I did have a thread about differentials before but cannot seem to find it anywhere??
Never mind.
I've always wanted to have a differential but never had the excuse or the money.
We'll I have eventually found both
I've done quite a bit of reading about the three main Automatic Torque Baised Differentials for our cars, these being Quaife, Peloquin and Autotec Wavetrac.
Most people have heard of the first two, but the third is a newer and not so well known one.
For the LCR and LC gear boxes this diff has only been available for less than two years.
This being the case there is very little on the internet when searching for reviews on this one.
So here goes another one.
I bought my Autotec Wavetrac differential and had this with a fitting kit sent down to a company that does VW race car preparations. This is a well know company in the VAG scene and when searching one of the few who there were no bad reviews on. One of our members with a massively powered Ibiza race car uses these guys so what more reason do we need to use them.
Anyway this was fitted to a spare gear box I had bought which came off a MK4 Golf 1.8T GTI Anniversary. This is the same 6 speed 02M box as the LCR and LC but with a different transmission code, FZQ rather than FML for the LCR.
This was fitted to my car with the help of a few friends and all went well.
I've only recently fitted this and only had one drive with it on so not fully up to speed with the various characteristics of this set up.
Those who are not well aquainted with my car its a stripped out 2003 210 BHP LCR, I've owned this car since new. I only run one or two front seats, spare wheel is gone, door cards, roof lining, inner door skins gone and Lexan windows fitted.
The suspension is KW Varient 3 coilovers with 23mm front ARB, 28mm rear ARB, S3 strutt brace, uprated engine mounts and new OEM LCR wishbone bushes.
So it's not the same as the other LCR's you see going about but same too its not vastly different.
Just now I'm still running winter tyres too.
With this differential fitted I've driven on some of the roads that I drive on litterally every day, I know very well how my car handles every inch of this road. Due to the winter tyres I couldn't be too extreme with pushing things, oh and the fact that its a public highway too.
Going back to when I initially fitted my ARB's and coilovers, the first drive out with these showed me how used I had gotten to the understeer of the car when throwing it into corners. It really surprised me when I turned the wheel there was next to no delay in the cars directional change, it happened almost instantly. This also surprised one of my friends who took a drive in the car, he has a MK2 LC.
As I have been living with the above set up for over 1 year and also been out on the track 3 times I'm well used to this.
Now with the differential fitted the turn in is even less unsettled due to the shear amount of traction that the LSD has given me mid corner.
As I said I still have to test this and see how far I can push this, on the track obviously, but initially I can start accelerating before the apex of the corners and the cars just pulls all the way in the direction of where the steering wheel is pointed.
If someone was to drive my car there is no way they would know that there is an LSD in the gear box as its operation is seamless. Litterally if I hadn't known the cars behavour very well before fitting this I would doubt its there as there is no way of telling short of the increased traction.
This is not a magical device, if you break traction with power then both wheels spin till the revs decrease and you gain traction again, then your off.
I have Toyo R888 tyres for my summer set up and cannot wait to get these on and warmed up to see how things improve.
Before fitting this differential, as I said, I did some digging. I would be very interested for the people on this forum to add there comments on this thread on there feelings and experiences with there differentials on there cars. Perhaps we will all get to understand the differences between the differnt ones and how it changes with other suspension set ups.
This might aid others thinking of going the same route to find out which one suits them.
I'll be honest, it was a very difficult choice to steer away for the usual Quaife or *Peloquin route, this is a very well trodden path with lots of reviews and big ups.
Perhaps this might be the start of the big ups for the Autotec Wavetrac???
Never mind.
I've always wanted to have a differential but never had the excuse or the money.
We'll I have eventually found both
I've done quite a bit of reading about the three main Automatic Torque Baised Differentials for our cars, these being Quaife, Peloquin and Autotec Wavetrac.
Most people have heard of the first two, but the third is a newer and not so well known one.
For the LCR and LC gear boxes this diff has only been available for less than two years.
This being the case there is very little on the internet when searching for reviews on this one.
So here goes another one.
I bought my Autotec Wavetrac differential and had this with a fitting kit sent down to a company that does VW race car preparations. This is a well know company in the VAG scene and when searching one of the few who there were no bad reviews on. One of our members with a massively powered Ibiza race car uses these guys so what more reason do we need to use them.
Anyway this was fitted to a spare gear box I had bought which came off a MK4 Golf 1.8T GTI Anniversary. This is the same 6 speed 02M box as the LCR and LC but with a different transmission code, FZQ rather than FML for the LCR.
This was fitted to my car with the help of a few friends and all went well.
I've only recently fitted this and only had one drive with it on so not fully up to speed with the various characteristics of this set up.
Those who are not well aquainted with my car its a stripped out 2003 210 BHP LCR, I've owned this car since new. I only run one or two front seats, spare wheel is gone, door cards, roof lining, inner door skins gone and Lexan windows fitted.
The suspension is KW Varient 3 coilovers with 23mm front ARB, 28mm rear ARB, S3 strutt brace, uprated engine mounts and new OEM LCR wishbone bushes.
So it's not the same as the other LCR's you see going about but same too its not vastly different.
Just now I'm still running winter tyres too.
With this differential fitted I've driven on some of the roads that I drive on litterally every day, I know very well how my car handles every inch of this road. Due to the winter tyres I couldn't be too extreme with pushing things, oh and the fact that its a public highway too.
Going back to when I initially fitted my ARB's and coilovers, the first drive out with these showed me how used I had gotten to the understeer of the car when throwing it into corners. It really surprised me when I turned the wheel there was next to no delay in the cars directional change, it happened almost instantly. This also surprised one of my friends who took a drive in the car, he has a MK2 LC.
As I have been living with the above set up for over 1 year and also been out on the track 3 times I'm well used to this.
Now with the differential fitted the turn in is even less unsettled due to the shear amount of traction that the LSD has given me mid corner.
As I said I still have to test this and see how far I can push this, on the track obviously, but initially I can start accelerating before the apex of the corners and the cars just pulls all the way in the direction of where the steering wheel is pointed.
If someone was to drive my car there is no way they would know that there is an LSD in the gear box as its operation is seamless. Litterally if I hadn't known the cars behavour very well before fitting this I would doubt its there as there is no way of telling short of the increased traction.
This is not a magical device, if you break traction with power then both wheels spin till the revs decrease and you gain traction again, then your off.
I have Toyo R888 tyres for my summer set up and cannot wait to get these on and warmed up to see how things improve.
Before fitting this differential, as I said, I did some digging. I would be very interested for the people on this forum to add there comments on this thread on there feelings and experiences with there differentials on there cars. Perhaps we will all get to understand the differences between the differnt ones and how it changes with other suspension set ups.
This might aid others thinking of going the same route to find out which one suits them.
I'll be honest, it was a very difficult choice to steer away for the usual Quaife or *Peloquin route, this is a very well trodden path with lots of reviews and big ups.
Perhaps this might be the start of the big ups for the Autotec Wavetrac???