bigger cars for some reason) and I now AM the proud owner
of such a beast.  With my first competition event on Sunday and still
some tidying up to do on Saturday, I have a question that is going to
have no difinitive answer.

Practice on the Sunday morning will allow me a maximum of eight laps to
get used to my new diff and rear disc brakes.  Can anyone describe what
real handling differences I am going to experience on my first lap? 
This track has lots of hairpin turns.

No-one really explained to me the understeer I was going to get when I
put on the 7/8" front sway bar, with no other compensation.  I learned
to handle, and use, the new configuration really well in a short time -
and tune it really well eventually - but it certainly frightened me a
bit on my first fast, tight double-apex corner.

I have driven a big V8 racecar with a 'locked' rear axle on the same
track - and I learned about 'trail braking' and how obviously with such
a rear axle the rear wheels wouldn't track the way I was used to around
corners.  With a LSD the effect will be no-where near as dramatic (even
on such a light car as the MGB) but I am certainly going to have to
quickly learn how to drive it through the tight corners, esses etc. -
hell, that it why I got the LSD (sick of cocking one rear wheel in the
air and losing all that drive).

Anyone point me to any websites or personal experiences that may
describe just what the difference is I might feel so it doesn't throw me
first up?

See, strange question - but maybe someone understands my apprehension
for my first time out on the track in a year and with this car that I
was so used to but which now has had some rather dramatic changes to the
car's setup (including negative camber front end).

Anecdotal stuff is fine - bad/good experiences?

-- 
Eric
'68 MGB MkII
Adelaide, South Australia





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