AUDI'S DRIFTY DIFF

A CLEVER NEW DIFFERENTIAL IS SET TO GIVE AUDI’S RS3 A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION IN DRIVER INVOLVEMENT – HERE’S HOW

- JESSE CROSSE

THE FORTHCOMING NEW Audi RS3 comes equipped with a new Torque Splitter rear-axle torque-vectoring system that does away with rear differential gears and replaces them with two ‘wet’ clutch packs.

The downside of a conventional differential is that it allows one wheel to spin if it loses traction, and in powerful cars that becomes a problem. The traditional solution is a limited-slip differential (LSD), which does just that: reacts if one wheel begins to spin by limiting the difference in the speed of rotation between left and right wheels. These can be controlled either mechanically or electronically.