We are taking a look at Quaife’s ATB over the next few months and evaluating its usefulness in the Alfa Transaxle.
Quaife have produced a small batch for a friend of CSR and we will be adding the to the range, but is the ATB suitable for a de dion rear wheel drive car? will it work at all on a race car?
Those who don’t know will please to discover that an ATB is an automatic torque biasing diff using a geared mechanism to progressively transfer the torque away from which ever wheel is spinning.
The plate LSD in the twinspark and 3.0 75 has always been the go to LSD and it can be made to be an aggressive locking unit for racing but in general most peoples LSD in their transaxle actually isn’t working at all. They rely on friction discs to lock the diff that people never change and are usually worn out. Our old LS’s require maintenance on a regular basis to function at the required level reliably but the ATB is geared so doesn’t have the wearing parts that need maintenance…put it in and leave it.
This may be great for a road car where it seldom get pushed hard and the torque biasing just makes the car a better drive but under race conditions will the ATB function. A de dion will under hard cornering lift a wheel and hence the ATB could then act like an open diff?
I’ve been reading a lot on the subject but can only conclude that we are going to have to just give it a go and let you know.
