Dear Andrew,
I wanted to write everyone at Torvec to update you on my thoughts and experiences with your IsoTorque differential in our No Hotwire Racing / Car & Driver Nissan 350Z.
Let me give you my racing background. I’ve been racing in Club and professional racing for over 8 years now, racing both sedans and open wheel race cars. I’ve been a racer, an instructor and a coach during this time. Car & Driver with the help of Nissan sent us two cars to be prepared and raced in the Grand Am Koni Challenge series.
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Our 350Z was originally equipped with Nismo Clutch type differential since that was our only option at the time. When we were approached to use the IsoTorque we had a few questions. After talking with yourself (Andrew Gleasman) and Keith on what this differential could do for the performance of our car, we were very excited to drive our car with the IsoTorque and it delivered on your promises.
Right away we noticed the difference in the feel of the car. It was a lot easier to push the car around the shop and at the track and the car did not feel bound up and this was very apparent when driving on the track. With the clutch type differential, you can feel the inside tire dragging when you turned the car. This was noticeable when driving as well. The car slowed much more dramatically relative to now with the IsoTorque differential. The IsoTorque allows us to accelerate both tires equally regardless of road condition, allowing for better rear tire wear
One example of this happened at Laguna Seca earlier this year. While trying to maximize exit speed, we ran through a turn faster than we had before, and that caused us to run wide of the track at the exit of the turn. This put our right side tires on Astroturf placed just off the racing surface. I expected the rear end to swerve under acceleration as the outside tires lost traction, but as I accerated harder, the car just went straight. There was no need to lift off, because the torque was automatically being applied to the INSIDE tire. With a normal clutch type diff, we would have had to let off the throttle and backed out to keep the car under control.
The IsoTorque has allowed the car to have faster exit speeds in the corners which gives us quicker lap times by 1 to 2 seconds on average. (While this may not sound like a lot, it could be the difference between 20 grid positions.) This faster exit speed allows us to keep up with higher HP cars in our class.
As I told you on the phone if you wrote down a list of what would make the perfect differential, you would be describing the IsoTorque. What is nice about the IsoTorque is its performance and safety can be used not just at the limits found in racing but would be of great benefit to every day driving in a street car. We have been in contact with Nissan and have told them everything I have told you and we are still excited for the continuation of our season. We plan on doing two more professional races this season, and attacking 2008 with the objective of winning the Championship.
The differential you are producing allows for a faster, and more importantly for street applications, a safer car.
Best regards,
Richard Biscevic
Team Priciple, NoHotWire Racing
Dear Torvec,
Nissan gave us the 350z in hope of developing it to the point of winning the manufacturers title at the Run-Offs.
We have been winning with the Z consistently, but have been having problems with the Nismo diff. We were having to change the fluid out constantly because of the amount of heat generated was cooking the fluid. It was always pushing fluid out the vent and after just a handful of weekends, the diff expired. This past weekend we ran at Laguna Seca in a SCCA regional event just to test the car and go after the track record. We broke the track record in our class last month at Thunderhill Raceway and I then set the goal of going after the record at all the west coast tracks that we run. We had never run the car at Laguna before. The track record was a 1.43.50 held by another competitor. We immediately were going faster than the track record and our driver had good things to say about how the IsoTorque diff worked. During practice we ran an unofficial time of 1.41.80 and in qualifying we were fighting a lot of slower traffic but still managed to break the track record with an official time of 1.42.30. The car has more left in it, we did not do any chassis tuning at the track and were running on use tires from a previous race weekend.
Our driver says the diff really feels good. The Nismo unit always felt like the car was bound-up and in a binding situation causing the car to go into a “loose” condition when the power was applied. The IsoTorque makes the car feel free and gives our driver the ability to really put the power down. I am anxious to go to a track that we have run before with the old diff so we can directly compare how much quicker our lap times are.
We will be running the car for a few more west coast National races in order to qualify to get invited to the Run-Off’s held at the end of the season in Topeka. Like I told you on the phone, I already have a few of these units sold to fellow Z racers once you go into production. |
