October 31, 2005

In 1958, Vernon Gleasman invented the most advanced differential the world has ever known and which even today constitutes state of the art technology against which all other differentials are measured: the Torsen®. This invention was voted the most innovative product at the Indianapolis 500 in 1983 and was the chief reason Vernon was nominated for the prestigious Lemuelson Award granted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Torsen revolutionized the military version of the Hummer and has been the premier differential for high end cars such as Bentley, Lexus and Audi.

Vernon devoted the last year of his life, together with his son Keith, inventing a more perfect version of the Torsen. Their efforts have resulted in a differential that exceeds the performance of all other differentials in existence today, including the Torsen.

The name of this more perfect, patented differential is the Iso-Torque™ (“balanced torque”) differential.

Your own eyes have now seen the Iso-Torque differential in action. To appreciate how valuable your ownership of our patented Iso-Torque differential technology is, please recall that all vehicles MUST have one or more differentials. Otherwise, a vehicle can not turn a corner ( please click How Stuff Works for 8 pages of pictures, animations and nontechnical text explaining the nature and function of differentials, including the Torsen). Also recall that just the number of light trucks and cars manufactured worldwide exceeds 55,000,000 annually. The number of differentials needed each year for this number of light trucks and cars, without counting the number needed for other vehicles, can not be manufactured by one company alone and if stacked one upon another in one location, would create an enormous mountain of steel weighing over 825,000,000 lbs!

Remember, the aggregate differential market exceeds 9 billion dollars annually. The potential market for the Iso-Torque differential is, therefore, huge.

I am sure you are wondering about the strategy Torvec is employing to market and commercialize the Iso-Torque differential. The KEY TO THE ENTIRE STRATEGY IS HIGHWAY SAFETY. On average, there are more than six million car accidents on U.S. roads annually. More than 3 million people get injured due to car accidents, with more than 2 million of these injuries resulting in permanent damage or death. While about 38% of accident fatalities occur because of drunk driving and about 28% are attributable to excessive speed, more than 33% are directly related to vehicles going off the road resulting from a LOSS OF CONTROL of the vehicle. While some of these accidents may stem from sheer reckless driving, a very large number are not due to driver negligence, but result from a fundamental flaw in the physics governing the functioning of differentials ( again, see How Stuff Works).

The flaw? Simply put, torque flowing from the engine to the wheels always is channeled to the wheel with the least amount of traction. In fact, the less the amount of traction, the greater the flow of torque goes to the wheel with less traction. In negotiating a turn, if one drive wheel is on dry pavement and the other is on loose gravel, grass, snow, ice or other slippery surface, an imbalance of traction is created which, all too often, can not be safely handled by the driver.

The video accompanying this update demonstrates this phenomenon in action. You can see that the wheels of the yellow 350Z that are on dry pavement do not spin while the wheels which are on the artificial ice spin freely. The limited-slip differential in the yellow vehicle clearly does not solve the imbalance problem.

Sadly, most members of the public do not know what a differential is, the absolutely critical role it plays in vehicle handling and the havoc an imbalance of traction can create. Worse still, the vast majority of the automobile insurance industry, government officials and safety experts in the mass media lack the same knowledge and understanding.

It is one thing to be driving on a relatively straight, smooth highway; it is quite another thing if you slip a drive wheel on to a rough shoulder, swerve to avoid animals, toys or children, or hit wet leaves, loose dirt, sand, gravel, snow or ice. A sudden imbalance of traction occurs which causes the vehicle to behave erratically resulting in a loss of control.

The most dangerous condition, the imbalance that probably causes the most accidents stemming from loss of control, is the situation where the vehicle is going around a sharp corner with less traction on the outside wheels. When this happens, the driver can lose control despite his best efforts to maintain or regain control. As you can see from the video, the yellow 350Z ( limited-slip ) cornering on a rough gravel surface completely spins out despite the best efforts of the driver to counter the spin. The video also shows you that if the imbalance of traction occurs with the inside wheels losing traction ( as on the grassy surface ) and the outside wheels on pavement, the inside wheels simply spin. Depending on conditions, you may not go anywhere when this is the case but you are less likely to spin out of control.

The video shows you actual proof that the Iso-Torque differential dramatically solves the imbalance of traction problem characteristic of all differentials. The Iso-Torque differential maintains proportionately balanced torque going to the drive wheels, at all times and under any and all conditions. You can see that the black 350Z with the Iso-Torque clearly outperforms the identical yellow 350Z with a limited slip differential in all of the tests that we ran and obviously, demonstrated how safely a vehicle can be driven, even under extremely adverse conditions. The video demonstrates, graphically, that the black 350Z with the Iso-Torque differential safely navigates a sharp left hand turn while the yellow 350Z with a limited slip spins out of control, placing the driver, his passengers and oncoming traffic at immediate risk of severe injury or death.

We of course are in contact with auto industry executives regarding this revolutionary differential. However, with the paramount issue of safety in mind, we have retained the services of Mr. Gary Eidlin to educate the auto insurance industry, the American Automobile Association, the National Safety Council and similar organizations with respect to the extraordinary safety implications of our Iso-Torque . We are involved in extensive discussions with companies to establish a strategic alliance to outsource the production and manufacture of Iso-Torque differentials for the worldwide auto industry. In this regard, please recall that our full terrain vehicle (FTV™ ) requires two Iso-Torque differentials and we plan to incorporate the sale of Iso-Torque differentials in any strategic alliance or other business relationship involving the sale or other transaction involving our FTV technology.