Hi folks. As you may have noticed from the title, I'm looking at differentials. I currently have an Auburn unit back there. Has to be 20 years old or so. I had one event last year where it looked like it was spinning only one wheel (I've kept an eye on it since then and never seen it again). I had previously purchased a 28 spline TrueTrac for a pretty good deal from a fellow autocrosser. He was breaking axles and needing to go to 31 spline. I went to install it and found I already had 31 spline axles. Since I'm going to need to buy a new one no matter what, I want to get the best and not have doubts about my decision (yeah, sure, Chris, that'll happen).
My car is a full-weight 1995 Mustang GT. I have always guessed it at around 3200 without the (fat) driver in it. Has a 427w that made 625hp in the in-car configuration on the engine dyno (so let's say 530rwhp). TR-3550, 3.73s, and (currently) 315 Falken RT615k+ square. But will be trying out some take-off 305 slicks next year.
Car does standing starts at autocross on grippy concrete (where I'll be going to 315 Yokohama A052 or Nankang CR-S). I do street drive VERY occasionally with some Dunlop all-seasons. Has about 600 miles since I put the engine in in May 2021 including a season full of autocross and 4 track days if that tells you anything about how often I street drive it. Mainly looking for best performer at the road course and autocross. I don't drag race the car, though I wouldn't mind giving it a try sometime (wouldn't want it to grenade if I did, but not concerned about being overly fast there).
I know there's some highly subjective opinions on the different diffs I mentioned above. Usually from folks that have used an open/TrakLok diff then went straight to one of these, liked it, and have stuck with it. I certainly understand that view. Not trying to discount good experiences with a particular one or anything, but I've basically been told to use all of them at some point and there's a ton of people with good and bad experiences with them all. Thus the sanity issue. Everyone I know has given me one of the above as their suggestion, but never any info on what the difference feels like or how it affects the car, et. Looking for a boil-down of sorts with maybe some objective facts about which one may work better. Maybe there's certain conditions where one of them shines more. Maybe there's certain diffs that won't survive under X conditions. What sort of handling changes should I expect to see if the car is handling fairly well now? Any thoughts for me here based on the car and use?
(I know that I should also have a specific idea of what I want to fix when making changes. I usually try to. In this case, I really don't, because I don't have any reference point of other cars with one of these type diffs. My experience has been limited to stock TrakLok and now this Auburn that seems to be more drag race-oriented. I do know I would like to be able to use more power on corner exit, mainly at AutoCross, but I'm not 100% sure this will make any difference there.)
My car is a full-weight 1995 Mustang GT. I have always guessed it at around 3200 without the (fat) driver in it. Has a 427w that made 625hp in the in-car configuration on the engine dyno (so let's say 530rwhp). TR-3550, 3.73s, and (currently) 315 Falken RT615k+ square. But will be trying out some take-off 305 slicks next year.
Car does standing starts at autocross on grippy concrete (where I'll be going to 315 Yokohama A052 or Nankang CR-S). I do street drive VERY occasionally with some Dunlop all-seasons. Has about 600 miles since I put the engine in in May 2021 including a season full of autocross and 4 track days if that tells you anything about how often I street drive it. Mainly looking for best performer at the road course and autocross. I don't drag race the car, though I wouldn't mind giving it a try sometime (wouldn't want it to grenade if I did, but not concerned about being overly fast there).
I know there's some highly subjective opinions on the different diffs I mentioned above. Usually from folks that have used an open/TrakLok diff then went straight to one of these, liked it, and have stuck with it. I certainly understand that view. Not trying to discount good experiences with a particular one or anything, but I've basically been told to use all of them at some point and there's a ton of people with good and bad experiences with them all. Thus the sanity issue. Everyone I know has given me one of the above as their suggestion, but never any info on what the difference feels like or how it affects the car, et. Looking for a boil-down of sorts with maybe some objective facts about which one may work better. Maybe there's certain conditions where one of them shines more. Maybe there's certain diffs that won't survive under X conditions. What sort of handling changes should I expect to see if the car is handling fairly well now? Any thoughts for me here based on the car and use?
(I know that I should also have a specific idea of what I want to fix when making changes. I usually try to. In this case, I really don't, because I don't have any reference point of other cars with one of these type diffs. My experience has been limited to stock TrakLok and now this Auburn that seems to be more drag race-oriented. I do know I would like to be able to use more power on corner exit, mainly at AutoCross, but I'm not 100% sure this will make any difference there.)