Launching...?

[subieracer18]

Well last night i was playin around a little bit leaving work, the parking lot was a lil wet. I revved up to about 3500-4000 rpm's and feathered the clutch then dropped it. It felt like i got wheel hop, (like the front wheels were hopping around) then it took off like a bat out of hell. Is this normal for the front to spin? or was i just imagining things.

[chuckwagon]

AWD is a differential between the front and rear, one can spin while the other dosn't.

[subieracer18]

i know it has awd and it works, cus i also floored it in first and got the rear end to whip out. So how does the awd system on the wrx actually work?

[Rain_Racer]

unless I am mistaken, a Automatic has a computer that controlls which wheels get the horsepower through the transmission, making it so if there is no resistance on a given wheel, the others get the horsepower.

In a manual transmission (which you and I both have) it gets a bit more tricky

as nearly as I can tell (just from how it feels), the car has a center limited slip differential and/or a limited slip on each axle

basically this is hardware (gearing) that makes it so if one wheel is slipping it gets no horsepower. I THINK that it is possible for both back tires to grip, while both front ones spin, which would be what happened to you...

I asked my local subaru performance specialist this question, and I got a blank stare...

sorry I even posted, I think I raised more questions than I answered...

[subieracer18]

haha thanks for trying man. Now you got me thinking! Is it full time 50/50 split power distribution?

[chuckwagon]

just keep in mind that 50/50 split locks up the front and rear not trying to insult your intelligence but sooner or later as time goes on something has to give, me personally would rather it be the tires than something in the drivetrain. If you don't plan on serious mods in the future you will probably be ok.

[Solice]

This is what we have (non STI):

MT5: AWD with Viscous Coupling Locking Center Differential --Manual

4EAT: Variable Torque Distribution (VTD) --Automatic
4EAT: ABS System Networking with Transmission Control Module --Automatic

Viscous Limited Slip Rear Differential --Both


Haha, yup too bad I don't know what all of that means So I'm pretty interested too. One thing I can sort of contribute is sometimes I notice that if I go up and down a little hill that is also on a semi-sharp curve (going at a fairly moderate pace ) I can feel the "inside" wheel lift a little but then right away it feels like something pushes it back down again. Maybe that's the torque distribution at work taking power from the wheel losing traction and giving more to the ones in better contact with the road?

[chuckwagon]

mine does the same thing it's pretty impressive how they hook up comming out of a corner.

[subieracer18]

hook up? haha lol. Yesterday i was pulling off of a hill making a left turn and i revved her up to a bout 5500 in first and the ##### started drifting! kinda scary lol. The damp roads and crosswalk paint might have helped with that also.

[Solice]

Haha, I don't know if you have the factory tires anymore or not but they sure don't like wet roads.