DeeezNuuuts83 said:
4WD understeer? Not quite. More like skidding sideways in the fuckin rain at high speeds. But the GSM (general sales manager) was the one who suggested the idea. The car wasn't totaled or anything, like I said it was mostly stuff pertaining to the front left wheel/suspension. No body or frame damage
Well, if you hit that on ramp too fast and your car didn't turn that's pretty understeery to me.
Not that any other platform would've saved you but it's not an uncommon thing to happen to a 4wd. Excellent service from those Mitsu boys btw.
does the Evo's AWD have anything to do with how quick it is? there was a discussion, and i wasnt sure if delivering power to all 4 wheels made it better than to just two...
Deeez already explained most of it and he's spot on. But besides that, a 4WD system is a part of a car like any other, gearbox, engine, suspension. There are many different systems out there with different aims, advantages and drawbacks. Some are simple systems just designed for traction in bad weather, some are specifically designed systems to make a car faster, some rolled over from professional motor sports (Evo's and 'Prezza's being prime examples here).
The system on an Evo for example is a very different system than what's in a GT-R Skyline. The Evo has a very playful set up for it's diffs and it is a very easy going car. It won't bite your head off if you push it a bit. It will gladly let the back step out in a corner, do some techno trickery, throw some more torques at the front wheels and then simply maintains slide angle. The whole torque split set up is mostly fixed I believe, there's a very small margin of power that can be switched front to back. Regardless, a skilled driver is able to perform a high speed drift in the Evo where it's 4WD system and turbocharged engine work together to deliver a phenomenal exit speed from a corner.
Now the GT-R has a system called ATESSA-ETS, and it's more tricky. It has the basic characteristics of 4WD but it's quite different. Most modern 4WD cars detect rear wheel spin and divert a bit of power to the front to keep from spinning. The honourable R32, 33, 34's are solely designed for massive traction under throttle. If the rear wheels start spinning, power comes through the front and the car will simply go wherever it's nose is pointing at. It does not so much stop the car from spinning out as it completely eliminates any possibility of under- (as long as one keeps within the parameters of the car) and oversteer.
Now the GT-R's suffer from pretty poor weight distribution, I believe it's like 55 front 45 back, which is horrible. There the ATESSA steps in to techno-trick it's way out of that potential pitfall. Skylines, GT-R's at least, are basically non-driftable because the car will immediately pull itself from a slide once it begins. Now the aim of the system is basically the same as the aim of the Evo system: To improve turning at the limit and improve exit speed out of a corner. But the way those goals have been achieved in these two cars are quite different. Evo's are light, quite nimble, playful and relatively forgiving. GT-R's are heavy, hard to master and not-so-very-forgiving when push comes to shove. But both cars are disgustingly fast when driven well. And they both use 4WD in the same yet very different way.
class dismissed lawl
